Motivational Workout Music – BoomerMuscle
November 16, 2016

Motivational Workout Music

motivational workout music

Motivational workout music can play a huge role in your success.

Music should be an essential element of your workout strategy. Especially for us Baby Boomers, we absolutely need to feel passion about what we’re doing, or we just won’t do it. Music is a great driver of passion.

It can also distract our minds from something we might regard as tedious. Music helps you “lose yourself” as Eminem said.

“Music lowers your perception of effort. It can trick your mind into feeling less tired during a workout and also encourage positive thoughts:” according to Dr. Costas Karageorghis, deputy head of the School of Sport and Education at Brunel University, London (as told to the BBC).

In 2014, his team analyzed millions of workout playlists on Spotify to come up with the ultimate workout playlist. They also took into account beats-per-minute (BPM) of each song. The goal was to find the optimum “flow” for the athlete.

He characterized Flow as the ultimate state of mind for the athlete. Lost in the activity. Distracted from thoughts of fatigue. We might also call it the “Zone.”

“Music helps to induce alpha brain wave activity which is responsible for our dreams and rest states,”  he told the BBC.

The same study found a difference between men and women. With men leaning toward songs like “Eye of the Tiger” and women preferring female pop singers like Lady Gaga.

Personally, I relied on the same playlist for many years to help fuel my workouts. And it was a whole bunch of man tunes, just like Eye of the Tiger, with lots of classic Van Halen rock and roll. Very upbeat, positive.

Today, I lean toward Amazon’s Top Pop hits or something similar on Pandora or I-Tunes. Today’s pop music seems to be pretty ideal for an up-tempo, positive flow.

But other kinds of music can work just as well. In fact, whatever music makes you feel powerful, positive emotions can trigger the same response, according to the study. Broadway show tunes, classical, jazz. Whichever upbeat tunes help you to lose yourself into the flow.

fitness-1208141_1920Triggering those positive emotions helps with endurance. Again, you’re distracted from fatigue and without conscious effort, you’re in the flow. It’s an almost hypnotic state when we get it right. Like exercise itself, music also helps release natural feel-good chemicals into our blood stream. It adds a real boost to the powerful ‘high’ the combo produces.

Here are the top 20 songs the research team identified. Dated to 2014, so by all means update your own. You could use this as a thought-starter.  Just think: UpBeat, Positive, and Beats-Per-Minute (not slow).

The Top Twenty:

  1. Roar by Katy Perry – 92 BPM
  2. Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo – 100 BPM
  3. Skip to the Good Bit by Rizzle Kicks – 105 BPM
  4. Get Lucky by Daft Punk – 116 BPM
  5. Move by Little Mix – 120 BPM
  6. Need U by Little Mix – 120 BPM
  7. You Make Me by Avicii – 125 BPM
  8. Feel My Rhythm by Viralites – 128 BPM
  9. Timber by Pitbull/Kesha – 130 BPM
  10. Applause by Lady Gaga – 140 BPM
  11. Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – 147 BPM
  12. Happy by Pharrell Williams -160 BPM
  13. The Monster by Eminem/Rhianna -110 BPM
  14. Love Me Again by John Newman – 126 BPM
  15. Get Down by Groove Armada – 127 BPM
  16. #thatPOWER by will.i.am – 128 BPM
  17. It’s My Party by Jesse – 130 BPM
  18. Play Hard by David Guetta – 130 BPM
  19. Burn by Ellie Goulding – 116 BPM
  20. Royals by Lorde – 85 BPM

What are you favorite workout tunes? I’d love to know. Please share in comments below.

BrianPlease feel free to leave a comment below, or write to me at: brian@boomermuscle.com

Brian Patterson

I've been resistance training for nearly 50 years. As a younger man, I used to believe in using ever-increasing amounts of weight. Until one day in my mid-50's, my aching joints could not take the punishment any more. I had to develop a new way of working out that was effective, but free of pain. I found it. It works great. I'd like to share it with you.

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Brian Patterson - November 30, 2016 Reply

Awesome. Great list, Helen. AC/DC are an amazing band for working out with, as are the Stones and Deep Purple. Shooglenifty? We may be among the few people who know this band exists. But another great choice! Pink and all the current pop stars on my current list of favs, too.

Brian Patterson - November 29, 2016 Reply

Right on Helen. Whichever tunes get you going are the best. AC/DC are an awesome workout motivator. Thanks for stopping by. Come back again any time.

Helen Doyle - November 29, 2016 Reply

I have lots of favourite songs depending on my mood. The one I am listening to right now is ACDC’s Thunderstrike. I do feel energetic today!

A few others are Stormbringer Deep Purple, It’s On The Wolfe Brothers, Hard Love Vikka and Linda, The Ham in the Boiler Room Shooglenifty, Waiting Santana, Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones, Bad Influence Pink – oh dear I could go on for ever!

I also try and program songs to give me a time limit.

And you are so right about the distraction and hypnosis. I must admit I find exercise on its own really boring.

Ciao
Helen

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