Music Designed for Running

High-intensity, cadence-based music designed specifically for running.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How Does It Work?
• Will It Play In My Player?
• What's So Magical About 180 BPM?
• How Do I Get The Music Onto My Player?

How Does It Work?

Running to a consistent beat helps you maintain an even, regular cadence; this helps efficiency as well as form. Ideally, a runner will run with a cadence of 170 to 185 beats per minute (BPM).

Both ChiRunning and the Pose Method encourage runners to run with a metronome to develop a running cadence of 180 BPM. But who wants to run to a metronome? The rhythm of music is a lot more interesting to listen to.

The problem with most music, however, is that it's way too slow to run to; even fast dance music only clocks in at around 120 BPM, and you need something at least 50 BPM faster than that.

That's where we come in.

All our music is available at 180 BPM, with several songs available in a range of BPMs—from 165 to 185 BPM—to accommodate different runner's cadence and goals. You can read more about the nitty gritty in our Music and Athletic Performance and How It Works articles.

Will It Play In My Player?

Yup. Our songs are plain old (high-quality) MP3 files, which'll play perfectly on iPhone, iPod, Zune and Sony MP3 players, as well as on any other device that stores and plays MP3 files. The files may also play on a dead badger, but only if Linux is configured correctly. In short: our music will play anywhere MP3s play. We hold no proprietary alliances and embrace all digital media players. It's a love thing.

What's So Magical About 180 BPM?

That's a question to ask Jack Daniels—the doctor in exercise physiology, not the brand of sour mash whiskey. In Daniels’ Running Formula (pp. 80-82), Dr. Daniels shared his discovery that the optimal cadence for endurance runners is 180 strides per minute.

Now, that's a pretty fast cadence, and while some are capable of maintaining that turnover, some folks have to work up to it (if they choose). This is why we release many of our songs in a range of BPM to accommodate more runners. (John, the site's founder, runs at 170 BPM, for what it's worth.)

In a nutshell, we're not doctors or exercise kinesiologists—we're just music makers. If you want to read more about cadence, check out some of these articles from Runners' World: "Taking It All In…Stride", "Pick Up the Beat", "Increase Your Stride Rate", "Hold Your Race Pace".

How Do I Get The Music Onto My Player?

Music purchased on HellaSound.com is delivered to you through the browser as a file download. When prompted by your browser, save the file to your computer's desktop, then follow the instructions for loading music for the software you're using.

Here's instructions for iTunes and Zune. So far we haven't seen instructions for the dead Linux badger, but we'll post them when we come across them.