Please don’t stop the music

Eminem was right when he said that we lose ourselves in the music. Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist from Brunel University London, says that plugging in while jogging can make you feel like you’re exerting up to 12 percent less effort than you actually are. (It’s thought that music stimulates the pleasure areas of the brain.) If you sync your stride with your playlist, you might run even faster. One step = one beat. The average runner takes 140 to 175 steps per minute, so look for songs with the same beats per minute (BPM).

The DIY way Google a song title with “BPM” and the BPM should appear in the search results. Pick tracks with a BPM of 140 to 175 and—voila!—you’ve made your playlist. (Note: If slow jams with a BPM of 70 to 85 get you going, time your steps to hit half-beats.)

slacker- STYLE Music-streaming service Spotify recently introduced a running stream that detects your pace and picks music that matches your tempo. Saving up for a new pair of running kicks? Try Podrunner, the similar-but-free version.