When I was in grade school I ran cross country and track. My parents are runners, so they encouraged me to try it out. I ended up being a pretty decent runner. The problem was that running long distance always brought me a sense of anxiety. Whether I was running at practice and trying to keep up with the faster kids or in competition and trying to place well, an anxious feeling always accompanied my running. It was a sense of never quite being able to keep up, which is not good motivation to keep doing something. Don’t even get me started on pre-race nerves. Now I still become anxious when I smell a particular scent in the fall air or when I run to be on time and feel the cold air in my lungs. When high school came around, it became much harder to participate in two sports in the same season, so I picked volleyball and never looked back.
My parents go on runs nearly every day and always encourage me to join them or try running myself, and while I’ve tried off and on again, it is always hard to separate that nervous feeling from running. Then I discovered the strut workout.
In June, I was scrolling on TikTok when I came across a video with the caption, “Looking for a fun workout? Have Harry Styles’ new album on repeat?” This video posted by @benntheredonethat or Allie Bennett, self-proclaimed “CEO of the treadmill strut workouts,” was the first of many strut workout videos I saw on TikTok.
First you pick which type of music you will listen to when you work out. This can range anywhere from Taylor Swift to “Glee” to ‘80s rock. During the workout, you walk, run and/or jog to the beat of those songs. Bennett’s workouts perfectly line up songs to what speed on the treadmill will allow you to be on beat. Specifically, these workouts start at a lower setting, 3 mph, for example, and increase the speed by 0.1 mph each song.
These workouts are great because they make working out, specifically running, a fun and mindless process which leaves you feeling great. I’ve often found myself walking to the beat of my music throughout my day, so having this in a workout format was really fun. As someone who doesn’t enjoy running, I was surprised at how enjoyable these workouts were. The workouts build up to only short stints of running which you hardly notice when you’re running to songs like “As It Was” by Harry Styles or “2 Be Loved” by Lizzo. There’s nothing more satisfying than hitting every beat with your footfalls. I especially love workouts like the Doja Cat one, which can do a lot for your confidence.
If you’re looking for a fun, easy and quick way to get a workout in while listening to your favorite music, I highly recommend trying one of these strut workouts out. Creating your own order for the songs and speeds you enjoy can also be very fun and a bit more personalized.
Working out can sometimes be hard to bring yourself to do, especially if you do not enjoy things like running. However, trying new things like these strut workouts can completely change your view on workouts. I’ve found that as I’ve done more of these my endurance has greatly improved, as has my view of running. Sometimes all it takes is a little Harry Styles and a little dancing to make running fun.