Every year a new training trend invigorates the workout world and in recent times the focus has been on primal movements and natural or ancient methods of fitness. It seems as though we are returning to our primal instincts for climbing, crawling, lifting, pulling and now… POUNDING!
I asked the energetic co-founders behind ‘POUND’ an “alternative fitness” program akin to tribal dance, to explore the neurological and physical benefits aquatinted with their workout and it’s rhythmic drumming patterns.
Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom are both athletes, musicians, and life enthusiasts passionate about creating a new wave of fitness, healthy living and community. Here is their take on Mind. Body. Music.
We have a challenge for you: Put in your headphones. Find your favorite song. Pump up the volume. And now…sit completely still. Resist the beat. Don’t nod your head, tap your foot or wiggle in your seat. And don’t even think about dancing. (We saw that.)
As you just experienced, avoiding the beat; the infectious, subconscious clutch of rhythm, is nearly impossible. In fact, it’s quite uncomfortable and feels freakishly unnatural. As soon as the rhythmic backbeat floods our ears, we are left with no choice but to follow the cadence and move. Music captures our bodies, minds, and brains.
Our buddy MJ sums it up best:
“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins. Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?” ― Michael Jackson
We feel our music, MJ. There’s no denying that. And now, we’re tapping into the power of rhythmic movement to connect our bodies, minds and rediscover our physical potential.
Often, our true physical limitations aren’t actually set by our bodies. Most of the time, our physical capabilities are impeded by our perception– our mind’s experience of time, pain, and internal dialogue. “I can’t do this,” “I’m struggling,” and the occasional, “I think I’m gonna die!” cause us to quit, skip a workout, or lose sight of what we can actually accomplish. But, when we set our movement to music, that all changes.
Costas Karageorghis, a leading expert on the psychology of exercise music from Brunel University in London, recently went so far as to deem music “a type of legal performance-enhancing drug.” When listening to music, people run farther, bike longer and perform better than usual—often without even realizing it. And that’s just the opening act on the benefits of teaming music and movement.
It turns out, you can’t accomplish anything you put your mind to. You can accomplish anything you put to music.
That’s because rhythmic movement, like drumming, running to music, taking a POUND class or even shakin’ your tail at your best friends wedding, is inbuilt. Whether you claim that you “don’t have any rhythm” or have two, self-proclaimed left feet, you friend, still run off the same biologically-engrained rhythm as Mozart did. Why is that? Rhythmic movement is natural human reflex.
“We have known for decades that there are direct connections from auditory neurons to motor neurons,” states cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jessica Grahn.” She further explains that “when you hear a loud noise, you jump before you have even processed what it is. That’s a reflex circuit, and it turns out that it can also be active for non-startling sounds, such as music.”
We decided to put this natural reflex to work for us. We teamed our own love of music with the striking physical benefits of it, and applied it to the way we workout. Based on these principles, and being athletes and musicians, we created a “rockout workout” called POUND. Not only is the workout beat-driven, but it does something that no other workout does: POUND puts each person in charge of the beat and teams working out with mind-body benefits of being a musician. Participants don’t just listen to music while they work out in POUND: they make music. With lightly weighted drumsticks we invented, called Ripstix, each person transforms into a calorie-torching drummer for 45 minutes. There are no reps. There are just beats. And luckily for us, the beat has dropped on the unrivaled benefits of drumming for mind-body awareness and physical performance.
Drumming is the only activity that synchronizes our brainwaves—usually after only a few measures—to a calm, zen “alpha state” of eight cycles per second. Drumming was recently linked to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as a stronger immune function.
The power of drumming extends beyond our own bodies—it actually connects us to one another. According to recent research from the University of Oxford, drummers experience a unique natural “drummer’s high” when playing together, like in a POUND class. This includes a heightened sense of happiness, an elevated pain threshold, and a greater incidence of peaceful coexistence. Drumming benefits the mind, body, and overall sense of well-being and community.
Beyond this, there is something even more powerful about POUND that truly fuses body and mind: you can actually hear your body working. Adding the auditory modality to the mix gives our brains another tool to learn about how we’re moving. You can try out this simple concept by clapping your hands with your eyes closed. When you clap, you’re listening for the sound your hands make. If the sound is weak, you know you’re not clapping hard enough or that your hands aren’t positioned properly. When you hear the perfect clap, you also learn what it feels like. You brain then associates this type of movement and spatial position with a certain sound. There’s your feedback loop. Suddenly, your brain has learned how to perform the perfect clap, based on feeling and sound, rather than vision. This is a wonderful and strong way to connect the mind and body.
We applied this simple neurological concept to the realm of working out. In POUND, each move makes a sound. Our motto? “If you want it harder, make it louder!” You can literally hear your accuracy, symmetry, exertion, and where your body is in space, rather than just seeing it in the mirror. This creates a continual feedback loop between body, brain and beat that allows you to adjust, improve and kick butt like never before.
Now, get back to the music. Put on those headphones, find your favorite jam, and this time, let the beat take over. Tap your foot, clap your hands, and feel the irresistible fusion of listening music and movement that POUND is built upon. Connecting your mind and body is as simple as tapping into (and tapping to) the beat.
Discover the benefits of POUND Fitness for yourself! www.getpound.com
