Forget dope, boost performance by listening to James Brown

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