Dana H
What’s one thing that Orangetheory, SoulCycle, Zumba, and CrossFit all have in common? Each of these group fitness classes pumps intense music through their loudspeakers (which are everywhere). The beats keep you motivated and help you have a good time while you fight muscle burn.
We listen to music while exercising for a good reason, and it’s not just getting pumped up for a good sweat sesh. Research has shown that high-tempo, high-intensity music can boost workout performance and even motivate you to exercise for longer periods.
If you’re wondering how to optimize your workouts for your best tennis, you’ve come to the right place. This article will discuss how and why music influences fitness performance, how to create the perfect playlist for optimal gains, and where to snag a done-for-you workout playlist.
Why does music improve workout performance?
There’s plenty of research on the psychological effects of music. Good tunes can help boost your mood as well as help you focus. Music can also motivate you.
Music affects your workout performance in many ways, including:
- It can reduce your perception of fatigue
- It can help get your heart rate to be faster or slower
- It can mentally distract you from the difficulty of exercise
- It can make you enjoy exercise more
- It can make you run faster
- It can improve your mood during a workout
- It can make exercise seem easier
Most of the time, you can expect to have the above benefits; however, there are exceptions to the rule. Music won’t be of much help if you’re struggling with DOMS or an injury.
How do you make a good workout playlist? Consider each song’s BPM.
When it comes to choosing a playlist that will improve your workout performance, it’s all about the tempo. Matching the beats with your intended heart rate will keep you pumped for your workout. In contrast, mismatching will do just the opposite.
Think about what happens when a slow song comes on in the middle of your HIIT workout… you’re jamming to upbeat dance music or hard rock, and suddenly, an ’80s love ballad comes on. Ugh! You have to stop everything and dig your phone out of your pocket to skip it. Or maybe you keep going (as best as you can), but all you can think about is how you can’t wait for that song to end. In either scenario, your workout was interrupted and your focus was temporarily lost.
Creating the perfect workout playlist is actually pretty simple. Just focus on two things: the type of workout and tempo. The more intense your workout will be, the more upbeat the tempo should be.
Finding a song tempo in beats per minute is like finding your heart rate. If you need help with that, try this handy song BPM tool. Just type in a song title and get the BPM.
Here is a general tempo guideline to help you get started:
Yoga, pilates, and other low-intensity activities: 60 to 90 BPM
Power yoga: 100 to 140 BPM
CrossFit, indoor cycling, or other forms of HIIT: 140 to 180-plus BPM
Zumba and dance: 130 to 170 BPM
Steady-state cardio, such as jogging: 120 to 140 BPM
Weightlifting and powerlifting: 130 to 150 BPM
Warming up for exercise: 100 to 140 BPM
Cooling down after exercise: 60 to 90 BPM
You can even engineer the tempo of your playlist to support interval workouts. For example: if you plan to go for an interval run where you’ll run fast for 3 minutes and jog for 2 minutes for 30 minutes total, create a playlist that supports that goal. In this case, you’d enlist a fast-moderate-fast structure using songs that are close to the lengths of the interval timeframes.
Though other factors such as volume, bass, and lyrics can also influence your performance, focusing on tempo will help keep your playlist-picking simple.
Listen to workout playlists on music services like Apple Music, Spotify, and more.
Don’t want to mess with creating your own playlist? Try one of these streaming music services with countless hours of music for every type of workout.
Fit Radio: Fit Radio’s entire premise revolves around BPM-specific workouts. There are playlists for all different heart rate ranges in almost every genre.
RockMyRun: This app is similar to Fit Radio in that DJs create playlists by BPM, genre, and activity. Despite its name, you can use RockMyRun for any exercise. Its quick-adjust feature allows you to quickly change the tempo of your playlist, giving this app a leg up on others.
Apple Music: Apple Music has an entire section of playlists dedicated to workouts. First, go to “Browse” and then to “Music by Mood” to find the fitness category. You’ll find playlists for yoga, HIIT, and more, as well as genre-specific playlists.
Spotify: This app has a wide range of premade workout playlists and users are always updating current playlists and adding new ones. Be sure and check out our Court Queen profile for ready to go playlists!
jog.fm: This app will help you find or create the perfect playlist for your run based on your pace. Just input your mile pace, and the app will recommend a list of songs that match that pace.