chrisayer

sympathetic rhythms at the gym

I was running in place at the gym today, as I tend to do, and noticed that everyone in the place was running or biking or elliptical-ing at the exact same rhythm.  it went on for a couple minutes, and happened again a bit later, for another couple of minutes.  the whole room was like a drum, throbbing to the collective beat.  I was struck by what a cool example of rhythmic entrainment it was… just like how two people in room together will sync up heartbeats eventually, or how our brainwaves mimic the rhythm of the music we listen to.  women’s cycles, fireflies flickering… all our rhythms want to be the same!

I love it.  Also a pretty perfect moment of commonality amidst the narcissism of sweaty self-image sculpting (I’m not above it).

http://www.sleepwarrior.com/brain-waves-brainwave-entrainment

(I also need to credit Gabe Turow for teaching me everything I know about sonic entrainment, and also for pretty well messing with my mind with some rhythmic experiments back in school.  It was excellent. A paper he prepared at Stanford based on his research is available in PDF here)