The gym and I have a love/hate relationship that I hope many can relate to. I hate working out with every fiber of my being. I hate being healthy. My love for food and tendency to be lazy are hard to ignore, but I love that feeling after the gym. It makes me want to eat a salad while doing my homework, all while running a marathon. Does anyone else experience that? It’s the best. It makes my day a hundred times more productive, and it makes me weary of the foods that made me feel like crap before I went to the gym. Therefore, the gym is my first step towards forcing good health upon myself, but the hard part isn’t the crunches. It’s the motivating myself to go in the first place and to push myself while I’m there.
This is where a large dose of “gymspiration” comes into play. A fellow Her Campus member swore by a website called 8tracks. Her description was so enticing that I knew I had to check it out. I signed up (It’s really simple…just email and a password) and began checking out all the mixes people had created. They all have tags attached to them, so you can search for a certain genre or artist if you wish. You can also look through the top ones and find great playlists for everything from house parties to rainy days. I then downloaded the 8tracks app to my iPhone, which I highly recommend. The app’s perfect for when you lose all patience with radio commercials or just want to listen to something other than “I’m Sexy and I Know it,” “Without You,” or “We Found Love.”
Since there’s a gazillion workout/fitness mixes to choose from, I listened to quite a few and have decided upon the top 8 mixes that you should definitely take to the gym. I usually do cardio and then weights at the gym, so I tried the mixes with both these things to figure out which ones I like the best and for which portion of my workout. I hope you like what I chose, but if not… there are a lot more for you to choose from – or you could even make your own playlist to share with the members of 8tracks!
1. Gymspiration- This article was named after my absolute favorite gym playlist. The mix is intriguing with artists ranging from the Bee Gees toBuckcherry. I found this playlist made me want to run faster on the elliptical and distracted me from thinking about the cramps or how pathetic it was that I was panting after 15 minutes. Also, it just put me in an overall good mood, which motivated me to keep going.
2. Let’s Run a [Freaking] Marathon, [Girls]- Yes, I censored the title, but I have full confidence that college students can translate it and find the correct playlist if needed. This one is fantastic…from the title that makes you want to nod furiously in agreement and high-five your best friend, to the description that urges you to run to forget your boy problems and bills to the playlist of 100 empowering, but relatively unheard of songs. Obviously, this is one to run and run and run to.
3. Because You Didn’t Start Working Out Jan. 1- Okay, the title’s harsh, and the description’s even more blunt as it refers to the “New Year’s resolution crowd of fatties.” So why did I fall in love with it even before I listened to the music? I think I’ll have to chalk it up to a beautiful mixture of reverse psychology and pride. If someone tells me I can’t do it, I’m going to do it if only to prove you wrong. As you’re listening to the top of the charts artists, take a look at the title, the description, and the girl with perfect abs in the photo to keep you moving.
4. Up in the Gym- I love rap and hip-hop at the gym, so this one is full of the perfect selection of songs from those genres. When I was running on the elliptical with this playlist, I could tell I was going a lot faster than usual just because it felt right with the music. It makes you want push yourself.
5. Here Comes the BOOM- This one makes me want to do pushups and lift weights. It’s filled with rap and hip-hop that makes you feel confident: like you belong on the bottom floor of the UCF gym even if it’s overflowing with testosterone.
6. I Run With the Big Girls Now REMIX- Holy girl power. This mix has about 8 minutes of warm up music, 30 minutes of work out tunes, and 4 minutes of cool down beats…awesome. Not to mention you’re listening to solely female artists. You feel like you’re working out with your famous friends when remixes of Taylor Swift, Pink, and Ke$ha blast. The best way I can sum it up best is to say it’s like 45 minutes of your favorite female celebrities cheering “You go, girl!” as you work out.
7. SUCK IT UP, and Someday You Won’t Have to Suck It In- I think it’s clear that inspiration starts at the title. Next, the description even lists a workout you could do to this playlist. The music itself boosts your morale with a mixture of mainstream artists and less popular ones and will make you want to keep that heart rate up. It’s great for both running and weights.
8. Pumped- It’s got interesting artists like Coldplay and Arcade Fire that I wouldn’t typically listen to while working out, but it was actually great during the cool down of my run. It made my heart rate slow just enough, but still pushed me to finish my work out with weights and sit-ups.