Music You Work Out To

[Guest]

I'm sure some of us feel the need to occasionally leave our listening rooms to take some much needed exercise. Anyone who regularly frequents a gym will appreciate the necessity of taking one's own selection of motivational music to counterblast the hideous aural racket assault on our ears from the establishment's PA. So what cuts do you work out to?

Currently on the Playlist:

Bartok PC1 Ashkenazy/Solti
Miles Davis Bitches Brew

Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
Varese Arcana
Zemlinsky Eine Lyrische Symphonie

[Beef Oven]

The music in gyms etc, never ceases to amaze me. It is abundantly clear that people don't know or like the music that is chucked at them, but they resign themselves to it.

I would be pleased if any blogger could explain why it is how it is.

P.S. Panji, whilst I own and listen to all the works on your current list, wouldn't it have most people running for the hills!!

[HighlandDougie]

I have a cross-trainer at home on which I frequently take some exercise (I need to burn off the rosé somehow - and by the way, santé (hic), Am 51). My terrible confession is that I sometimes set my i-Phone to shuffle. Listening in that mode sometimes produces bizarre conjunctions (Joni Mitchell followed by Xenakis followed by Palestrina with bits of Toumani Diabaté and Martinu thrown in etc etc) and sometimes strangely effective ones. I suppose it's like listening to Classic FM (or Radio 3 these days) without the ads. It can get a bit wearing after a time, though. Current favourite listens (in normal mode) include 'Music from the Machine Age' (Istanbul's finest giving Ala and Lolly big licks - terrible pun, sorry) and the Debussy/Denève collection from Chandos which is exceptionally well recorded and very well played. I don't have Arcana, though, and as I just happen to have the Chailly recording to hand, I feel a CD-burning session coming on.

[ahinton]

I'm sure some of us feel the need to occasionally leave our listening rooms to take some much needed exercise. Anyone who regularly frequents a gym will appreciate the necessity of taking one's own selection of motivational music to counterblast the hideous aural racket assault on our ears from the establishment's PA. So what cuts do you work out to?

I don't!

Currently on the Playlist:

Bartok PC1 Ashkenazy/Solti
Miles Davis Bitches Brew

Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
Varese Arcana
Zemlinsky Eine Lyrische Symphonie

I shudder to imagine what exercise you might do to any or all of those! - but then I simply don't find any music "motivational" where physical exercise (of which I have to confess I do far too little, despite which I still seem to be alive, more or less) is concerned...

[Mary Chambers]

Work out what?

[Quarky]

As an habitué of gyms, the main issue with Gym music is that it is usually piped from a radio or TV station, and is therefore usually trash.

So the problem is to find a gym which either does not broadcast music (none in my district), or where the music is under control of the management. I don't like MP3 players, i-Phones etc, since they cut me off from the activity in the gym, and just get in the way.

But Gym music for me must have a very strong rhythm so that I can lock in to it, while gasping away on the treadmill or cross trainer. There should however be some subtleties in the rhythm, and the (usually) female singer/shouter/screamer. I did hear one track recently where I thought to myself - ahh, this is the new Whitney Houston! - Whitney's early successes such as "How will I know" are perfect gym music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3-hY-hlhBg

Classical music, or anything with a strong intellectual content, is not on the menu.

[amateur51]

Work out what?

[Nick Armstrong]

Work out what?

My exercise is taken on my bike, and one of my favourite pieces is "Lemminkäinen's Return" - especially on my way home

[HighlandDougie]

My exercise is taken on my bike, and one of my favourite pieces is "Lemminkäinen's Return" - especially on my way home

Hope it doesn't make you pedal too fast - I have a vision of a manic Caliban whizzing in front of my eyes at 40mph

[HighlandDougie]

My exercise is taken on my bike, and one of my favourite pieces is "Lemminkäinen's Return" - especially on my way home

Hope it doesn't make you pedal too fast - I have a vision of a demonic Caliban whizzing in front of my eyes at 40mph

[Nick Armstrong]

Hope it doesn't make you pedal too fast - I have a vision of a demonic Caliban whizzing in front of my eyes at 40mph

[ahinton]

Work out what?

Good question!

[ahinton]

Mr Pee could probably manage to break that speed limit but he'd no doubt be having to listen to the scherzo from Elgar's Second Symphony at the time...

[Suffolkcoastal]

In the gym I use, its usually Kiss Radio churning out the same manufactured trash for a few weeks then another new lot of manufactured trash. Sometimes its a CD of something like 'Now thats what I call crap Vol 7698'. Over the years I've learnt to block it all out completely and hardly notice it as it merges into one background mush. I will probably notice it now though when I go tonight!

[amateur51]

Mr Pee could probably manage to break that speed limit but he'd no doubt be having to listen to the scherzo from Elgar's Second Symphony at the time...

Hasn't it gone quiet round here?!