“Former world tennis champion Björn Borg has just produced his first symphony,” writes Helena Asprou in Wednesday’s (9/11) Classic FM. “Composed with a BPM [beats per minute] of 123, Borg believes his cinematic symphony, titled ‘Symphonia Exercitii Et Intelligentiae’, will not only boost your endurance while exercising, but also increase your IQ. The Swedish ex-tennis player had felt inspired to coordinate the piece of music after reading a report about the ‘Mozart effect,’ which was first published in 1993 [and] found the subjects who listened to Mozart showed significantly increased spatial reasoning skills for at least 10-15 minutes…. To design the 9:24 minute symphony—now coined ‘the world’s smartest workout track’—Borg teamed up with a training expert, a neurologist and classical composer, Jonas Valfridsson, [and recorded] by the Jönköpings Sinfonietta at a local Swedish concert hall.… Lennart Högman, a Senior Lecturer and researcher in cognitive neuroscience, [said], ‘Some say music with a set BPM of 120-140 can be ideal for a workout (depending somewhat on your fitness level). Conclusively, listening to classical music while working out can raise both your motivation as well as endurance, and in turn, bump up your cognitive performance.’ ”
Posted September 17, 2019
