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When I first started taking spin classes almost a decade ago, I was convinced that one of the teachers at my gym was subconsciously broadcasting the state of her love life with each playlist, just based on how often we moved from mushy love songs to sad love songs to songs about being an independent, confident boss, then back again. When I eventually got certified to teach cycling classes myself, I realized I was right: The urge to express your inner feelings through a playlist, then work through them at the gym, is a strong one—but I try not to subject my own students to the details of my inner world.
As someone who is literally paid to make energetic playlists a few times a week, I know a thing or two about how to get the most out of the music you blast at the gym, but the rules I follow for my classes are different than the ones I have in place for my own personal cardio pump-up playlists. I’ll tell you what I do, plus what Teddy Savage, National Lead Trainer at Planet Fitness, recommends.
How to select your tunes based on your cardio method
First of all, my old spin teacher wasn’t totally wrong in her approach: if you’re going through something, tap into it for gym motivation. If you’re hyped up on love, go for love songs. If you’re nervous about a job interview, pick songs that make you feel like a winner. That part is easy and working out while you connect with your emotions is a great way to work through whatever is going on in your life.
That said, you need some structure. In spin, I focus a lot on beats per minute, or BPM. To get people’s heart rates up, I want quick beats, fast feet, and lower tension on the bike, but I want fewer beats per minute to cool down or when we’re climbing a “hill” by increasing the tension on the knob. There’s a lot of weedy thought that goes into all that and you don’t really have to worry about it. As a general guideline, if you’re doing cardio on a bike, lower BPM is considered 120 to 125; you can challenge yourself and get that heart rate up by scooting up into the 130 to 150 range. I use a website called SongBPM, which can pretty reliably tell me the BPM of any song. Again, though, getting too intellectual about this isn’t really necessary; just remember faster songs make you move your legs faster.
It goes out the window when you start running on a treadmill or climbing a stair machine, anyway. In spin, we can hit each beat easily with our feet, but you’re not going to be able to do that on a treadmill nearly as easily or safely. Instead, you need to prioritize finding songs that get you excited, keep you moving, and keep your energy up. My first tip: Look for songs with a long, maybe even emotional bridge if you want to power through higher tensions on a bike or higher speeds on a treadmill, elliptical, or stair climber. Build up that tension or speed during the verses and chorus and when the bridge ends, cut it back down.
“If you’re preparing to do more of a HIIT [high-intensity interval training] style workout that’s going to push you to your limits, you want to add some good up-tempo cuts with some banging baselines,” says Savage, who also suggests motivational or happy lyrics, if you’re into them. “On the other hand, if it’s going to be more of a steady-state cardio type of workout, you might want to opt for a group of feel-good songs that are great for creating imagery with lyrics that tell a story or seem to whimsically take you from the treadmill to a concert where you and your friends are having the time of your lives.”
Go for something new rather than the old favorites
You don’t need me to tell you what kinds of lyrics you like or remind you that you’ll push yourself harder to faster, more intense beats, but there’s more to selecting your songs than all that. When I am working out, I need to be distracted, since I’m not one of those people who draws motivation and joy from the actual working-out part. Sometimes, I do this by watching a compelling, dramatic show on my phone, but on days I opt for music, I need to find a way to trick myself into getting distracted. That means I don’t listen to my favorite songs much at all, as counterintuitive as that may seem.
In spin, it’s very important I teach to song I know by heart, so I can easily cue the other riders. I don’t want to have to think too hard about what is coming next when I’m keeping an eye out for other people’s form and wellbeing; I need the music to blend into the background so I can focus on the class. When I’m working out alone, though, I don’t want it to blend into the background because then, I start to think about how much I don’t want to keep running. To trick myself, I look for remixes, mashups, and sped-up versions of songs I enjoy. Hearing something familiar with a twist keeps me engaged and curious about what is coming. Plus, those versions of songs are usually faster or have stronger bass lines than the originals, making them better for working out all around.
Another option is using AI to find songs similar to ones you already know you enjoy and work out well to. On Spotify, I do this by selecting a song I like and know I would enjoy running to, then hitting the three dots in the upper right corner and selecting “Go to radio.” That creates a whole playlist of similar songs, some of which I might know and many of which I don’t. Distraction achieved.
Other things to keep in mind when making your gym playlist
Savage points out that variety is the spice of life, so you should routinely update your playlist and add new music to keep workouts fresh. I couldn’t agree more. You can follow my spin playlist on Spotify, if you want, since I change it around every two or three days for class; Planet Fitness offers some playlists to follow, too.
One thing I’ve noticed works well for me is designating certain genres for certain tasks. In the same way you might carve out a designated space in your home to study or work, differentiating the music you listen to when you perform certain tasks can help your brain recognize when it’s workout time. On the elliptical, I find myself listening to commercial rap from the early 2000s a lot, which is not what I listen to when I’m running errands. Conversely, I’ve had a few truly strange out-of-mind experiences when I’ve been dancing at a club and a song I use in my spin classes comes on. My silly little Pavlovian brain is always momentarily confused. I’m wearing heels and holding an amaretto sour but… am I about to count down into a sprint? It feels weird to hear those songs and not have my feet strapped into some bike pedals. Harness the lizard quality of your brain by setting aside a genre or two that is just for working out. That way, when you hear those songs, you instinctively know it’s time to haul ass up the stair climber.
Finally, make the playlist longer than you think it needs to be. Per Savage, “The worst thing to have is a playlist that isn’t long enough and you wind up having to repeat songs… Boring! If anything, you want to have the full run time of your playlist to be longer than your expected routine, so that you have more than enough runway to hit your reps, take your breaks, and have a little dance party in between sets.”
For what it’s worth, I always stick some random songs at the end of my spin playlists so there’s still music blaring as people are leaving. It’s disorienting to go from an all-beats assault on your ears to silence and if it happens while you’re in the middle of a workout, you’ll only lose focus by having to pull out your phone and find something new to listen to quickly.