Saturday, December 3, 2011

12 Tips of Christmas: #2 Move to the Music

Time to drop a beat, yo!

According to an article in The Sport Journal, "Research has consistently shown that the synchronization of music with repetitive exercise is associated with increased levels of work output. This applies to such activities as rowing, cycling, cross-country skiing, and running. Musical tempo can regulate movement and thus prolong performance. Synchronizing movements with music also enables athletes to perform more efficiently, again resulting in greater endurance."

Music is a wonderful motivator!

Here is how to find your tempo:


1. Load your portable music device with high energy tunes (some of my faves include "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5 (128bpm), "Glad You Came -Remixes" (127 bpm) by The Wanted, and "We Found Love" by Rhianna (128 bpm)). Hmmm. My running tempo must be 127-128 bpm.

2. Play your music during your activity, whatever it is.  Walking, running, biking, dancing, etc, so on and so forth.  Find a tune that matches your tempo (maybe a wee bit faster for a challenge).

3. Into your Google search engine (I heart Google), type the name of the song and "tempo".  Somewhere on the world wide web there is information on the BPMs (beats per minute) of that song. 

4.  NOW- using Google type in the number of BPMs and "song list".  Other people who also use the world wide web have posted song lists that match your beat. 

5.  Download the listed songs and POOF! you have a workout mix that will keep you motivated, and maybe make you move a little faster.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, such a great idea i never thought to do that! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Just found your blog & I'm so pleased I did! Thanks for all the great tips!

    While doing some BPM-based playlist research, I found an app for the iPhone called jog.fm. It's not free (boo), but it's pretty neat. You put in your desired BPMs and it creates & plays an appropriate playlist for your workout.

    Pretty cool, I think. I may have to splurge & buy it.

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