Here are the doc’s suggestions for high-intensity exercising such as cycling:
75 per cent maximum heart rate
Born to be Wild – Steppenwolf
Movin’ Too Fast – Artful Dodger & Romina Johnson
I Feel Good – James Brown
Troika – Prokofiev
85 per cent maximum heart rate:
The Heat Is On – Glenn Frey
Reach – S Club 7
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love – Blues Brothers
William Tell Overture – Rossini
Dr Karageorghis isn’t advocating urban cyclists plug themselves into iPods while pedalling, his research has more to do with music for warm-ups or gym work.
He said: "It’s no secret that music inspires superior performance. Just as the association between a first love and ‘your song’ can be very strong, so is the relationship between music and sporting performance levels."
Pro cyclists are well-known for their warm-up routines done to music. Lance Armstrong motivates himself with the Foo Fighters when warming up on his turbo trainer.
In Cycling Weekly a fortnight ago, much of the issue concerned what to download to your iPod. The magazine recommended trance classic Cafe del Mar by Energy 52 as the perfect track-side warm-up selection as it is lyric free and has tempo variations in tune with warm-up interval bursts.
Rabbit in your headlights from the Psyence Fiction album by UNKLE was recommended as a good warm-down track.
But the magazine could have also included Olympic Cyclist by Scottish band Ballboy.
It’s very mellow and the first verse goes like this:
You did a perfect job last night
You shaved your legs and you washed your bike
And you looked like an Olympic cyclist to me
And in the Athens velodrome
I listened to the crowd roar you home
You were just a blur when you went past me
Spotter: Chris Hill