Exercise music

Dekay -- What a mind you have! Recommending Funkadelic and Henry Mancini to exercise by! I am stretching my mental abilities to get a wrap around how those two entities can co-exist. But I'll take your word for it. Keep 'em coming!

Michael: I am currently involved in a pain management program that includes "self" physical therapy excercises at home as well as bio feedback exercises. This may twist my views somewhat, but maybe not - read on. My only experience with recreational exercise relates to long distance running when I was younger. I found that I gave my best efforts when I was relaxed, not tense. I accomplished this by placing myself (my mind) in a relaxing place while I ran (I imagined that I was at a small pond in Iowa that I used to fish at when I was a child). I have discovered that music is a great way to achieve this detachment to the physical abuse (or exercise) that your body is undergoing. It's not the beat of the music that does this for me, it's the ability to get "lost" in the music. Classical music is of course great for this purpose, my favorite lately is Rossini "Comic Overtures", but popular music can also do the trick. My wife is going to order "Black Orpheus" for me from her BMG account. I have not listened to it for 15 years. Regarding the Muzak plug. We once borrowed a Muzak setup from my cousins restaurant when I was in highschool and played it non stop through a a pair of Altec Voice of the Theatre speakers at a New Year's Eve party. The sound level made your eardrums click and I wasnt kidding, it was great and everyone was smiling. Totally mindless music.

Well, Dekay, that helps explain it. The "getting lost" feeling is an interesting one. I agree that the idea of distracting your mind from some of the agony and/or boredom of exercise is attractive. I do find, however, that I like the way an aggressive, pushing, driving bit of music makes you feel like the pain you're feeling from the effort you're making is being enveloped and welcomed by the music. It reinforces your work and makes it feel almost poetic. The rebellious, defiant energy of rock works well this way to help you feel like "c'mon! Let's push it!"

Ok. In that vein I would listen to The Rolling Stones "Let it Bleed", Led Zeppelin "Houses of the Holy" and maybe some of the early Pretenders. If you are up for it Oingo Boingo and anything by Zappa, The Rubber City Rebels, The Ramones and last but not least the sountrack to "Saturday Night Fever". Your'e wearing private headphones - right? Unfortunately I do not know much about current bands (within the last 15 years. I also have a CD of James Brown doing five different versions of "Move On". Twenty-five minutes plus of only "Move On". Hope you get an exhaustive list from this thread.

James Brown, anything by JB.  My favorite work out music.