Exercise performance may be enhanced by moderate increasing arousal levels before exercise. Although it is known that playing video games increases physiological and psychological arousal levels, the effects of pre-exercise “video game playing” on exercise performance have not been investigated. We examined the influence of playing a racing video games before exercise on sprint cycling performance. Twelve healthy male university students performed one set of 10 s sprint cycling prior to exercise in the no video game (Con), video game with game sound (SV), and video game without game sound (NSV) conditions on separate occasions. The subjective arousal levels were measured before and after the video game using a questionnaire. The subjective arousal levels after playing the video game were higher in SV than in Con and NSV (p < 0.001, p < 0.01), while higher in NSV than in Con (p < 0.01). The maximum power per body weight during sprint cycling was higher in SV and NSV than in Con (p < 0.05, p < 0.05). The mean power per body weight during sprint cycling was higher in SV than in Con (p < 0.05), while tended to be higher in NSV than in Con (p < 0.1), although NSV tended to be lower than in SV (p < 0.1). These results suggest that the subjective arousal levels increase by playing a racing video game with or without game sounds. The results also suggest that playing a racing video game increases the subjective arousal levels and increases the maximum power and the mean power during sprint cycling.

Exercise performance may be improved by listening to high-tempo and motivational music prior to exercise. However, the effects of the combination of “tempo” and “motivational factors other than tempo” of music on exercise performance have not been examined in detail. We examined whether listening to music before exercise affects repetitive sprint performance and psychological responses in healthy young men. Twenty-one healthy men performed two consecutive sets of 20-second sprint cycling with a 120-second rest period between sets. Five types of music were used during the warm-up and rest periods: no music (Con), high-tempo music that subjects judged to be motivating (MH, 130~140 bpm), high-tempo music that subjects judged to be unmotivating (UMH, 130~140 bpm), low-tempo music that subjects judged to be motivating (ML, 70~80 bpm), and low-tempo music that judged to be unmotivating (UML, 70~80 bpm). Motivation, pleasure-displeasure and arousal-sleepiness, and rate of perceived exertion were investigated using a questionnaire. The maximum power per body weight during sprint cycling was significantly higher in ML than in Con, and MH tended to be higher than in Con. Motivation increased significantly from “After Warm-up” to “After Recovery” for MH and ML, but did not change significantly for Con, UMH, and UML. These results suggest that listening to motivational music, regardless of tempo, improves the maximum power of sprint cycling.