(Donna Alberico/NYT)

Choosing the best music for exercise

By Steven Kurutz

Published: January 10, 2008

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Fitness magazines and Web sites love to ask readers about their favorite workout music while presenting their playlists or suggestions from celebrities. Self.com features the "80s cardio playlist," which includes the short-shorts video classic "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! On Fitnessmagazine.com, the singer Rihanna reveals her favorite workout songs - immodestly recommending four of her own for "when you have to pick up the pace on the treadmill."

The playlist fixation has a scientific basis: Studies have shown that listening to music during exercise can improve results, both in terms of being a motivator (people exercise longer and more vigorously to music) and as a distraction from negatives like fatigue. But are certain songs more effective than others?

Generally speaking there is a science to choosing an effective exercise soundtrack, said Costas Karageorghis, an associate professor of sport psychology at Brunel University in England, who has studied the effects of music on physical performance for 20 years.

Karageorghis created the Brunel Music Rating Inventory, a questionnaire that is used to rate the motivational qualities of music in the context of sport and exercise. For nearly a decade, he has been administering the questionnaire to panels representing different demographics, who listen to 90 seconds of a song and rate its motivational qualities for various physical activities.

One of the most important elements, Karageorghis found, is a song's tempo, which should be between 120 and 140 beats per minute, or BPM.

That pace coincides with the range of most commercial dance music, and many rock songs are near that range, which leads people to develop "an aesthetic appreciation for that tempo," he said. It also roughly corresponds to the average person's heart rate during a routine workout - say, 20 minutes on an elliptical trainer by a person who is more casual exerciser than fitness warrior.

Karageorghis said "Push It" by Salt-N-Pepa and "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg are around that range, as is the dance remix of "Umbrella" by Rihanna (so maybe the pop star was onto something).

For a high-intensity workout like a hard run, he suggested Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On."

Music preferences are as idiosyncratic as workout routines, of course. Allison Goldberg, a 39-year-old life coach and amateur runner who lives in Texas and who is training for the Houston Marathon on Sunday, has been running to the Green Day CD "American Idiot" because, she said, "there's no way you can run slow to Green Day." (Though she may not be listening on race day; a rule bars runners from using portable music players and headphones.) Haile Gebrselassie, the Olympian from Ethiopia who has won the gold medal at 10,000 meters, often requested that the techno song "Scatman," which has a BPM of around 135, be played over the sound system during his races.

Goldberg also includes on her playlist "Don't Phunk With My Heart" by the Black Eyed Peas (130 BPM), "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers (150 BPM) and "Dancing Queen" by ABBA. The musical style that seems to most reliably contain a high BPM is dance music, said Richard Petty, the founder of Power Music, a company that has produced workout compilations for instructors and fitness enthusiasts for two decades. "A rock song doesn't have that same consistency," said Petty, a former DJ who takes a metronomic approach to making exercise music: He chooses a hit song with a catchy melody - say, "Gold Digger" by Kanye West - and produces a remix whose BPM count is tailored to experience level and type of workout.

For a stroll walker going at a pace of around three miles, or five kilometers, an hour, a remixed track has a count of 115 to 118 BPM; for a power walker going 4.5 miles per hour, the count is 137 to 139 BPM; while the BPM for a runner rises to 147 to 160.

The compilations, aimed largely at women doing cardio, with titles like "Shape Walk - '70s Hits Remixed," contain no pauses between songs. That unwavering beat allows a person to synchronize movements to music, something that Kate Gfeller, a music professor at the University of Iowa, said was crucial.

"Music provides a timing cue," said Gfeller, who after taking an aerobics class several years ago where the teacher picked music whose tempo didn't match the moves, was inspired to study the components of music most important to a gainful workout. "It helps you to move more efficiently, which, in turn, can help you with endurance." (She likes to warm up for figure skating to the Buena Vista Social Club, in particular the songs "Candela" and "El Cuarto de Tula.")