The Trick To Creating The Most Effective Playlist For Exercise

There’s no doubt listening to your favourite songs makes your workout more enjoyable, but did you know it can help you work a little bit harder? 

Let us explain. 

There’s a lot of psychology behind how music impacts the way we feel! Listening to your favourite songs can help boost your mood and increase focus but gearing more towards exercise, it can motivate you to work harder. 

• It can make exercise seem easier 

• It can make you enjoy exercise more

• It can make you work harder

• It can reduce perception of fatigue

• It can influence your heart rate to increase or decrease

Depending on what kind of exercise you’re doing, your playlist is probably going to look a little different. It’s a good idea to match the beats per minute (BPM) to the intensity of your workout. If you’re doing high intensity workouts like running or aerobics then you want quick, upbeat music. 

You can gauge by ear whether a song is quick or slow by its beat, but if you want specifics you can search your favourite songs and this website will tell you exactly how many beats per minute the track is. 

If you find yourself struggling to finish your workout, increase the tempo. This is the part of our workout where a lot of us just give in because we’re tired. A song with 100-200bpm is perfect for the final stretch.

Another idea is to put your favourite song last! It’ll motivate you to keep going and it’ll feel like a reward when you finally get there. 

There’s nothing quite like music to keep us going! It’s more about the BPM than it is the lyrics, but motivating lyrics can act like words of encouragement to keep you going, so have a think about which songs you think will make an impact. 

Timing your workout with a playlist might just be the extra motivation you need to finish every workout on a high.