Music To Keep You Moving

Hey, how’s your week going? Did you happen to catch the Baltimore Running Festival this weekend?

All that running got me thinking about marathon season and I came across an interesting article called “Why Music Makes Exercise Easier”.  The article follows research by sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis; and just as the title suggests explains how music helps motivate us to get moving.

There are many ways the right music can increase your workout’s potential. Some of the advantages cited by the article are:

• pushing harder through a workout
• being more likely to ignore negative thoughts about stopping
• increasing workout drive with increased beats per minute (BPM)

The benefits may not stop there. An ABC News report earlier this year followed a study showing exercise improved brain functions, at least temporarily after its subject’s workouts.

Well, all this makes me want to leave you with some music that I hope will help motivate you this month.

Click play on the youtube playlist to hear the tracks, the titles are listed in order below (all clean versions).

1. Moves Like Jagger Maroon 5
2. Miami 2 Ibiza Swedish House Mafia
3. Gimme Dat Ciara
4. Party Rock Anthem LMFAO
5. So Fine Sean Paul
6. Where Them Girls At David Guetta and Flo Rida
7. Headlines Drake
8. Good Feeling Flo Rida
9. I Wanna Go Brittany Spears
10. Take Control Afro Jack and Eva Simons
11. The Weekend Michael Gray
12. Could You Believe ATB
13. Mr. Saxobeat Alexandra Stan
14. Save The World (Tonight) Swedish House Mafia
15. All Of The Lights The Hood Internet
16. Lisztomania (Classixx Remix) Phoenix //use this for a cooldown track//

Here’s another thought — try a radio station website (like Pandora, Turntable, or Slacker Radio) and create a station using songs or artist you love. Sites like these will play songs based on your artist and songs suggestions and give you a never ending playlist.

Once you have a few favorite workout tracks you may want to organize them by BPM to pace the intensity of your workout (MSNBC suggests Tangerine for this).

I’m hoping you’ll put together a playlist that inspires you to get out there, have fun, and give your best on your next workout!

Committed to Your Fitness Success,

Jeff