Beats Per Minute

There's nothing quite as disappointing as getting ready to exercise and your MP3 player won't turn on even though the battery symbol is indicating that there should be enough juice for many songs to play.

There have been several articles published lately to verify that music does help you through your workout and, as long as it's music that you enjoy, the tempo doesn't matter.


Personally, I like up-tempo music when fatigue sets in and I'm trying to get over the workout hump.

Here are the beats per minute for some of my favorite "gut it out" songs.

125 BPM: Billie Jean, Michael Jackson

134 BPM: Easy Lover, Philip Bailey & Phil Collins

130 BPM: Flashlight, Parliament Funkadelic

119 BPM: I'm Every Woman, Chaka Khan

120 BPM: It's A New Day, will.i.am

124 BPM: Miss Me Blind, Culture Club

120 BPM: Now That We Found Love, Heavy D & The Boys

123 BPM: Please Don't Stop The Music, Rihanna

115 BPM: Say, Say, Say, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

145 BPM: Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics

Of course, if the music does stop playing, I exercise unplugged...