Eminem can help you run a lot more than "8 Mile" as a new study reveals listening to the rapper's hits can boost athletic performance by up to 10 per cent.

A research team from Hartpury University Centre in the UK spent three months monitoring the physiological effects of different music genres on British swimmer Ben Hooper ahead of his 3,200-kilometre swim across the Atlantic in December.

Eminem tracks including Lose Yourself and Without Me were shown to significantly increase both power and endurance during periods of prolonged and intense exercise.

The researchers worked to develop a "soundtrack to success" by monitoring Hooper's output over nearly 25,000 lengths of an indoor swimming pool while he listened to different styles of music.

Eminem's tracks were found to have a "highly motivational edge", improving Hooper's perceived levels of effort. Fatigue also improved.

He also recorded an improvement in his speed of nearly 10 per cent above average while listening to certain songs.

Music from The Script and Swedish House Mafia also proved to be beneficial.

On the flip side, songs by Bob Marley and other reggae artists brought no noticeable improvement in speed and required more effort from Hooper during laps.

Lead researcher Richard Collins, a sports psychologist and a senior lecturer at Hartpury, said lyrics with an emotional resonance were more important to Hooper than both tempo and rhythm combined.

This explains why Survivor's Eye of the Tiger and what Collins calls other "cheesy" songs had no major impact.

Lil' Wayne inspired Phelps' gold medals

University of Southern Queensland Professor Peter Terry wrote for The Conversation last year on the subject of music and its benefits for exercise.

Listening to Bob Marley can be a bit of a downer if you are exercising intensely. ( AFP: Handout )

"[After] Michael Phelps swam to an all-time record of eight Olympic gold medals in 2008, one of his first tasks when arriving home was to personally thank rap artist Lil' Wayne for the inspiration he had provided in Beijing," he said.

Professor Terry said a meta-analysis of more than 100 investigations of music in sport and exercise over the past century confirmed music produced significant benefits on psychological responses, perceived exertion, physical performance and physiological functioning.

"The stimulative and motivational properties of up-tempo music, with lyrics that encourage effort — Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, Britney Spears' Stronger — and associations of glory or success — M People's Search For The Hero, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive — typically help exercisers to work harder for longer by masking the objective level of effort," he said.

"A 2012 study conducted with elite triathletes at the Queensland Academy of Sport showed that treadmill running to exhaustion was increased by a staggering 18 per cent when participants ran in time to music that included everything from Oasis and UB40 to Beyonce and Taylor Swift, compared to completing the same task without music."

Music also has healing powers

Researchers from Brunel University London last year found music could be offered as a way to help patients reduce pain and anxiety during the post-operative period.

They studied 73 trials involving nearly 7,000 patients and reviewed what they showed about the impact of music on common measures for post-operative care.

Results showed patients were "significantly less anxious and more satisfied" after surgery if they had listened to music.

They also needed less pain medication and reported significantly less pain compared with patients who were not played music.

The type of music, patient choice and timing before during or after the surgery did not make much difference.

And it even worked when patients were played music under general anaesthetic.