Music is Great Motivation for Your Workouts

You finally have a routine down for your exercise program and you’ve been exercising for a couple of months. You’re doing it–you’re exercising your way to a healthier, slimmer you and you’ve even lost a couple of pounds! Congratulations!

But now you’re starting to get bored. Reading or watching TV while on the treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical machine was fun for a while, but you’re starting to lose the motivation you once had. There are various tools out there that can help you reach your goals; however none of them are as enjoyable as listening to music.

Music is a great motivator and, like reading, is a good distraction from all the temptations around you—like the KFC or Krispy Kreme commercials on the TV! Music—particularly with a fast tempo—diverts your attention when you want to stop due to that burning muscle or tiredness and it urges you to exercise harder and longer. But having music that’s too up-tempo could work against you in that it won’t help your enjoyment, performance or stamina. Your best bet is to stick with music that has the tempo of 120-140 beats per minute.

You’ll be able to endure your workouts better if you listen to music. Of course, everyone responds to music differently. Music will definitely be a bonus for you if you’re like many people and exercise at a moderate- to high-intensity pace two or three times per week.

Just make sure that while you’re listening to your music, via headphones, that you don’t turn the volume up too loud. Don’t blare the music into your ears as it could cause you to develop temporary loss of hearing and ringing in your ears. If you listen to extremely loud music through your headphones for more than one and a half hours each day, this damage could become permanent. You don’t want that!

So what type of music should you listen to for your exercise program? Well, anything you want to really—as long as it gets your heart pumping. Lots of people discover that they still love to listen to the songs they grew up with—what were your favorite songs or bands in junior high and high school? Those just may be the perfect songs for you to workout with! There’s a plethora of music websites where you can download songs onto your MP3 player or iPod—some websites are free to download songs, others aren’t. Depending on what you’re doing for exercise on a particular day, you should consider matching music to your heart rate with one of the many applications that are out there to let you check each song’s beats per minute (bpm).

For warm-ups, Yoga, stretching or cool-downs, it’s recommended that your heart rate be between 80-90 bpm. “Twilight” by Cover Drive, the album “Valtari” by Sigur Rós and “Stereo Hearts” by Gym Class Heroes are great examples of music in this heart beat range.

When your cardio workout gets going to a moderate- to high-intensity level, songs that have a good, steady beat and a tempo of 120-140 bpm are terrific to exercise to because they’ll build up your stamina. Any songs over 140 bpm won’t enhance your exercise routines. Some perfect examples of moderate- to high-intensity songs are “Domino” by Jesse J, the album “Nothing but the Beat” by David Guetta, “Starships” by Nicki Minaj and the album by Daft Punk called “Alive 2007”.

If you’re weightlifting or strength training, music that’s quick and powerful is sure to get your adrenalin flowing. Heavy metal is very popular for weightlifting and can include such songs as Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll”, just about any song by AC/DC, Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and Guns n Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle”. For strength training the genre of pop rock, movie soundtracks or some country songs could be used—basically any song with a quick, short beat is ideal. “The Rising” by Bruce Springsteen, “Let’s Get Loud” by Jennifer Lopez, “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley and “Something More” by Sugarland are all wonderful examples of songs for strength training. Of course, who can perform any kind of strength training or weightlifting routine without Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”?

These songs are just some ideas. Only you know what kind of songs will get you up and moving and only you can build a perfect song list to help get and keep you motivated for workouts. It doesn’t matter what kind of fitness program you do, you need to stay focused and listening to music will aid you in doing just that. But most of all, music will make your fitness routines fun—and when your workouts are fun, you’ll stay motivated and keep your goals. You don’t have any more excuses now, so go create that song list and get back to exercising!