What's the Best Tempo for a Workout Song?

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Music boosts motivation and increases happiness when people are working out better than any other predictable factor. But what musical tempo is best for keeping people psyched up while working out?

Everyone is inspired by slightly different bangers, bops, or nostalgic anthems when exercising. Personalized workout playlists of self-selected favorites are always going to be unique. Often, the era when someone went through adolescence influences their musical preferences across a lifespan.

Regardless of each individual's musical preferences or generation, the tempo and beats per minute (BPM) of workout songs can universally impact how most people feel physically and psychologically when doing cardio (i.e., aerobic exercise).

120-140 BPM Is a Sweet Spot When Doing Cardio

For example, an April 2024 study found that the combination of listening to music in the 120-140 BPM tempo range combined with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise improved people's moods and made their cardio experience more enjoyable and less of a sufferfest.

Another recent study (Jones et al., 2024) revisits decades of research on the interplay between musical tempo, exercise intensity, and people's state of mind when doing easy-, moderate-, or high-intensity aerobic exercise. This study also introduced new research methods designed to isolate the optimal tempo for workout songs in different settings.

In general, the researchers found that fast, uptempo songs tend to increase motivation and make arduous workouts seem less strenuous. Again, the sweet spot was between 120 and 140 BPM or roughly 130 BPM for familiar songs with lyrics. However, the researchers found that the most motivational tempo was about 10 beats faster, or 130-150 BPM, when a song was unfamiliar and didn't have lyrics.

Unfamiliar, Non-Lyrical Workout Songs Should Be ∼10 BPM Faster

"[Our] present findings have implications for the use of unfamiliar, non-lyrical music during exercise. Specifically, that such music should be ∼10 BPM faster than familiar, lyrical music," Jones et al. write. For example, someone teaching a spin class would want to make the playlist slightly more uptempo to motivate and inspire the broadest swath of people who might be hearing a workout song for the first time.

"So, when unfamiliar music is used for an exercise task, perhaps in the context of an exercise class that attracts intergenerational participants, fast-tempo music is likely to engender the most positive responses," the authors explain. "When music is unfamiliar and devoid of lyrics, it is generally fast, and very fast tempi that are suitable across a broad range of exercise intensities."

One limitation of this research is that study participants were mostly in their 20s (millennials and Gen Z); it didn't include any boomers or Gen X-ers. The researchers acknowledge that more research is needed to identify how people in midlife or older age respond to fast and very fast-tempo songs while exercising.

"The data were collected using young adult participants, and so the relationship when middle-aged or older adults are tested is presently unknown. This should be a focus of future research," the authors conclude.

How Music Tempo Affects One Gen X-er's Exercise Experience

As a Gen X-er born in the mid-1960s and now almost 60, my experience as an exercise enthusiast who pays attention to each song's tempo when doing cardio may help fill in some of the present study's research gaps.

When I started running in June 1983, pop music from that era cultivated my lifelong passion for doing cardio to motivational playlists. To this day, every June, I'm reminded of how the music from that summer never fails to motivate and inspire me to stay physically active as I get older.

Because I still love working out to music from the summer of '83, after reading the latest (2024) study by Jones et al., I was curious to identify any tempo-related patterns associated with songs from the early 1980s that I still find motivational during daily cardio sessions over 40 years later.

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To illustrate how songs of many different tempos can be inspirational when working out, below is a Top 10 list of my favorite workout songs from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week of June 11, 1983, and their BPMs:

• I'm Still Standing —Elton John (177 BPM)
• Rio —Duran Duran (142 BPM)
• Overkill —Men at Work (139 BPM)
• Little Red Corvette —Prince (123 BPM)
• Flashdance...What a Feeling —Irene Cara (122 BPM)
• Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' —Michael Jackson (122 BPM)
• Our House —Madness (122 BPM)
• Stand Back —Stevie Nicks (116 BPM)
• Straight From the Heart —Bryan Adams (85 BPM)
• Faithfully —Journey (65 BPM)

Statistically, the median tempo for these 10 songs is 121.3 BPMs. On average, they're slower than Spotify's current "Top Workout Music Mixes" (128–135 BPM), averaging 131.5 BPMs. Generationally, older adults who grew up listening to pop music from the '60s, '70s, and '80s may prefer workout songs with a slightly slower tempo than what younger generations gravitate towards.

Notably, the really slow-tempo outlier songs on this Hot 100 list (e.g., "Faithfully" and "Straight From the Heart") from 1983 are power ballads with lyrics that strike a deep nostalgic chord in me, as someone who grew up hearing these on the radio in high school. The "reminiscence bump" associated with music from one's teenage years has lifelong potency for every generation.

Each of us is motivated by different lyrics. If a song's lyrical content triggers raw emotions or visceral reminiscence, a slow "adagio" tempo doesn't matter; it can still give you the same motivational rush as a super fast "vivacissimo" banger.

"The lyrical component of music can offer a welcome distraction, leading to higher levels of dissociation during exercise," Jones et al. explain. "Moreover, lyrics can provide affirmations (e.g., "you're simply the best," a 'hook' into the music ("I like to move it, move it"), or a verbal prompt to keep going (e.g., "keep on running").

Anecdotally, I've found that even if a song doesn't provide literal words of encouragement (e.g., "take your passion and make it happen"), any rousing or heartfelt message can be inspirational when doing cardio regardless of a song's tempo—if its lyrics resonate with you on a gut level, for whatever reason.

Take-Home Message

Research suggests that the best tempo for workout songs is 120-140 BPM. However, the optimal tempo for each individual may vary depending on generational factors and a song's familiarity or lyrical content. In general, unfamiliar non-lyrical music needs to be about 10 BPMs faster.