Find the Right Music to Pump Up Your Workout

There are two exercise camps. The first is made up of people who take a Zen-like approach to working out, preferring to be left alone with their thoughts while pumping iron or hauling it on the treadmill. The second is for those who rely on steady beats of their favorite song to pull them through that last rep or mile. If you're a thoughtful exerciser, more power to you, but new research shows that jamming out while you're working out can actually increase your endurance.

Researchers found that syncing music tempo with your exercise pace can actually increase your work out efficiency. Running on a treadmill to a song that matches your cadence can result in a 10 percent reduction in perceived effort, which allows you to work out longer, reports LiveScience.

Additionally, a study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found that running in time with a song that had 125 beats per minute (bpm) helped increase endurance by 15 percent.

"The synchronous application of music resulted in much higher endurance while the motivational qualities of the music impacted significantly on the interpretation of fatigue symptoms right up to the point of voluntary exhaustion," says study author Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist at Britain's Brunel University who has been studying music's effects on the human body for the past two decades.

Karageorghis also found that a person's preference for a song with a particular bpm varies depending on heart rate. For example, if you're working out between 30 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, you may prefer listening to a song with 90 to 120 bpm ("Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, 119 bpm). However, if you reach what's known as your anaerobic threshold at about 70 to 80 percent maximum, the preferred tempo rises from 120 to 150 bpm ("Bleed It Out" by Linkin Park, 140 bpm).

Whether or not a song can motivate you doesn't just depend on its tempo. Its musicality and whether you like a particular genre certainly comes into play. Whether you're a Rock God or Pop Goddess, try sorting out your list of favorite workout songs and then downloading Tangerine, a program that helps you create exercise playlists by analyzing the bpm and beat intensity of your own music. If you're wary of downloads, visit JogTunes.com, a Web site that allows you to search music by bpm, genre and artist.

Try pumping up the volume to get your workout in gear.