Craft a Jogging Playlist for the Mindset and Energy You Need

Some joggers can't even think of hitting the road (or track) without music. This is because music helps us trigger and maintain various mental and physical states that can vault the experience to greater heights.

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As conveyed in the book Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: 10 Proven Ways Your Favorite Music Can Revolutionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness (2012), my co-authors and I discussed many ways to use music and natural sound to relieve anxiety, stress, and insomnia, as well as increase memory, organization, alertness, focus, and happiness. We also became interested in how music could affect athletic performance, such as martial arts and ice dancing, to name a few, and…jogging.

Music is capable, for example, of speeding up or slowing down your brainwaves as well as triggering the release of important neurochemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline, into your bloodstream. Its effects can be understood as electrical and chemical. Songs can stimulate or relax you, depending on which way you want to go—up or down—and help "optimize" your mindset for situationally specific events, like athletics.

Our work in Playlist focused on methods to not only achieve specific desired effects (I want an energy boost, more focus, more calm) but also ramp them up, and, with training (repetition), get your mind to produce the desired effects on its own in targeted situations. Although our work had to do with a lot more than just athletics, for the remainder of this post, I will focus on several ways you can use these elements to build a great jogging playlist for your summer and autumn runs.

Getting Started

• Make a list of your favorite songs that you already know have a lifting or calming effect on you. Pick songs that you like a lot. For example, it doesn’t matter what style of music you use. What's important is that you like the song. If you like classical, try Mozart's Sonata in D Major K448. This one is iconic. Or you may enjoy Chappell Roan’s electro-pop track, "Hot to Go," Village People’s "Y.M.C.A.," or Queen’s "We Are the Champions."
• Organize your tunes into a sequence you feel you may enjoy. For instance, as I am doing my warm-ups, I would like to listen to_____. Or as I am breaking onto the pavement, I want something rowdy and hammering.

Note: On a personal note, an avid marathon runner I know likes to experience part of their run in silence and use their playlists as a reward at certain strategic points in their run.

Amping Up Your Playlist's Horsepower

1. Use BPM. The easiest way to begin organizing a playlist is to use the songs' number of beats per minute (BPM). This is because rhythm and tempo have a direct tie-in to alertness and focus, as well as muscle coordination and movement. A BPM of 130 or greater (as opposed to 100 or lower) has been shown, for example, to increase mental acuity and flow. Faster rhythms can also increase motivation, alertness, and mental flow—all good news for joggers. Relaxation and calm can be brought on by a lower BPM as needed. You can find your favorite song’s BPM by going online to some of the BPM sites, typing in your tune's title, and voilà—e.g. Stray Cats’ "Rock This Town" clocks in at a banging 202 BPM, whereas "Turn Me On" by Norah Jones leans in at a leisurely 56 BPM.

As noted in Your Playlist Can Change Your Life, you may like to try a song with a slow BPM (90 or preferably even less) first and then slam on your faster rhythms.

2. Track songs of 130-160 BPM. Arrange them as you would enjoy hearing them. Or after doing your run a few times, you may discover that you begin to naturally prefer certain songs over others at specific points in your jog—e.g., when you get to the park, when you hit the two-mile point or a particular hill, and so on. Simply revise your playlist to match what you'd like to hear at those points in your run.

3. Anticipate songs (or parts of songs) as they approach. This will work as a reward, boosting important neurochemicals and increasing your feeling of euphoria.

4. Arc your playlist. You can do this by arranging songs so they increase in BPM, getting you into the flow of things and smoothly getting you up to your desired running speed, keeping your steady keel somewhere in the range of 135-160 or whatever is comfortable for your age and skill. You can also alternate BPMs, inserting relaxing BPMs wherever you like in your jog.

You'll know when a song is too slow or fast because you will literally feel it working against you—you'll have trouble synchronizing to the tempo or rhythm. Note: Staying in a fast-paced rhythm and tempo for too long will dry up the faucet, so to speak, and the song will become dysfunctional, so you want to avoid that.

5. Consider the song’s emotional connection. Pick songs that send you the right emotional message to power your run.

6. Use songs that spark good memories. The emotional factor can trump BPM, so don't be worried about mixing in a song with a lower BPM as you arc your playlist. Creating your arc is more about the song's uplifting or relaxing effect on you than it is about sticking to just tempos.

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7. Use slow meditative music for a cool-down at the end of your jog. Aim for 10 to 12 minutes of this as you work through your stretches. Mixing in a little slow movement, tai chi, or yoga at the end can put the frosting on the cake.

So have fun, be flexible in setting up your playlists, use whatever suggestions may work for you, and enjoy.