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The best workout music

By Marie Claire on Monday 23 June 2008

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Marie Claire Health: iPod

Listening to the right tracks could get you fitter, research finds.

Music and exercise go together. In the Eighties, it was all about pop-star workouts: CherFitness: A New Attitude, anyone? In the Nineties, it was the Discman. And in the Noughties it’s the trusty iPod.

But according to Dr Costas Karageorghis, a sports and exercise psychologist at Brunel University, the right music can improve performance. By matching a song’s tempo, or beats per minute (bpm) to your heartbeat, Karageorghis found that exercise productivity was boosted by 20 per cent.

Many music-download websites, such as jogtunes.com and beatunes.com, no specify a song’s bpm, so you can build up your playlist according to how hard you plan to work out.

We’ve listed a few of our favourite training tracks (along withy their bmp, of course).

Power Walking? Choose a track with 115-120bpm. Fighter by Christina Aguilera.

Jogging? Tracks over 137-140bpm. Beat It by Michael Jackson.

Running? Tracks over 147bpm. Mr Brightside BY The Killers.