Top 10 gym songs

Having music playing really can help you get through a tough training session. This doesn’t necessarily have to be your favourite music, I have found that Metallica, Pantera, Slayer etc. is a little too heavy to get me going and my other favourite bands (The Beatles and Pink Floyd) can also be avoided as they just don’t inspire me the way that they should. The kind of thing that tends to work are energetic tunes with pace rather than Power and feel good tunes, or Rousing anthems that carry you through the momentum. Power pop bands like “You and me at six” seem to fit this bill quite well as they are nice and light and you can just let the music drift over you and keep going. I Normally have my MP3 player on Shuffle so although I recognise the tracks as belonging to the band I cannot actually name any of the tunes, for this reason You and Me at Six don’t get a place in my list.

10 In Bloom – Nirvana – I was never a huge Nirvana Fan but I am always happy when this track turns up. It seems to be at just the right pace to plod away to…Just let your feet follow the beat and drift away.

9 Theme from Rocky – This goes into the category of “Rousing anthem”. I have been a little vague with the description as it works with the original Theme but it also works with the Rocky III, eye of the tiger music. You cannot help but picture yourself in the grey track suit running up those stairs.

8 Unwritten – The Gas light anthem – This band has become one of my favourite new bands of the last few years. There are a few tracks on the CD that are good for training as they maintain a decent tempo.

7 Coming to America – Neil Diamond – This is another from the “Rousing Anthems” category. It is impossible to dislike Neil Diamond; his music is played at every family party or cheesy disco so it just gets accepted. I didn’t even know I had this track on my Ipod yet when it came on midway through my run it made me break into a huge smile.

6 The Trooper – Iron Maiden – This is a great track to run to. If you are flagging or getting to the point in the run where you energy levels are dropping this will always give you that extra burst of adrenaline needed to take you to the finish line.

5 Place your hands – Reef – This song ticks all of the boxes. As soon as it comes on it makes me smile and I can just listen to the song and forget that I am running. It is certainly “Rousing” but I am not 100% sure if it could be classed as an anthem but it is certainly a firm favourite when it comes to a Gym track.

4 Away from Here – The Enemy – I saw this band a few years ago and this was the opening track of the set and by far the stand out track. The attitude and tempo fits well and it is a nice easy track to listen to. It has almost a Punk feel to it that gets the blood pumping.

3 Dance Dance – Fall out Boy – I first became aware of this song by playing Burnout on the Xbox so it has always been associated with speed. The section just before the chorus was always the part that made me hit the boost button that made the car go speeding around the streets. I feel like I have always hit the boost button when I hear this track at the Gym.

2 Brick by Boring Brick - Paramore - There are quite a few Paramore tracks on my work out playlist. I think it is the drumming more than anything that makes it “Gym friendly” but I have come to love these songs both in and out of the training environment.

1 The Pretender - Foo fighters – The foo’s….It had to be a Foo Fighters track at Number 1. My mate says that he finds “Monkey Wrench” to be a great running track but I think there are a few too many stops and starts. There are quite a few songs that I could add to this list by Dave Grohl’s tribe. “Everlong” could be included as it is a nice slow builder that eases you in while “All my life” could have been chosen for its power, another Gym favourite is DOA but I have decided to choose “The Pretender”. This makes my list simply because we have been through so many interval training sessions. It is nicely broken up into sections where you can go at a nice steady pace followed by the chorus where you have to go crazy, whether you are on the Bike or the treadmill the chorus will always make you go faster and then 30 second or so later you are back to recovery rate before you are hurled head long into another 30 second blast.