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Music

How to make the perfect running playlist, according to science

Here's how to pick your ideal soundtrack for busting a gut

Celine Dion, Richie Sambora and Pheobe Bridgers can soundtrack your run

Images: Alamy / Illustration: Big Issue

The Olympic Games in Paris are here. Humankind’s great ancient festival of exercise will feature many impressive feats of physical prowess, including falling into water, hitting things with sticks and lifting heavy things before putting them down again. But above all things it will feature running. There’ll be short running, long running, medium running, running with added jumping, running where they also throw things. It’ll be a great big running party, all of it on TV. Which means that if you, like me, happen to absolutely hate running, then you may be in for some triggering channel flicking these next few weeks. 

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There comes a time in every grown-up’s life where their metabolism slows down, carefree overconsumption of food, alcohol and perhaps even narcotics catches up, and suddenly before you know it, parting the seas and rising up above you like a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster suddenly towers the Greek god of Consequences. Let’s call him Fatsos. It’s around this time that many adults give up completely on their appearance (tempting), or alternatively, “get into running”. Other forms of exercise are available, but running is the cheapest. 

Some people throw themselves into running with an abandon verging on madness, allowing it to define their entire personality (see the gang of lycra clad fitness freaks filmed on an organised 5K this summer at holy temple of debauchery the Glastonbury Festival – albeit nobly for charity purposes). Others, like me, drag themselves dutifully and privately around the streets before the normal world awakes in the early mornings a couple of times a week, quietly seething at the shortcomings of human biology. The trick to enduring this regular ritual of self-inflicted spiritual and bodily pain, I have found, is to divert my brain as much as possible through a mixture of stimuli both visual (run nice places, with nice views, like the seaside) and aural (stick your ear pods in and try and bathe your mind in lovely distracting sound). 

Podcasts are good, but there’s only so much serious talk that a person can take in the midst of what is already a glum experience (you have to avoid funny podcasts because laughing while running hurts). Music is the runner’s more natural companion, but shuffle play is a Russian roulette that risks compounding your misery. If the tempo of a tune is too high you can burn yourself out trying to keep pace. If the tempo’s too low then whole kilometres can pass slower than an episode of Dan Snow’s History Hit. 

It’s led me to ponder – is there such a thing as the perfect piece of running music? I don’t mean like Vangelis’s theme score from Chariots of Fire or Rocky anthem Eye of the Tiger by Survivor – much as it’s impossible to run along a beach or up some steps without thinking of either of them – but a piece of music that scientifically hits just right, flicking the body’s chemical switches and boosting a runner to glorious, speedy transcendence? Research leads to some interesting revelations. 

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Unsurprisingly there’s loads of evidence to show that music can enhance just about any type of exercise, running included. It elevates your mood by unleashing “feel good” chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, as well as providing motivation, helping with pacing and improving heart rate recovery time – all of which can stimulate greater physical performance. A 2022 study in the Journal of Human Kinetics showed that listening to music during running led to a 10% increase in total distance covered and a 14% increase in speed. Professor Costas Karageorghis, an expert in sport and exercise psychology at Brunel University London, has gone so far as to describe music as “a type of legal performance-enhancing drug”.  

But which music, specifically, is the runner’s most dependable sonic dope? The answer is essentially subjective, because so much of the benefit derives from choosing music that makes you feel best, by unleashing all those good stimulants in your brain. Things like memories, emotions and associations triggered by songs can be just as important as a pumping beat. If My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion was first dance at your wedding, it could be just the thing to push you to a new personal best. If 180 BPM old school gabber transports you to your happy place, gurning-faced at a leisure centre rave in Nottingham circa 1995, then by all means, get Body Hammer by The Speed Freak on. 

Tempo, however, does matter – and it’s not as simple as faster the better. When it comes to BPM (beats per minute) research shows higher tempos help, because the natural inclination is to sync your steps precisely to the beat (which is good if you can manage it because it keeps your steps smooth and even). However, a ceiling effect has been found to occur around 145 BPM, and anything above that may just tire you out. Sorry, gabber fans.  

Studies show a range of 123-131 BPM to be the sweet spot, with room for variation depending on workout intensity and stride length. If you’re a soft rock fan, that might make Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi your perfect running playlist. Swifties looking to get swifter could try Taylor’s New Romantics; hip-hop heads may fancy running to Run The Jewels’ Legend Has It, while indie lovers might achieve a PB to Phoebe Bridgers’ Kyoto. There are free online tools for searching songs by BPM, allowing you to build playlists to your own bespoke tempo and taste. 

Is there any music custom made for running to? Yes lots, but most of it is faceless generic dance gunge for people who don’t actually really like music. More discerning listeners may wish to seek out LCD Soundsystem’s 45-minute-long motorik electronic dance composition 45:33. Commissioned as part of a marketing campaign by Nike in 2006, it was said at the time to have been road-tested and refined by main man James Murphy through vigorous sessions on a treadmill. He later admitted he fabricated this story to squeeze cash out of the sports brand, and he actually doesn’t like running at all (I can relate). Either way it’s a great record, of optimal length and speed for making those hellish but tragically necessary kilometres pass just that little bit easier. 

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