I tend to either run with nothing, or listen to podcasts. But when I first started running I loved to have music playing (mainly to drown out the sound of my alarming heavy breathing). I even ran my first couple of races with a headphone in one ear. Pure Gym are running a competition to find out about dream playlists.
I do love going to Body Pump, and one of the reasons is the music. There are usually lots of tracks that I don’t like (I’m talking to you, All About the Base abs track) but there are also plenty that I like- these often end up being the biceps track. So, the songs I like are usually more like rock music- a faster paced song with lyrics I can sing along to (the weird bottle-filling-up track of the current release is so annoying). And yes, I do sing along- the volume is up high during the class!
So, here are a few that I would be having if Les Mills ever phones me (unlikely, but best to be prepared):
Ash were a band that got me through many runs- I had their Supersonic 7’s on my little mp3 player- it got me through my first 10K and first half marathon, and there are so many great songs to choose from, but I think I will go for Burn Baby Burn to get me in the mood for working out (because my muscles are gonna Burn baby).
The Killers- Somebody Told Me – I can sing along to the high bits before I get too out of breath!
Muse- Uprising or Knights of Cydonia (it builds like the pain of lactic acid!)
Hard Fi- Hard to Beat (Just like this playlist eh?)
Kasabian- Club Foot (to remind me not to drop a weight on my foot?)
Bryan Adams (I always think this is Bon Jovi for some reason)- Summer of 69. This was a Body Pump track, and our instructor used to sing “ain’t no use in complaining, when you’ve got some squats to do”- it was the squats track. That amused me. Plus, I like a bit of cheese every now and then.
I am having another Ash track in there- the genius of Kung Fu. This was near the end of the album, and gave me a big boost to keep on running (and pick up the pace a bit).
You have to have a bit of The Foo Fighters in there somewhere, so All My Life gets in.
For the cool down, one of my favourite tracks from Body Pump was another version of Careless Whisper, apparently by Badlands. So often the cool down tracks are some sort of annoying ballad that gets stuck in my head. So this one was great
When writing this post, I have been most amused by the crazy You-Tube comments- anyone who has seen Bug by Adam Buxton would be familiar with them already, but seriously this could amuse me for hours on end.
This is an entry to the Pure Gym Playlist competition- Terms and Conditions are here.
Uprising and Somebody Told Me are also already tracks in Body Pump 🙂 Uprising was a chest track, and Somebody Told Me was a squat track.
We must have similar musical tastes, because I always HATE tracks like *that* ab song but love the music for biceps…most of the time. I think All My Life would be fantastic for spinning (sprints) in particular, but could also work for biceps in Pump.
This is a great theme for a post and an interesting competition ~ I wouldn’t mind writing about this too, if you don’t mind?
Were they! I think I remember songs I don’t like because they are new to me, and forget ones I know!
Go for it, I would love to see your tracks 🙂
I always listen to music when I run – I need something to distract me. I can’t run to anything too melodic, it has to be something heavy like metal.
I love a good playlist to get me going. I love having music to really speed intervals or races along. I find I can really feed off of the music. I love anything really from rock to pop to techno to film music. As long as it gets me going!
I recently had to update my running playlist and my friend suggested running to children’s television show theme tunes for a bit of fun – Fraggle Rock was a favourite! 🙂
Great idea! All the 80 s are the best!
Great choices there, love a bit of Ash! I’ve really been preferring podcasts recently but I did do a run and listened to Royal Blood which really worked well x
Nothing like a good playlist to keep you going!