Work It Out, Part I

It’s Music Thursday here on the blog! Today’s business—creating a workout playlist.

About six months ago, I decided that sitting in a cube nine hours a day could not be good for me (or my bottom), so I started getting up an hour early and going to the gym before work each day. It was actually kind of the pits at first because I have to be at work by 7:30, which means I get up around 4:45 (ack). But like most things you do every day for six months (ha), you get used to it.

Yo blogger is so fat, if she was confronted by a boggart, it would turn into a treadmill!

This Harry Potter reference, adapted from When Parents Text, cracked me up.

Seriously, though, I depend on some upbeat music to get me through at that early hour. And at that point I choose one of two types of workout mixes: musical or regular-type. Non-theater friends, you can stop reading now and catch back up with us next week for Work It Out, Part II.

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OK, nerds. Putting together a good musical-based running mix is as simple as coming up with songs from musicals you know that make you want to dance AND that are also upbeat. (Some songs make me want to dance, but it’s in a slower or more waltz-y way. No good for working out.) If, when listening to a particular soundtrack, you find yourself tapping along to a song, that’ll work. Or if you’ve seen the show in question, and there’s a big dance number you enjoy, that song should work as well. Songs from musicals of the past 30 years (1980-Present) seem to work best as they are more pop- and rock-inspired than their predecessors.

Here are a few songs I came up with:

• Skid Row, Little Shop of Horrors
• Whipped Into Shape, Legally Blonde: The Musical
• Nicest Kids in Town, Hairspray
• Honey, Honey, Mamma Mia (The movie version of the song is faster. SIGH. I am such a NERD!)
• I’d Be Delighted, Little Women
• She’s in Love, The Little Mermaid: The Musical
• My Strongest Suit, Aida
• It’s Your Wedding Day, The Wedding Singer
• I Won’t Say I’m in Love, Hercules
• Hard Knock Life, Annie
• A Girl Worth Fighting For, Mulan
• King of New York, Newsies
• American Idiot, Green Day’s American Idiot

As a fan of musical theater, I think an upbeat musical playlist makes runs more fun. It definitely makes my runs more dance-y, which I feel is more fun (or funny, at least) for everyone.