What is the best way to increase your fitness? Hire a personal trainer? Pay a selection of fitness supplements? Join a high tech health club or gym? Or listen to music while you work out?

The answer ... listen to music.

Music makes you feel less fatigued during exercise

Costas Karageorghis, of Brunel University, who led the study, has discovered that training to music lowers your rate of perceived exertion (or RPE) and can trick the mind into feeling less tired during an exercise session - so the right music for fitness is so important. That means with music exercisers can work that little bit harder - exerting the heart more and burning more calories during each session.

The study observed whether participants felt less fatigued when listening to music during sessions of cardiovascular exercise - running - than they did without with music playing. The answer was yes, music make exercise feel easier.

There is also a suggestion that exercisers try to match the beats per minute in music tracks to the tempo of their exercise; so if the music is high in tempo, then the exerciser will work harder during the session - yet still feel less fatigued then they would at a lower level of exercise without music.

Mobile phones, MP3 players and iPods

Mobile phone companies such as Sony Ericsson are designing phones containing Bluetooth technology so that exercisers  can run wire-free. The Sony Ericsson phone will also contain fitness tools such as a pedometer, stopwatch, calorie counters and running maps.

Nike have also teamed up with Apple to produce the very popular Nike + system that communicates with the iPod to deliver not only music using your iPod but also distance, time and calories being burnt during your run.