Sunday, July 17, 2011

Is there a Treadmill Tempo for City of North Vancouver Rec Centre?

As a novice exerciser, it turns out that I'm not the only one on the North Shore (of Vancouver) that wears ear phones, or ear buds, to jog me along on my stationary bicycle for a half hour and then the Treadmill for another half hour, to forty-five minutes....... altogether.   There are Hazards to listening devices, .....from Wikipedia, of course, but it sure beats watching the paint dry on the walls or the crane which has landed inside the courtyard to scoop up the gold fish from the pond, or the Big mechanical cranes working over top of the new School Office building across Lonsdale.

Basic Facts:

Wikipedia definition of Tempo:  The tempo of a piece of music will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and in modern music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM).

Wikipedia definition of Beats Per Minutes: Beats per minute (BPM) is a unit typically used as a measure of tempo in music. The BPM tempo of a piece of music is conventionally shown in its score as a metronome mark

Wikipedia definition of Heart Beats per minute (BPM) Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, typically expressed as beats per minute


Most of the machines at Harry Jerome Rec Centre record the Heart's BPM (Beats Per Minute), but what good is that info?  There's this website, TreadMill Music, where the author has refined the information by linking his data, Tempo of the music...... via metronome to the treadmill, or other such exercise equipment.

Everyone knows that exercise, particularly jogging, is boring, but necessary. What about using music as a motivator?


I've taken his data and copied it onto my computer, via an Excel file, then sorted it into Artist, Title, Tempo, and then, for good measure, added in two more column categories of Walking and Cooling Down..... coloured coded the last two too, so that I can see where the music is .......when I sort via the various Artists.

Curiously, I have very few of my favourite pieces that I currently use that are the same as TreadMill Music.  Ah well, his are just a start of my collection, perhaps yours too?

Chicago's The Hot Honey Rag (Fosse),
Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing"   
Take My Breath Away
Lead Me On
Playing with the Boys
Stuff Like That There
Hot Summer Night
Through the Fire
Destination Unknown



Walking tempo   105 to 130 BPM

Jogger/Running   140 to 170 BPM

128 to 139 too fast for Walking, too slow for Running


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