There's that feeling you get when a song you love comes on — you perk up, your energy level jumps, you're ready to werk, especially at the the gym (thank you, Ellie Goulding, for consistently providing jams). To find out which songs get people the most amped when it comes to exercising, researchers at Brunel University in London combed through Spotify playlists with the word "workout" in the title — dance music, they found, is the most popular for strength training, thanks to its steady rhythm and bass.
Some songs they recommend: Eminem's "The Monster," featuring Rihanna, will.i.am's "#thatPOWER," featuring Justin Bieber, and Jessie J's "It's My Party." That's because those songs fall into the musical "sweet spot" the study authors described as a tempo range of 120 to 140 beats per minute — and if you keep your song picks on the lower end of that range while strength training, you can easily match your repetitions to the beat.
We took it upon ourselves to craft a strength training playlist full of songs under 130 BPM — it will keep you pushing through no matter how many reps you're banging out. But we're not taking responsibility if you just happen to break out your dance moves at your gym. #Sorrynotsorry.
Did we leave out any of your favorite workout jams? No worries — you can calculate the BPM of any tune in your own library, easily!
Image: lassedesignen/Fotolia
