New fitness method Mix of sports and music makes you less sensitive to pain

Jymmin: How to feel less pain with a new fitness method

Health experts say over 20 million people in Germany suffer from chronic pain. With medication alone, the symptoms can not be controlled in many cases. Some might be able to help with a newly developed fitness method that combines sport and music.

Millions of Germans suffer from chronic pain

Researchers recently reported a family of six from Italy who never noticed pain due to a rare gene mutation. Many Germans may envy that because chronic pain has long since become a widespread disease in Germany. "About 23 million Germans (28%) report chronic pain, 95% of them chronic pain that is not caused by cancer," wrote the German Pain Society last year in a statement. Scientists are now reporting a newly developed fitness method that raises hope for pain patients: the Jymmin, which uses classic fitness equipment to produce music during sports training.

German researchers have discovered that a fitness method developed by them increases our pain threshold: the Jymmin, where music can be produced with classic fitness equipment during sports training. (Image: Kzenon / fotolia.com)

Mix of sports and musical improvisation

Mostly it is caused by an illness, injury or heavy physical stress: pain is unpleasant. As a warning signal, it is on the one hand vital for survival.

On the other hand, it can also slow down success in rehabilitation clinics or become a separate disease in a chronic form. How much we feel it depends on our individual pain threshold.

Whether tablets or heat therapy, there are several ways to meet him.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in Leipzig have now discovered that a fitness method developed by them also influences our sense of pain:

Jymmin, a mix of sport (gym) and free musical improvisation (jammin), makes us less sensitive to pain.

New fitness method moves the pain threshold upwards

As the institute explains in a statement, fitness equipment at the Jymmin is modified in such a way that the different movements on the abdominal trainer, pull rod or stepper produce a great variety of sounds.

A composition software developed at the MPI CBS and an associated sensor system process them in such a way that at the same time, they create a personal accompaniment for each athlete and each unit.

The athletes become composers, the instruments their instruments.

"We found out that Jymmin is pushing the pain threshold up. Already after ten minutes of training on our Jymmin devices, the study participants were able to endure an average of ten percent, some even up to 50 percent, more pain in a pain test, "explains Thomas Fritz, Head of the Research Group Music-Driven Brain Plasticity at the MPI CBS.

Increased secretion of analgesic endorphins

The neuroscientists already knew from previous studies that physical activity generally raises the pain threshold. "With Jymmin, however, this effect was much stronger than with conventional weight training," explains Fritz.

Accordingly, participants were able to keep their forearms on average for five seconds longer in a degree of cold ice water than after a training session on conventional sports equipment.

The reason for the scientists see above all in an increased release of endorphins during the Jymmin. These hormones act as a kind of endogenous analgesic.

The higher your level, the more tolerant we are to pain. The combination of physical exercise and music making seems to be particularly effective in stimulating our endorphin system.

Jymmin can also reduce anxiety

The interesting thing about it: how strongly the pain sensation can be manipulated by this method seems to depend above all on the individual pain sensation.

The researchers divided the 22 study participants into pain classes using descriptions such as "When I want to hit a nail in the wall, hit my finger with a hammer" and other painful scenes within a standardized questionnaire.

And it turned out: The greatest effect of this training method was experienced by the participants, who already have a less pronounced feeling of pain. The researchers suspect that endorphins are generally released more effectively in these participants than in more painful ones.

"From these effects arise for the Jymmin numerous applications," said Fritz. On the one hand for the people who suffer from acute or chronic pain.

Especially in rehabilitation clinics, the devices could provide valuable services by reducing the pain of patients and allow a more effective therapy training. "They simply reach their pain threshold during training."

A recent study on chronic pain patients at the MPI CBS also suggests that Jymmin can also reduce anxiety and thus counteract one of the major causes of chronic pain.

Personal mood and motivation increases

On the other hand, there are the high-performance athletes who want to achieve particularly high levels of physical performance, literally approaching their pain thresholds. And beyond.

"Initial testing with competitive swimmers at an Olympic training center in South Korea showed that the athletes who were warming up just before the competition with our Jymmin equipment swam faster than those with traditional warm-up methods."

In fact, in a pilot test, five of the six athletes swam a few tenths of a second faster than in previous runs.

The fact that Jymmin generally has many positive effects on our body and our emotional well-being had already been discovered by earlier studies at the MPI CBS.

They had shown that this not only reduces the workload of fitness training, but also increases the personal mood and motivation.

Even the music itself found them more beautiful during the sport and inspired music styles that are otherwise beyond their personal musical repertoire. (Ad)