More Music for Your Workout

The New York Times provides a reminder about that delicious, nutritious ingredient in meeting your new year's fitness resolutions -- music. "They're Playing My Song" describes a scale for rating the motivational power of music, called the Brunel Music Rating Inventory, developed by British doctor Costas Karageorghis. The components of great music to motivate exercise, according to the BMRI, should sound familiar to those of you who Energize in braintuning style: strong rhythm, positive mood, personal preference, variety, a playback system that blocks interfering sounds, and -- oh wait a minute.

The NYT piece doesn't hit the most important point until the bottom of the page: To optimize music's entrainment effect, you need to match the beats per minute of the music boasting all the above qualities to the speed of your movements. Reserve the 120-140 BPM range the NYT recommends for power walking and the breast stroke, and when it's time to run (unless like molasses in January), push the pace to 160 BPM or above.

I'm happy to say I don't know the BPM of Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" offhand, but if that tune passes your personal preference test, count away.