Many joggers consider jogging music to be an essential part of their running routine. There are three main ways to choose the best music for running, jogging, or walking. Joggers can simply listen to their favorite songs, irrelevant of the beat or the cadence. In the alternative, they can listen to songs that match the beats per minute with their running steps per minute. A third option is to listen to songs that were composed specifically for joggers and were designed to match their steps per minute.
Usually, when people listen to jogging music on their runs, they listen to their favorite songs. In order to find the tempo and feel that they want, they may pull select songs off of several soundtracks. These mixes may be an eclectic mix of various kinds of music or they may be a grouping of songs from a single type of music or a specific musician. The benefit of creating a collection of songs from various sources is that the runner will already be familiar with the songs. In most cases, she will only have songs that she enjoys listening to on the playlist.
The detriment of creating a playlist of jogging music is that the beat of the music may not coincide properly with the tempo of the runner’s step. For example, if the jogger is running a fairly quick pace and a slower song begins to play, the jogging music may actually cause the runner to slow down to match the beat of the song. In the alternative, if the song has a faster tempo than the runner’s natural jogging cadence, the runner may speed up. If the runner is not physically prepared to run faster, it could lead to an injury, exhaustion, or overheating.
There are companies, many of them can be found through the Internet, that create music specifically for running. Although some companies simply offer a selection of songs, several companies offer jogging music that is much more detailed. For example, one company has figured out the beat of a large selection of songs. The songs may fit in a variety of genres and each one has the number of beats per minute pre-calculated.
To use jogging music where the steps per minute have been calculated, runners simply calculate how many steps per minute they take during their workout. Then, they look through a list of songs on the website and select the songs that match their pace. For example, a jogger will probably figure out her steps per minute for her warm-up, easy jog, fast jog, a second easy jog, and a cool-down. She will then select songs that match her pace for each segment.
Another form of jogging music that can be found on the Internet is music that was originally composed for runners. The music is created to help joggers keep up a particular pace. For example, one set of music will help a runner finish a 10K race in a specific time. The goal is to run to the beat of the music. Since the music is set at a specific pace, runners who keep up with that pace will finish the race is a specific amount of time.
Although such running music websites may help runners keep a certain pace, there are some downfalls. For example, downloading the music often is not free. There are some days where a runner may want to “take it easy” and in those cases, an entirely new playlist would be necessary. Also, if a runner needs to slow down for some reason, such as crossing a busy street or taking a water break, it may cause the runner to have a slower pace than the music. In addition, if the runner’s steps per minute are calculated incorrectly, injury could occur when she tries to keep pace.