The Optimal From Your Gym Session With the help of Music

Dr. Costas Karageorghis, deputy head of the School of Sport and Education at Brunel University, London recently analyzed more than 6.7 million playlists in order to design the ultimate soundtrack for a workout session. Collaborating with Spotify, Karageorghis chose songs based not only on popularity but also on beats-per-minutes (BPM) and scientific principles meant to coax a stronger performance from your basic gym rat, Medical Daily reports.

“Music helps to induce alpha brain wave activity which is responsible for our dreams and rest states,” he explained in an interview with BBC News. “This leads to a state known as 'flow,' which is an ultimate motivational state in which sportspeople are completely immersed in what they are doing and feel as if they are functioning on autopilot.” To this end, his mix begins with warm-up and stretching music and then transitions to cardio songs, which gradually increase in intensity. Next, the playlist migrates to strength-training tunes and then concludes with mellow cool-down songs.

In a complementary study, Karageorghis and his colleagues surveyed an array of unprofessional athletes and discovered that men and women have somewhat different taste in exercise music. For men, the Rocky theme song, "Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor, is apparently more motivational, while women find themselves more inspired by the songs of Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Karageorghis recruited 30 participants willing to exercise on a treadmill while listening to rock and pop songs, including music by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna, and Queen. He and his team instructed participants to keep strict time to the beat. The researchers observed that the music, which had been chosen based on tempo and other scientific principles, enhanced endurance by 15, helping them to gain more pleasure from their workout routine.

Ready to workout? The top 20 songs as selected by Karageorghis and his team:

Roar by Katy Perry — 92 BPM

Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo ft 2 Chainz — 100 BPM

Skip To The Good Bit by Rizzle Kicks — 105 BPM

Get Lucky by Daft Punk ft Pharrel Williams — 116 BPM

Move by Little Mix — 120 BPM

Need U 100% by Duke Dumont ft A*M*E — 124 BPM

You Make Me by Avicii — 125 BPM

Feel My Rhythm by Viralites —128 BPM

Timber by Pitbull ft Ke$ha —130 BPM

Applause by Lady Gaga — 140 BPM

Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft Ray Dalton — 147 BPM