Listening to music while you work out has been an activity many have come to enjoy. Not only does it make working out more fun, but also has a positive effect on workout regimes since many studies have proven that people work harder when listening to upbeat music, as well as helping keep pace while running or bicycling. While working out, it is best to listen to songs that mirror your heart rate to keep a healthy pace, which ranges from 150 to 180 BPM (beats per measure). This is extremely important because it encourages you to keep a constant pace and not slow down.

Spotify is one of my most used applications, and I was curious to see if their workout playlists are the best option to listen to or if I should try to create one on my own. Spotify has a lot of different kinds of workout playlists as well, ranging from playlists tailored for listening to while weight-training, to ones with a specific BPM. I chose Spotify’s two most popular workout playlists to review: Beast Mode and HIIT Workout.

Beast Mode has close to 3 million followers, so I was really excited to try it out since so many people enjoy listening to it. From a scientific point of view, this playlist has an average of 130 BPM, which is perfect for more difficult and fast-paced workouts. The songs in this playlist mostly consisted of rap, R&B, and hip-hop in general, and I thought that the selection was great since the songs were all upbeat and had a quicker pace, which motivated me to work harder. This playlist was true to its name – it is perfect to listen to when you are in beast mode.

https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX76Wlfdnj7AP

HIIT Workout also has a significant number of followers, almost 2 million. This playlist has an average BPM of 120, and I noticed the songs in this playlist varied quite a bit pace-wise. They ranged from slow, melodic tunes to faster-paced ones. The playlist mostly consisted of pop songs, and although I enjoyed the songs, the pace was a deal-breaker. The varying of the pace made this playlist extremely difficult to workout to, especially if you are doing something that particularly requires keeping pace, like bicycling or running. Overall, I would say that this playlist is great to listen to while doing a variety of sports-related things, due to the variation of music.

https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX35oM5SPECmN

Overall, I would say that Spotify has some pretty great workout playlists, and judging by the 25 million playlists, there is definitely something out there for everyone. I would say that Beast Mode was my favorite playlist out of the two, only because it had more consistency than HIIT Workout. Regardless, I’ll be listening to both of these playlists the next time I workout.