Music Discussions

On Wednesday, I listened to my MP3 player for the first time while at the gym and realized the choice of music can have a dramatic effect on one’s workout experience. Pacing, rhythm, and consistency – of both an individual song and of the entire play list ? are all important factors to consider.

My first mistake was not making a play list. I have many different types of music on my player organized by genre; however, when in random play mode, it is sort of like a box of chocolates in that I never know what I am going to get. Random play is great most of the time but is not so good for keeping pace.

The first obstacle to overcome is finding beats per minute (bpm) for each of the tracks and then deciding whether to put only songs within 5% of desired bpm (based on walking speed) in the list, or have the list slowly build up, hold roughly steady for a while, and then slowly slow down to facilitate warm-ups and cool downs. The latter method would probably ensure that I actually do warm up and cool down, so this is probably the direction I will head. Finding beats per minute for songs can be tricky as many rippers do not calculate this information. I ended up using MixMeister BPM Analyzer which seems to be pretty accurate when it results are compared to bpms for songs that I have the official information for. Eventually, this information will hopefully end up the public bpm service that I wrote.

Next – and this is the tricky part which may require trial and error – what bpms should I select for each phase (beginning, middle, and end). The beginning and end should be the same, so when I decide on values for one, I will have values for both sets. Starting about 25% of the main workout, then moving to 50%, then 75% would probably work well. Because of this decision, once I have the bpm for the sustained middle section, I will have all of the values.

This leads to the tricky part; how should I go about picking the middle value. I could measure my stride length and speed that I walk at which would allow me to figure out my foot falls per minute and base the bpm on that. In my case, I have been walking at 3 miles per hour and, if memory serves, my stride is about 1.25 feet. Using this information we come up with the following formula:

• 3 miles per hour = 1/20 mile per minute = 264 feet per minute
• 264 feet per minute / 1.25 feet per stride = 211.2 strides per minute
• 211.2 strides per minute / 2 feet (how many I have 🙂 ) = 105.6 bpm

This seems reasonably accurate as I found that “Terror” by KMDFM felt a little too slow at 94 bpm (according to MixMeister). And, of course, this will have to be recalculated if my speed or stride length changes significantly (jogging instead of walking).

To calculate your own ideal bpm, enter your information below.

Other suggestions include picking songs with a steady rhythm. Choose songs that you actually want to listen to; this should be obvious, but it is possible to get so wrapped up in looking at bpms that song titles are ignored. Make sure that if your stride changes (increased flexibility, jogging instead of walking, etc.) or your pace changes (i.e. a harder workout) then you recalibrate your play list. In fact, it may be a good idea to make a couple of play lists in advance in case you get to the gym and decide that your ability has increased.

If you have any problems with the bpm calculator not working in your browser, please let me know. Or if you find a flaw in my algorithm – either as described above or as implemented in the JavaScript – please let me know. Of course, if you find this useful I would like to hear from you as well.