Getting in Sync! 4 Easy Steps to Creating the Perfect Workout Playlist

By Omar Shamout

It's said that music is a universal language. No matter what part of the world they call home, anyone can connect with a good song. And The New York Times reports that new research has confirmed that music is appreciated not only by our minds, but by our bodies as well. It may sound like common sense, but scientists have proven that music can motivate you not only to work harder during exercise, but also to enjoy it more. You achieve the best results during a workout when your target heart rate in beats per minute (BPM) matches a song's tempo (also measured in BPMs), making the music feel like a natural, organic extension of you.

Figuring out new ways to liven up your exercise time is a smart and fun way to stay motivated. It's easy to create a playlist fairly quickly that has a sustained tempo that matches the pace of your run, bike ride, or preferred form of cardio. Let's break down the necessary steps for creating a music playlist that's individually tailored to your body, heart rate, and level of intensity.

1. Identify your workout goals. Before calculating your target heart rate, you first have to establish what you're trying to accomplish with your workout. For instance, people who are only interested in losing weight will have a different target heart rate than athletes looking to train for a 10K or triathlon, and their recommended durations at these rates will also differ. Beachbody^® advises you to consult with your physician before beginning any exercise program to help you figure out what the best approach to exercise will be for you and your specific needs.
2. Find your "zone." If burning fat is your goal, you'll want to spend the longest duration of your workout in the "Temperate Zone," or 60 percent to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Thirty minutes of cardio at this level three times a week combined with a heart-healthy diet should have you shedding the pounds in no time. If you're just starting out, this is a fantastic goal to set for yourself. On your off days, try a low-intensity walk for 20 to 30 minutes to keep up your activity level. If you have better endurance and more experience working out, you'll benefit from spending more time in the "Aerobic Zone," or 70 percent to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate, during which your lung capacity and blood vessels expand, before you move into the "Anaerobic Zone," or 80 percent to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, where your muscles learn to work with less oxygen and you really build your stamina.
3. Calculate your target heart rate. The American Heart Association provides this chart of age-specific target heart rates, or the zone in which our bodies are most geared toward burning fat:

   Age	Target HR Zone 50–85%	Average Maximum HR 100%
   20 years	100–170 beats per minute	200 beats per minute
   25 years	98–166 beats per minute	195 beats per minute
   30 years	95–162 beats per minute	190 beats per minute
   35 years	93–157 beats per minute	185 beats per minute
   40 years	90–153 beats per minute	180 beats per minute
   45 years	88–149 beats per minute	175 beats per minute
   50 years	85–145 beats per minute	170 beats per minute
   55 years	83–140 beats per minute	165 beats per minute
   60 years	80–136 beats per minute	160 beats per minute
   65 years	78–132 beats per minute	155 beats per minute
   70 years	75–128 beats per minute	150 beats per minute

   Now that you know what you're aiming for, try using a heart rate monitor to get a truly accurate readout of your heart's BPM. You could do it the old-fashioned way by feeling your pulse for 10 seconds, then multiplying it by 6, but we all know how awkward that is to pull off in the middle of a workout. Plus, one less reason to do math in your head is always welcome, right?

4. Calculate the BPM of your music.

   iTunes^®

   In its endless wisdom, Apple^® has conveniently added a BPM tag to the description of each song in your library. You can access this feature by highlighting the chosen song and either right-clicking it to access the "Get Info" option on the menu bar that appears, or finding "Get Info" on the "File" pull-down menu at the top left of the screen. Once you're in the "Get Info" pop-up window, select the "Info" tab. Here, you'll find all available details about the song, including BPM. If that sounds far too easy and convenient to be true, well, it is. Most digital music files contain no BPM information at all, and if they do, it's probably inaccurate. You'll probably need to download one of the following applications:

   BeatScanner

   Windows^® XP and Vista users should try downloading this free application, which will automatically analyze all the music in your library to detect the BPM. What's more, BeatScanner is specifically designed for the exercise enthusiast, and will change the pace of any song you select (without altering the pitch or quality) to your desired BPM, so that you can export it as a new MP3 file, and walk, jog, run, or bike at your preferred speed, and still listen to your favorite tracks! How cool is that? But wait, there's more. Creating a playlist with BeatScanner is very easy, and it also allows you to insert your own interval cues at desired points in the playlist so that you'll know when to step it up a gear, or slow it down a notch. Pretty soon, you'll start to wonder how you lived without it!

   Tangerine!

   Mac^® users are advised to try Tangerine!, which is a program similar to BeatScanner, but is much more integrated with iTunes itself. The only catch here is that Tangerine! costs $24.95 to download. Because Tangerine! is synced with your iTunes, it will automatically analyze your entire library, as well as any new music you add to it, in a matter of minutes. The playlist creation feature is also very convenient, and allows you to organize songs according to your desired BPM range. However, it doesn't allow you to alter the pace of songs the way BeatScanner does. Luckily, there's a 15-day free trial option that should give you enough time to decide if it's worth the money.

If you'd would like to recommend other BPM-analyzing programs for either PC or Mac, please feel free to share in the comments below!

There's no reason at all for a workout to be boring, and we strive to give you new and interesting ways to stay focused and committed to the idea of fitness, and to provide you with all the tools and information you need to enact them in your own life. So take advantage of the available technology available and create a personal power mix for your iPod^® that'll keep your workout in high gear!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Beachbody programs like TurboFire^® and Hip Hop Abs^® have all their music tracks mixed so you get the maximum BPM benefits.

The Birth of Shakeology®

By Darin Olien, The Ingredient Hunter

Sometime in the middle of 2006, I was well into traveling, hunting, and discovering many plants, nuts, fruits, and other superfoods around the planet. I was heading to the source and meeting the people in the fields, rainforests, and mountaintops of places like Peru, Costa Rica, Bhutan, Australia, Tahiti, and places in between-drawn by an insatiable curiosity of what is out there. The places I have been are some of the most abundant and ecologically diverse places in the world and home to an amazing display of vibrant, health-filled plants. With the herbal discoveries I was making, I was passionately formulating many concoctions—testing, eating, experimenting, importing these miracles of earth. I fueled myself as well as friends and some extreme athletes and celebrity peeps.

One day in 2006, I got a call from my Argentine friend, Miguel, who had met a woman at our local vitamin shop who was doing some similar things on the nutrition front. I met and had an amazing, synchronistic conversation with the vibrant and brilliant Isabelle Daikeler! We had very similar points of view and many synergies on nutrition, wellness, and life, really. It is rare that I find someone who is living, demonstrating, and traveling on a path of true commitment to vibrant living like Isabelle is. She told me she had heard of and even tried some of my formulas and thought there might be an opportunity for me to work with her husband's company. A week or so later, I was back at their home, out by the pool, and met Carl Daikeler for the first time.

Carl, too, was very open, caring, and willing to share where he was coming from. He shared with me his vision of the company, where they are now and where he really would like to go and his desire to impact the lives of millions of people and crank up the company's nutritional division! He said he was thinking about a meal replacement called "The Healthiest Meal of the Day." He says to me, "I know you have formulated these other things but could you take us in this direction and formulate a top-notch, incredibly nutritious, yummy meal replacement?" The first thought was: Of course I could do that, it’s what I love to do! You see, I have so many ideas in my head for developing avant-garde formulas and using exotic ingredients that of course I want to get them out there to people, millions of people. And here is this guy, giving me an opportunity to do my thing—to take the ball and run with this vision—well, I am in! And I know without a doubt nothing would have happened if it hadn't been for Isabelle trailblazing her knowledge and understanding to Carl, slowly downloading him information about this world of Super-Functional nutrition! And she was such a blessing and hugely instrumental for me then and now, even being able to have this groundbreaking opportunity by the ground she forged with the company well before I arrived. And I have to tell ya, the thing that sealed the deal for me was who Carl and Isabelle were as people, the caring they had and the large vision, rooted in creating a rewarding impact for millions of people.

I have never set out to work for a big company or a corporation or other people, for that matter. I have always been an entrepreneur, doing my own thing . . . traveling around, formulating, discovering, adventuring, answering to no one . . . doing exactly what I wanted to do. So, to even consider working with a big company was a big deal for me . . . probably because I am a control freak and didn't want to have to compromise or cut corners like so many companies end up doing. I have had my experiences with other very large nutrition companies saying they wanted the latest and the greatest, and when it came down to it they were not really willing to do what it takes, not willing to take the risk of giving the customer something extraordinary without cutting corners. That is gonna be a deal breaker for me because I don't cut corners so I naturally turned away from them and continued to do my own thing. It always came down to $$, margins, and their lack of vision from my point of view. It's like when Ferrari made their car . . . they put the very best parts in it and said, "We are not skimping on quality and if people want the best they will pay for it," so they did it! Well, I knew I wasn't gonna skimp and Carl proved he wasn't gonna either, so we were able to put the Ferrari of shakes together in Shakeology®. Now, Carl knows better than me, but I remember the tension in those meetings at Beachbody when I told them how much it would cost to put something like this together and there were more than a few business dudes in that room who thought I was nuts and it probably couldn't and wouldn't work! Well, the big boss man, Carl, always pulled through and saw it and believed in it even when others didn't . . . he knew we had to do it no matter what it takes, even if it was more expensive than the average swag product on market. All of that and the invitation from Carl and Isabelle made the difference for me. And from my point of view, Carl basically said in the beginning, "I trust you can do this, so go do your thing!" He supported me in being me and gave me the freedom to create what is best for the product and people. So we had a deal, and with a smile and a handshake we started rollin'!

How do I put a formula—this formula—together? I first had to start from scratch, a clean slate! I didn't want to start with a point of view of something or someone else's ideas. My first question was . . . what is "Shakeology"? (Of course, we were not calling it that at the time. Carl came up with that brilliant name later.) When Carl asked me to create "The Healthiest Meal of the Day," I was beyond stoked! Because I have seen, smelled, tasted, discovered, and experienced some very amazing superfoods in my life and in my travels, the opportunity to start getting that potency and vibrant nutrition into as many BODIES as possible was and is exciting. And given where some of the plants are from and how they are grown, there is no way most people would be able to experience these superfoods otherwise.

It can be quite a daunting task to formulate something that is for everybody when every body is different! However, there are things that are universal when you start to look at what is missing in most people's diets in our society today. That is where I started to formulate from—by filling in the gaps of what people's bodies require, what the typical Beachbody customer's body requires. I asked myself, what are the nutrients that are not being delivered in "normal" eating conditions today? In addition, one of the biggest keys was using ingredients that are as close to their natural, whole-food state as possible. And last, I know firsthand that it doesn't matter how good it is nutritionally if it doesn't taste good. If it's not convenient and good-tasting, it will not work and no one is going to consume it. But, I knew it was possible to make it taste good . . . it hadn't been done before, but I knew I could do it while not making the fatal mistakes others make, like cutting corners and using synthetic, artificial sweeteners and lower-quality ingredients . . . not this one, not a chance! With all those potent herbs, grasses, and exotics in there . . . whew, it took some time but we pulled it off! Hats off to all the guys in the lab . . . we spent many hours, days, and months playing with the formula and ingredients to get it to not only deliver super nutrition but to taste delicious!

It is an exciting thing because even though there are thousands upon thousands of supplements, foods, herbs, and perceived miracles out there, there are so very few that are any good. One of my philosophies when I put formulas together (and, really, how I approach all of life) is to treat others as if they already KNOW even if they don't know! So, even if they don't know cognitively on some level their body does! Meaning, I put the best product together I can at the time with the highest-quality ingredients, testing, sourcing, using sustainable means, period. The selling will come from that integrity, quality, and nurturing we put into the entire process and product. People know when they are being told the truth or a lie. Long story short, that golden rule thing is something that naturally comes out in what I do and formulate . . . because for me, that's what I would want in a supplement, myself. Have I told you that I am selfish? I don't do anything I don't want to do especially when it comes to quality eating and supplementation. My friends certainly know this! I think of myself when putting together supplements and I only put the things in that I would myself consume. I have never understood why people would do things or promote things that they do not do or believe in themselves. So, of all formulas I produce, foods I consume, recommendations I give, chances are I have lived it and am living it! I certainly did with Shakeology. (And, by the way, I drink it every day!)

Supercharge Your Cardio: 4 Simple Ways to Boost Your Intervals

By Ben Kallen

Interval training is the hottest thing in cardio these days, for good reasons. The fitness and fat-loss results you can get are more impressive than those you get doing "steady-state" cardio (in which you move at an unchanging pace), and your workouts can be shorter, too. That's because intervals let you exercise at a higher intensity than you could just about any other way. Interval training is also a lot easier to learn and do than many people think. Keep reading to see how you can supercharge your cardio and your results!

All it requires is alternating periods of moderate activity with bursts of all-out exertion during the same exercise session. And since those higher-intensity sprints are relatively brief, you may hardly even notice the extra effort.

The benefits: faster weight loss, more endurance, better health

Interval workouts allow you to conquer what's known as the "stress adaptation response." When you keep exercising at the same level of exertion, your body quickly gets used to the effort, so it doesn't improve as much. That's why many aerobics plans don't give you the weight loss results and performance gains you want.

But when you add in short periods of high-intensity exercise—during which your heart rate is raised closer to its maximum capacity—your body is forced to use new muscle fibers, which continue burning extra fuel even during lower-intensity exercise. And interval workouts allow you to spend more time on these exercise peaks than you could if you tried to go all out without rest periods. As a result, you'll experience faster increases in cardio fitness, more efficient burning of carbohydrates and fat, and possibly a greater natural release of the human growth hormone.

Over the past few years, researchers have demonstrated a wide range of fitness and health effects from interval training:

• More weight loss. A 2007 study conducted at the University of New South Wales in Australia found that overweight women who rode exercise bikes for 40 minutes three times a week lost three times as much weight—mostly in their legs and buttocks—if they alternated intervals of light- and high-intensity cycling than if they rode at a steady pace the entire time.
• Faster fat-burning. In a 2007 Canadian university study also published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, volunteers who did interval training on exercise bikes burned 36 percent more fat than others when they cycled at a moderate pace afterward.
• More stamina. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that after just 2 weeks of interval training, six out of eight moderately fit young men and women doubled the amount of time they could ride a bicycle before getting too tired to continue. Volunteers who didn't do interval training showed no improvement.
• Healthier metabolism. When adults with metabolic syndrome, a condition that can lead to diabetes, were tested at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, those who did interval workouts on a treadmill improved their blood sugar and insulin response by a higher amount than those who exercised at a steady, moderate pace. They also raised their "good" cholesterol levels by 25 percent, while the other group didn't raise theirs at all.
• Better heart health. In a 2007 study published in the journal Circulation, heart-failure patients who did interval training three times a week for 12 weeks improved their aerobic capacity, artery function, and quality of life better than those who did moderate, continuous training.

Intervals made easy

Here are four simple ways to boost your fitness and fat burning with intervals.

1. Take a HIIT. High-intensity interval training is a long name for a simple formula. If you like to use a treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical machine as part of your overall fitness program, this method will improve your results and make the ride less boring. Here's all you have to do: Following a 5-minute warm-up, alternate 2-minute periods of medium-intensity movement (at about half your maximum ability) with 30 seconds at the highest possible intensity, in which you're going all out and breathing hard. Do this for about six cycles—the whole workout should only take around 20 minutes. (If you're using a heart rate monitor, you'll see that you'll be at about 80 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate.) As with every exercise, stop if you feel any pain or discomfort.
2. Turn your recreation into an interval workout. Whenever you're out hiking, running, or bicycling for fun, change things up by incorporating a few high-intensity intervals. From time to time, go as fast as you possibly can for 30 to 45 seconds. Then return to your normal pace. When you've recovered for least a few minutes, and don't feel winded anymore, do another sprint. Throw in a few of these intervals every time you go out, and you'll increase your cardio fitness and burn more calories, too.
3. Up your effort. Most Beachbody® workout programs alternate periods of high intensity with periods of recovery—meaning they have intervals built right in, which is one of the reasons they work so well and yield quick results. (So you really don't have to know the science—just follow your DVD's instructions.) But if you want the best results possible, push as hard as you can during those periods of high-intensity cardio. Move a little faster and jump a little higher, to the point where you're breathing hard. But don't overdo it during the recovery periods. You'll need these slower times to let your body recuperate.
4. Take it to the MAX. Shaun T's new INSANITY™ workout program takes traditional interval training and reverses it. Instead of going all out for a short period of high-intensity movement and then hanging back for a longer recovery period, MAX Interval Training has you work like crazy for long phases, with brief rest times in between. The upshot is that you can achieve incredible fitness gains is just 2 months. But there's a reason this twist on intervals is the exception rather than the rule—you have to be in good shape to begin with, and even then, you need to be willing to work much harder than with regular intervals. But if you can handle it, you'll probably end up fitter than you've ever been before.

Shakeology®: The Workouts

The Workouts

This set of 2 DVDs contains a 30-minute workout sequence and a 50-minute workout sequence. While you're first starting out, we recommend you do the 30-minute workout three times a week. Then rotate in the 50-minute workout once a week. Go at your own pace, but kick it up a notch as soon as you're ready to, and don't be afraid to push yourself. Soon, you'll notice more muscle tone and fewer food cravings. Before you know it, you'll have enough strength and energy to tackle The 50 three times a week. The Workouts