Music fitness survey aims to be world's largest

Bhangra or bass? Classical or country?

With dozens signing up to get fit in 2018 researchers at the University of Cumbria want to hear what kind of music people work out to in order to compile what’s hoped will be the world’s largest music preference survey.

The aim is to track which kind of music motivates people to fitness the most and whether it varies depending where you live.

“Our aim is to collect information from 200,000 exercisers,” Dr Dave Elliot, senior lecturer in sport and exercise science, said. “We're looking for information from as broad a range of people as possible. Ideally we also want to hear from as many people living outside the UK as possible to see if choices change depending on where you live.”

The project is the latest piece of work organised by the faculty which is developing a track record in research which will help boost the benefits of fitness and activity. The university is supporting young sportspeople identified at the Cumbria Sports Awards as well as Paralympian Simon Lawson but also aims to offer advice for novices and amateur sportspeople too.   

“We’re anticipating a big response to this fun survey which also has a serious message,” Jeff Thorpe, programme leader for physical education, said. ”As a nation we’re becoming increasingly sedentary so anything we can do to identify what prompts people to move more and highlight this work to others has got to be a good thing.”

The survey, which takes around a minute to complete, also features a translation service to make it easier for non-English speakers and is now live:

https://cumbria.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/music-preference-survey-for-exercisers

Researchers hope to have a catalogue of the most popular music styles for exercise by the end of spring.  

Pictured: Jeff Thorpe with Paralympian Simon Lawson.