Alternative Health Blog

As an avid skier, Dr. Mark Liponis remembers getting his first portable music player back in 1979.

“The days of Suzy Chapstick,” said Liponis, laughing over the phone from his Canyon Ranch Resorts office in Lenox, Mass., where he is medical director. “I probably have about five [iPod-type devices] by now.”

Liponis is less the tech junkie and more the exercise realist.

“I can last a lot longer on the elliptical machine with my own music in the iPod, something good like Government Mule,” said Liponis. “I don’t like the typical disco stuff you hear in most gyms and health clubs.”

Liponis said an iPod or other mp3 player provides “a big benefit because you don’t feel the pain. In his new book, “Ultra-Longevity: The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You” (Little, Brown and Company, $26), Liponis cites Korean research showing music therapy sessions can reduce the pain of leg fractures and a study published in the Clinical Research in Cardiology professional journal demonstrated that listening to music during uncomfortable catheterization procedures reduced patient anxiety.

Seattle-based personal trainer P.J. Glassey said iPods tend to a positive.

“For most people, it does help,” said Glassey, who owns and operates the local X Gym chain. “People get in their own little world and the music blocks out the pain. You get in a rhythm and you keep going.”

Liponis said the rhythm of physical activity is underrated.

“I’ve been with Canyon Ranch for 15 years,” he said. “Our mantra has long been eat right and exercise. People are almost numb to that message. They are looking for something new. The idea of rhythmic exercise, such as swimming, dancing, even rowing, is motivating people.”

To make his case with Canyon Ranch visitors, Liponis talks about research findings that connect individuals pursuing rhythmic activities—swimming, cycling, “you can include using an iPod on the treadmill”—with lower levels of C-reactive protein in the blood than study participants who were regular soccer and basketball players. Lower C-reactive protein translates to a healthier immune system.

“There are lots of hospital cardio rehab programs sending their patients to dance class these days rather than the gym hooked up to heart monitors,” said Liponis. "Research makes a case for adding music and rhythmic exercise to your workouts."

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.