Fun in the corporate workout room

[dreamshark]

What's your favorite music to exercise to?

Of the music I have loaded on my iPod, my favorite skating music is the various Drinking Songs compilations that a group of us were trading around last year. It seems a little odd, since figure skating is both healthy and kind of spiritually uplifting with all that swooping and gliding, and drinking songs are neither. It must be the high proportion of Country Western and Irish. I particularly like my compilation (of course) which tends more toward the rowdy drinker and less towards the morose. But I picked up some really wonderful songs from other people's compilations - I'm thinking of doing a meta-playlist with my favorites of the whole collection.

But for more rhythmic activities like biking or elliptical runners, you just can't beat the Grateful Dead. I think the best workout album ever is American Beauty. You're really moving right from the beginning with "Friend of the Devil" and "Sugar Magnolia." Okay, "Brokedown Palace" slows the pace a little, but it DOES remind you of how you'll end up if you don't get some exercise (miss ya', Jerry!). Then back into gear with "Truckin." "Box of Rain" is kind of slow and dreary and I sometimes skip over that one, but "Operator" moves right along. Then "Candy Man" to start the cooldown and "Ripple" to take you right out.

Comments

[hakatrip.livejournal.com]

Hello! I'm a rollerskater, and found you on bchbum_98's friends page. I hope you don't mind if I friend you.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Hi, Hakatrip! Thanks for introducing yourself. Friending you back. :-)

[hakatrip.livejournal.com]

So, answering your question about exercise music, I mostly exercise by rollerskating. My music choices are heavily influenced by my teen years at the roller rink--- old school hip-hop, disco, and funk. I also like contemporary hip-hop.

Currently I'm enamored of K.C. and the Sunshine Band and Kool & The Gang since I just bought CDs of them. Classic rollerskating tunes.

I used to be mostly a speed dance skater. But for the last two years I have been learning to skate on my toes, and have picked up spinning. I hope to get a video of me soon, since I have no idea what I look like, but have heard from others that I am fun to watch.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I had NO IDEA that roller skating could get so fancy! Like figure skating, but on roller skates? How is that possible without edges and toe picks? Forgive my ignorance, but I imagine it would be like... performing brain surgery wearing boxing gloves. Are there special types of skates that you use for speed dance skating and spinning? I'll watch for your video!

[hakatrip.livejournal.com]

There are figure rollerskaters-- and competitions for such. The stuff that people can do is pretty amazing. I know one guy who can spin for a really long time on only two wheels, take his other skate off, hug it to his chest to increase speed, and then put it back on *without falling.*

I'm nowhere near that good.

Special skates? Hmm, no. There are speedskates, but otherwise the regular skates come in a whole spectrum of costs and quality, but are pretty much the same structurally. I have expensive ones--- I splurged on pre-softened leather boots and I would NEVER recommend skimping on the wheels or bearings. Some bearings are faster and smoother, and the wheels grip the surface differently.

On youtube I've seen figure rollerskaters and "jam" skaters. Jam skating incorporates many different styles of dance, skating, gymnastics, break dancing, etc. Yes, it's quite possible to break dance on rollerskates. I suppose I would be a jam skater.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I like a pretty wide range of music for exercise. Sometimes I'll just tune the radio to something lively. From my own collection I'll play some ethnic music with a strong beat, or Bowie, or U2 or the Police or Traffic or Fleetwood Mac - whatever seems good at the time.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Generally, I like upbeat music with a beat to exercise to. Something to step into. It can be slow, and I'll take two steps per, but it should be zippy. Dance music (and Drinking Songs) are good for this sort of thing.

I'm not a big Deadhead so I'd get tired of them after a song or two, but when they're on they're on. I can wallow in Weird Al/Luke Ski's weirdness as well, taking my mind out of the physical act while limbs move.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

A strong beat is important for exercise music, but different people have very different ideas just how FAST the beat should be. I don't like music that is too fast or too "busy." For me the ideal biking song is "Truckin'", which has very strong beat but not a particularly fast one. People say that the Dead drummers were good. I wouldn't know - I don't consciously notice drumming unless it's a drum solo (*yawwwwnnn*). But it might be the drummers that make the Dead so good for aerobic exercise.

Weirdly, I find Dylan to be excellent for walking and to a lesser extent for biking, with "Desolation Row" at the top of my playlist. Weird because I think of that song as having quite a slow beat.

Hmmm. Well, maybe my preference isn't that peculiar. I just did a little timing experiment. "Truckin'" is 120-125 beats per minute, which is pretty much my usual pulse rate when I use aerobic machines (stationary bike, elliptical). Desolation Row comes in at a sleepy 56 bpm, but if you count the strong backbeat it's only a little slower than "Truckin'". Perfect for walking, a little relaxing for biking, which was pretty much my perception.

Some people seem to like exercise music that seems absolutely frenetic to me, stuff that just makes me feel tired to listen to. Perhaps they're going for music with a beat that is twice their heart rate.

I also love waltz time (or 6/8, which is really just a waltz speeded up into a jig). I don't know what that's about - maybe it matches my syncopated heartbeat.