By Lynn VanDyke
Master Trainer and Fitness Nutritionist

Starting an exercise program is hard enough, isn’t it? No matter what you seem to do or how much you plan, it’s never as easy as it looks. However, there are plenty of ways to help make your exercise time fly. One of the most popular ways to help your workout is to add a little music to your exercise plans. Here’s what you need to know.

Why add music to your routine?

A lot of people will say that they like the quiet time of exercise, listening to their breathing, and checking their workout times. If you are not one of these folks then you need something to help make working out easier and more fun – like music.

Music helps you take your mind off of how hard your workout might be. For example, when you’re off running or lifting weights, music can help you forget about the things that you are thinking about and focus on your favorite songs. This subtle distraction can allow you to focus on working out hard and strong.

When you add music to your workout routine, you can create a soundtrack for your success. Add your favorite inspirational music – think "Chariots of Fire" or the "Rocky" theme – to make you push just a little harder and make it to the end of your workout routine. Whatever music makes you feel strong and powerful, add that to your workout rotation.

How do you add music to your workout?

Before you can add music to your workout, you will want to realize that some preparation time is necessary. What you’ll want to do is create compilations (mixes) of your favorite songs beforehand. For those of you that have digital music players, this is quite simple. All you need to do is create a play list by adding your favorite songs to a folder, burning them to CD, or playing them on your player.

What about the tempo of my music?

One of the things that you will want to keep in mind when you’re working out is how fast your music is. While you want something that’s faster in pace, you don’t want to choose anything that’s so fast that you can’t keep up or you’ll over-exert yourself. Some techno music can be a little too fast for light cardio workouts or strength training.

On the other hand you’ll want to make sure that you’re not including songs that are too slow either. Generally speaking, you will want to start with slower music for your warm up and stretching, then slowly build up the tempo of your music and then bring it back down again for the cool down.

This sounds too difficult

While this does sound time consuming, you can also find recommendations on many fitness sites and in magazines. These lists are already created to help you maintain a certain fitness pace, so they can be very effective. Or you might want to choose musical CDs and tapes that are specifically designed for working out at a certain pace – such as 80 bpm (beats per minute).

Music is the soundtrack to our lives; why not include it as the soundtrack for your workout? When you choose inspiring and fast-paced music, it can actually help you work out longer and harder – give it a try! Select songs that inspire and motivate you!