Finding that “Exercise Anthem” Song
After I finally start exercising, it’s not so bad. The hard part is starting. Thinking back to my younger days in high school, there were certain “anthems” that sports teams played to get them pumped up before a game.
I need something like that for exercising - I need an anthem. It’s the song that makes me want to get up and be active every time I hear it.
I sat down and started listening through some CDs that I knew had the potential of having an exercise anthem on it. My requirements were pretty simple. It’s a song that had to have a driving beat and be by an artist I like.
It didn’t take me long to find it. Just listening to it made my head bob a little bit back and forth and I wanted to stand up and do more.
I guess I can’t write a post about finding an exercise anthem without sharing what mine is. While I enjoy many styles of music, I really enjoy hard rock/metal. If I ever were to become a professional bass player, I would want to be in a band along the likes of Metallica, Korn or System of a Down.
The minute the bagpipes started with Korn’s Shoots & Ladders, I knew. That was my exercise anthem. Listening to that song takes me away to another place. A place where I am active and feel alive. It makes me want to get up and dance or hop around like a fool. It’s the perfect exercise anthem for me.
What’s your exercise anthem?
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Comments
For me it is Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell album. The songs are long so I don’t have to listen to many. I start with “You Took the Words right out of my mouth” (it starts slow), then Bat out of Hell, All Rev’d up and no place to go (really fast), Paradise by the Dashboard light and then cool down with Heaven Can Wait. That totals about 32 minutes. If I need more time, I add in Two out of Three Ain’t Bad.
This was the first CD I ever bought (18 years ago) and I’ve listened to it almost every workout (now at Christmas I sub in a workout of Trans Siberian Orchestra music.) So I guess I’ve listened to these songs almost 1000 times and I still love them. Since my reputation is for folk and church music, it blows people away when I site this as my favourite album but since I can listen to it over and over and over, it qualifies as Classical Music in my books!
I don’t think I have just one. There are a number of songs that get me going.
AC/DC “You shook me all night long.”, Journey “Stone in Love”, Styx “Fooling Yourself”, Stevie Ray Vaughan “Pride and Joy”, Queen “Save Me”, Ian Moore “Ain’t Feelin No Pain”, Van Halen “Ice Cream Man”.
These all take my mind off of the exercise and put it on to the music.