Music: Essential requirement for anything as boring as a workout. Also, lots of manual labor. But even doing construction is interesting enough without tunes, whereas exercise is so dull you couldn’t convince a butter knife that it wasn’t.
I’ve been scouring my MP3 collection, looking for nice, thumpy, fast-paced songs to drive such necessary times in my life and have assembled a list that I think will work for now, but hey — I’m always up for suggestions. My requirements are pretty strict — has to be catchy, mindless, and a solid beat. But the biggest requirement is the tempo; there’s a lot of great songs out there that aren’t fast-paced enough. That’s why Black Eyed Peas’ I’ve Got a Feeling doesn’t make the cut — while thumpy and catchy, it’s too slow for a good motivational pace. Remember — we’re trying to get my ass MOVING.
Here’s the list I’ve assembled so far:
ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me
ABBA – Mamma Mia
Adam Lambert – Whataya Want From Me
Bowling for Soup – Girl All the Bad Guys Want
Bowling for Soup – High School Never Ends
C & C Music Factory – Everybody Dance Now
Chumbawamba – Amnesia
Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
Crystal Method – Bloodbath Dance
Daft Punk – Da Funk
Daft Punk – Harder Better Faster Stronger
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
Disturbed – The Game
Enigma – Matrix Theme
Fallout Boy – Dance Dance
Fallout Boy – Sophomore Slump
Green Day – Basket Case
Green Day – Burnout
Green Day – Emenius Sleepus
Green Day – In The End
Green Day – Warning
House of Pain – Jump Around
Jason Derulo – In My Head
Jay Z feat Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
Jock Jams – 1,2,3,4 (Sumpin’ New)
Jock Jams – Boom Boom Boom
Jock Jams – Cheerleading Competition Dance
Jock Jams – Gonna Make You Sweat
Jock Jams – I Like to Move It
Journey – Eye of the Tiger
Ke$ha – Blah Blah Blah
Ke$ha – TiK ToK
Kelly Clarkson – Since Youve Been Gone
Kris Kross – Jump
La Roux – Bulletproof
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Lady Gaga – Telephone
Limp Bizkit – Rollin
Madonna – 4 Minutes
Madonna – Ray Of Light
Madonna – Revolver
Matrix – Can You Feel It
Michael Jackson – Beat It
Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
Nickelback – Animals
Offspring – Keep Em Separated
Offspring – She’s Got Issues
Orianthi – According To You
R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World As We Know It and I Feel Fine
R.E.M. – Orange Crush
R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People
Rammstein – Du Hast
Real McCoy – Another Night
Real McCoy – Run Away
Rhianna – Pon de Replay
Rihanna – Hard
Rihanna – Russian Roulette
Snow Patrol – Hands Open
Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
The Killers – Somebody Told Me (Mylo Remix)
Tom Cochrane – Life Is A Highway
Train – Hey Soul Sister
Vengaboys – Boom Boom Boom
Vengaboys – Kiss
Vengaboys – Up and Down
Vengaboys – We Like To Party
What do you think? Got any good suggestions for ones that I’ve missed?
P.S. — Yes, I know some of this is really old-school, clicheish, or simply mind-numbingly dumb. SUCK IT. This is for sweating purposes, not an artistic expression.
There are currently 8 responses to “Workout Playlists: That Which Drives”
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Totally not a dumb topic. Very important to have a kick-it song list. Yes, workouts are very boring. I almost never do them. Instead, I recommend non-workout activity. (Perhaps this could be its own Philosophia commentary.) For instance, I like to walk/bike to work or go walking in the evenings; I like to jog a pace at which I’m still able to breathe (& talk if I have to); swimming is a nice stretch for the limbs & the lungs. Sports are fun, too, of course, but often require other participants, which may be difficult to acquire. Sounds like your bike riding might qualify as a non-workout activity. Any other possibilities?
As for songs, I recommend some by Cowboy Mouth–in particular “Get Out of My Way”. Very pertinent. I also like “Bad Romance” by Lady GaGa (she IS a creative woman!). A good “oldie” is “Rythmn Nation” by Janet Jackson. Hmm, I’ll have to check my half-finished pump-up playlist to think of others.
Erin
You’ve got some good ones! I even stole a couple as I’m going to be adding to the I-Pod this weekend. I would add a few Rhianna ones to it “Shut Up & Drive” along with “Disturbia” Also, Lady Antebelum “I Run To You”. They all have great beats. I have several others I would add, but most are country and I know how you feel about country, so….if you want them I’d be happy to share with you. They usually have a really good running beat, but very upbeat none-the-less!
Oh, I love “Lay all your love on me.”
When I used to walk to work (20 mins) it was often to the Killers, so good choice there. Do you know Scissor Sisters? I have “She’s My Man” on my gym playlist. The Canadian band Mobile – “Out of My Head” and “Lookin’ Out.” INXS – “Like it or Not” and “Hot Girls.”
Marianas Trench – “Celebrity Status.” Lily Allen – “Take What You Take.” Some of these are better for cool down/warm up but I figure you need those too
Ke$ha? Really?
@Erin: I’ve tried to do “other” activity in lieu of a real workout, but to be honest, I don’t push myself enough if I do that. I’ll go for a walk, but I won’t really walk enough to get my heartrate up and to really burn some calories or get any fitter. Yeah, the biking’s a lot more like “non” workout activity, but at the same time, I approach it from a training perspective, otherwise I wouldn’t go for such distances and/or seek out hills and wind and so forth to challenge me.
The wife and I are going to start a circuit-training system in our newly-set-up porch “gym” with a variety of systems. Should be interesting.
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll put them on my list to grab.
@Sister: Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll add them in. Yeah, country and I….well, some of them are catchy. I find few that are “thumpy” enough, though, at a high enough tempo. But…feel free to suggest and I can look!
@Julia: Great suggestions, thanks! Most I haven’t heard of, so I’ll add them to my Amazon list and grab them on payday.
@Marie: Hey. I said no judgments — Ke$ha is incredibly catchy and very thumpy with a good tempo. Don’t pay attention to the fact that she’s essentially a singing slut. This isn’t an entrance exam for Mensa, it’s a workout.
Okay…my #1 Country recommendation is Jason Aldean. He, himself, sounds a bit hicky, but his up-beat tunes (Hicktown, She’s Country, & Crazy Town) have GREAT beats! I also highly recommend Phil Vassar!
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Great playlist!
John is loving Kesha lately.
Now, I’ll be going to bed with this stuck in my head:
“The VengaBus is coming and everybody’s jumping
New York to San Francisco”. . . . thanks
I’ve been trying to walk about 3 miles about 3-4 times a week. I don’t have a great playlist like you do. I find myself listening to the Glee station on Pandora. I like Glee
Found some more on the radio tonight –
Clap your Hands by Sia
Fit, but You Know It by The Streets
and these are the top songs from Aussie radio station Triple J :
+ Birds Of Tokyo – ‘Plans’
+ Stonefield – ‘Through The Clover’
+ Wavves – ‘King Of The Beach’
+ Art VS Science – ‘Magic Fountain’
+ Klaxons – ‘Echoes’
+ Little Red – ‘Rock It’
+ Hot Chip – ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’
+ Flight Facilities – ‘Crave You’
+ Old Man River – ‘You’Re On My Mind’
+ Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – ‘Dance The Way I Feel’
+ Mason – ‘Corrected’
+ Sleigh Bells – ‘Rill Rill’
+ Crystal Castles – ‘Celestica’
+ Blue King Brown – ‘Women’s Revolution’
+ Brandon Flowers – ‘Crossfire’
So you can YouTube them and see if you like any!