When Working Out, it Helps to Find Your Own Beat

If you’ve been struggling to make it through your workouts lately, you may want to consider finding the beat of your own drum.

Legendary Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie used music to help synchronize his pace. In fact, he credited the 135-bpm song “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” for his world-record run in the 5,000 meters in 1995.

“It’s nice music, it’s fast written, that’s why I could break a world record, by that music,” he told CNN. “I’m a Scatman! Dum dum and then you know the timing and at the same time your style changes immediately.”

Many exercise instructors, and especially Spin instructors, know that compiling a list or mix of songs they believe match the intensity of workouts is key to motivating class participants to push themselves harder.

“They may not know what the exact tempo is, but they do know what helps get people into ‘the zone,’” says Matthew Stork, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at Canada’s University of British Columbia, Okanagan. “Human intuition is a part of it, too.”

The BPM (beats per minute) of any song can also be found online at sites such as Song BPM or apps like BPM Detector. A song such as “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, for example, has a bpm of 120, whereas the up-tempo “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor clocks in a 135 bpm.

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