What do you listen to when you work out?!?!?

I need some new work out music, but i can't think of any that perfectly fit my pace you know?

So i have to know.. what do you work out to?

suggestions?

-Thanks

It's hard to give an advice on that specifically as I have no clue of your music taste. But I can say what works for me: when I am walking and I want to keep up a fast pace I need to listen to music with a hard beat (very hard rock/industrial). My choice is in this case Rammstein and or Marilyn Manson. For me, this does wonders.

God luck in finding music that works for you!

I like hard rock and just plain rowdy. Here are my favorites:

-"Run Like Hell"  by Pink Floyd

-"Running Down" a Dream by Tom Petty

-"Cannonball"  by Supertramp

-"Walk" by Pantera

-"Enter Sandman" by Metallica

-"Suicide" by Metallica

-"Roundabout" by Yes

-"Pump It Up"   by Elvis Costello

-"Black Friday" by Steely Dan

-"Bring In The Noise"  by Anthrax

I have about 90 in a playlist. Another good one is if you have an iPOD you can get free periodic downloads of exercise techno music that is specifically created for exercise. There are many different ones. They gradually speed the beat up then slow them down over an hour. Good stuff as well.

thanks i'll try all of that!

sounds great

santogold. the faint. the black keys if im walking on a treadmill. no doubt. bon jovi. songs exboyfriends wrote about me that i cant stand.

This certainly won't work for everybody, but I listen to show tunes while running. The thing about musical theatre is the songs are often advancing the plot, so they have a buildup and a climax and a whole lot of them have a key change or two. If you like musical theatre at all, listen to a song with all those attributes and you'll get a sense for why they help push you through your workout. I make a mix of those types of songs and just listen to one after another. A few examples are "Journey to the Past" from Anastasia, "Being Alive" from Company, "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret, "This is the Moment" from Jekyll & Hyde and "Now that I've Seen Her" from Miss Saigon.

Again, show tunes aren't for everybody, but if you like them to begin with, they work great for cardio!

show tunes definitely works for me too!  but i also like to design individualized "workout playlists"....for example, if I know that I'm going to be doing 45 minutes of cardio, I find exactly (or close to) 45 minutes worth of music so that I know as I'm working out, I need to hear every song once before the workout is finished.  I also have different playlists for when I'm lifting different parts of the body...I am heavy into resistance training, so this definitely helps.  I need songs with a strong beat when I'm doing legs, songs with crazy rhythm when I i'm doing chest or back, etc.....i think it makes the workout more fun when you know you've designed your music to specially fit a given workout

May sound weird, but I'll listen to relaxing stuff while I am running. Like Radiohead, or Sigur Ros. Because I hate excersizing so much I need something to calm me down haha.

thats great lol, all of it. I'm gonna try it all. show tunes sounds fun. I'm gonna download some immediately!

I'm about as see-saw'd as they come.  So many times I've started and stopped working out, dieting etc... but this last go around has lasted, and "stuck".  Now, what does that have to do with your question you might ask?

I have found greater success with my music choice lately.  I have only done one thing differently but to me it WORKS.

Rather than uptempo, or slow tempo beats. I look to a song that SPEAKS to me.  The lyrics serve as the coach on my shoulder and they PUSH the HECK out of me.

And by doing this, I've naturally found a selection of songs that have varied tempos for all types of work out/cardio.

For exmple -

Debra Cox "Easy as Life" - Great beat but MAN OH MAN when she starts pumping out "... nothing in life is ever easy..." I have SO MUCH ENERGY RUSH thru my system.

Debra Cox "Beautiful U R" has...

"No matter how hard it gets.  Hold On to What's inside.  Don't ever let nobody break you down girl (boy).  Don't ever let nobody tear your world apart.  look in the mirror and see who you are.  Beautiful U R"

Kristine W "Land of the Living" -  "And I'm glad to be alive... and in the land of the living..."

Ricky martin - Soundloaded.  Honestly, i have no idea what in the world he's talking about in this song but the beats with "Walk like a loaded man.." just refocuses me.  Again I have no clue what that means but in my mind its that "Walk with you head high and turn heads" mantra.

Does this help? 

yess that helps SO much! thank you!

i honestly have never heard those songs, but now i'm going to go download them all and listen to them, immediately lol.. the bits you put in sound great. and im gonna put some serious though into the songs that speak to me the most.

thanks again!

:)

I just listen to my favorite songs.  Obviously, they're my favorite for a reason...though I tend to stick my favorite up-beat and faster songs in my workout playlist. 

I listen to a lot of Ricky Martin while I work out because even his slow songs have a decent beat to keep going to.  I've recently been listening to Rhianna and Lady Gaga because they just have that beat to keep you going.  "Please Don't Stop the Music" is a great one for me...

There are some websites that have 'recommended' exercise playlists or dance playlists...some of the better ones I've found are the "are you hosting a dance party? play these!" because those are mostly songs with a beat and that you want to dance to, i.e., they pump you up!

Note: I also listen to country and workout to some of it...but country's not for everyone although some peppy Gary Allan, Big'n'Rich, or Montgomery Gentry is always good :)

I listen to T.I.

When I'm not running, I'm waaay more into country than rap (I even work at a country radio station), but an angry, pretentious dude yelling at the world that he's "GONNA DO IT" and "ain't nobody gonna be king but him" is exactly what I need when I'm pounding the pavement

Also, I'm pretty sure glamour magazine's website has workout playlists or podcasts or something you can download.

I too hate working out so I listen to podcasts.  They are free, cover almost any topic, and the content is always changing.

One I really like is Stuff You Should Know because they talk about crazy topics like "How Propaganda Works".  I also listen to quilting and football podcasts because those topics are interesting to me.  During my workouts, I avoid the podcasts that have information in them that I really need/want to know because it is hard for me to concentrate on them when my muscles are hogging all the oxygen. 

I love all kinds of music, so I'm never sure if what I suggest is too out there for some people! But I've discovered Jackson 5 is GREAT walking music. It's upbeat music that actually manages to make me happy that I'm exercising!

I love to walk but I get bored. So I listen to audio books. Makes the time fly by.

am... eye of the tiger is a really good motivation song... oh and proud from the biggest loser

Miket,

I LOVE Supertramp's Cannonball. Not too many people know that song. It really gets me going when I am doing the treadmill or elliptical.

I usually listen to either Jock Jams, Abba (Hey I know, old school, but man they got beat), remixes (not necessarily techno ones), foriegn rock (IE Rammstein), "Lets Dance" by David Bowie, a bunch of one hit wonders (Right Said Fred makes workouts funny, theres also Tubthumpin') and I also listen to local music (great big sea - which unless you're from Newfoundland you probably never heard of...)

It really depends on taste. I always pick something you'd like to dance to or something like that which wakes me up and keeps me motivated. Really its whatever keeps you in a good workout mentality. My mom listens to Spice girls and Aqua because they annoy her enough to keep her going :D

I usually listen to a remix of songs, in a techno form. One worked so well I got my mile time to 7:25! I was hauling it. But, thats for running so I'm not sure with working out I would listen to like metal, I don't know it made me feel tough! haha.

My daughters have updated my iPod, so I have a whole new playlist to choose from! One that gets me going right away is "Ain't Nothin' Wrong With That" by Robert Randolph & The Family Band. It's from one of the Grey's Anatomy soundtracks. Those soundtracks and the House soundtracks have some really great songs to workout to. Bands that get me motivated are Arctic Monkeys, OK Go, Snow Patrol, Keane, Marjorie Fair, All-American Rejects, Coldplay, The Fray, oh and some stuff by Queen, Collective Soul, Lenny Kravitz...  Sorry, I could go on and on!