We looove Music at myTRAINER. We’ve always got something good playing on Pandora.

Music can be super motivating and enhance personal training performance for many people. It gets you grooving, moving (sometimes even moving faster!), and keeps you pumped up through your work out. It turns out that’s not just some people’s preference or love of their playlists. There’s scientific proof that it does help boost performance. Some races even have banned music during events to prevent athletes from having an advantage or edge (although most race officials insist it’s for safety primarily).

The Science Behind Music & Movement

After decades of tracking beats and athletes, here’s what researchers have to say about music and athletic performance. Music seems to have three major effects:

• It gets you moving. This is the toe-tapping phenomenon. What some researchers call “high-groove” music activates your motor center and gets you moving.
• It helps you move well and in time. When you hear music, it stimulates the motor area of your brain helping you set a pace. It also helps to make your movements more efficient. This is especially true of endurance activities like rowing, running, cycling, and walking. “Two of the most important qualities of workout music are tempo—or speed—and what psychologists call rhythm response, which is more or less how much a song makes you want to boogie.” (Scientific American)
• Music can also help you work through difficult parts of your personal training. While it motivates and helps you move, it decreases the type of bodily awareness that makes you dwell on moderate pain or difficulty. That’s something we could all use every now and then!

Keys to Finding the Best Personal Training Music

• Matching the beat to your work out (running or cycling, for example) is helpful.
• Try emotional resonance. It’s not always about choosing perky dance music. It’s frequently about getting you in the right mindset or identifying with the right feeling or memory. Maybe choose a soundtrack of a movie that’s important to you or a radio station of a familiar and dear era for you. This can help you get in the zone.
• Find your favorite workout music at jog.fm. It’s an app/website that helps you find music with the right pace for walkers, runners, and cyclists.
• Mix and match and try other people’s recommendations. Most streaming music services like Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, and Apple Music have a social media element where you can follow users or share playlists. Add people on your favorite platform to find out what they recommend.
• Not a top 40 fan or looking for something more Indie? Check out this Indie playlist blog for people who work out.

Some Ideas We Put Together for You

We culled through a lot of best-of workout playlists and here’s a sampling across decades and genres. Here’s a PDF of a kind of best-of, best-of list. We’d love to know what are your favorite apps, playlists, and songs. Share your favorites in the comments below!

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