I dared to exercise without music — what happened next surprised me

The gravel crunched as my feet swept across the floor. My breath became heavy and labored, so I closed my mouth to inhale and exhale mindfully through my nose. The kettlebell slammed onto the ground, so I moved with more control in the next rep.

These are all perfectly normal things that I'd never noticed in my training before. I have workout headphones permanently attached to my ears, blasting motivational music to distract me from the intensity of the session.

But whether it was the sun scorching down on the garden or just a moment of rash decision making, I left my earbuds in the drawer, grabbed a kettlebell and pressed play on my workout in total silence.

I've been exercising regularly for over a decade since I left college and was even a fitness editor for several years, but I'd never chosen to train without music, and when I gave it a shot this week, it was like the whole world changed.

Here's what I learned.

It developed my mind-muscle connection

I've always used music as a distraction. Don't get me wrong, I love listening to music and it plays a huge role in my life (without it, I probably wouldn't have got my first writing gig reviewing headphones).

But I know that, at least some of the time, I use it to block out noises. I live in a city — there's always traffic, planes and construction going on. And I find this constant stream of background noise quite stressful.

And it's a similar thing when I'm training; I mostly do high-intensity resistance training (HIRT) workouts. These are short, efficient but tough, and my heart rate skyrockets (thanks to a combination of intense exercise and a chronic health condition).

So it's a constant push/pull between enjoying the session and feeling terrible as my heart rate climbs above 170bpm. And that's where music is the perfect way to keep my mind off the difficulty of what I'm doing.

But without it, I became more aware of my body. I could really feel my heart thumping away in my chest, how dizzy I felt and the effect it had on my muscles, especially in my legs. You might be wondering why I thought that was a good thing.

It allowed me to take a moment to reflect on what was going on and react accordingly. Rather than pushing through when things didn't feel right, I took more breaks, paused the session and gathered myself, improving my form and performance.

I was less distracted

This is a much more practical change, but if you cut out music, you also cut out having to decide what to listen to. I spend a lot of time curating the best workout music into playlists with the 'perfect' selection for workouts, walks, writing and other activities.

But you're not always in the mood for a specific song, or it just doesn't quite fit what you're trying to do. Some songs with high BPM (beats per minute) work as running tracks and for high-intensity workouts.

Those same tracks don't always hit the mark if you're doing something with more control or focus on form, though. And in HIRT workouts, you switch pretty quickly between fast-paced moves like burpees to controlled exercises like deadlifts.

Each round only lasts 45 seconds (a minute with breaks), so you could do three completely different styles of exercises in less time than it takes to finish a single track — meaning you have to constantly change the song to get the right vibe.

That's a waste of time, takes you away from your workout and means that you're not actually focused on what you're doing as you're too busy thinking about what song would make the perfect soundtrack for the kettlebell Cossack squat you're about to do.

Exercising in silence removes all of that distraction — it's just you and the workout.

It was a mindfulness practice

One of the ways I manage my chronic health condition is that I meditate. It's been one of the best things I've ever done, not just for helping soften my chronic pain, but it's changed the way I approach life too.

It's easy to imagine how you can be mindful (aware of your surroundings and the present moment) when you're having a quiet walk in the park, but less so when you're doing burpees and kettlebell swings to work your muscles and cardio system.

But ditching the workout music I usually have streamed into my ear holes meant that I could hear and notice everything. I already touched on how it helped me focus on form more, but there were other changes that had nothing to do with exercise.

During a short rest, I heard bird song and looked up to see two wood pigeons gliding across the sky. In the distance, the sounds of someone running a tap to wash dishes gradually hit my ears. All the noise I usually drown out came floating in.

I spotted when I didn't lift my feet properly during certain moves as my foot scraped along the floor. During Russian twists, if the kettlebell slammed on the ground, I didn't have enough control. I began noticing more how my performance varied, and when I needed to adjust to get the most from my training.

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