How Music Boosts Athletic Performance — for ESPN The Magazine

I confess that I cannot imagine running a marathon without my running mix on my iPod shuffle. And science actually has my back.

I chatted recently with the guru of music and sports, Costas Karagrorghis for ESPN The Magazine for some more information on just why so many of us are hooked on music to get us through workouts.

He says not only can music make a workout more enjoyable, but if it’s tuned right, it can actually boost performance by 8-12%. “I often refer to music as a legal drug,” he told me.

Read the rest of the story here–or in the 2015 Music Issue of ESPN The Magazine–for tips on how to dial in your tunes for the best performance.

That means a more scientifically crafted play list might have been able to turn my 3:47 2013 New York City Marathon race into a Boston Marathon-qualifying time of 3:35 (but don’t tell the organizers–music is “strongly discouraged”). Well, that and maybe not going out way too fast. But maybe there’s a song for that.