Work is going well so far today! Over the past two weeks our gym has been rather dead, so I wasn’t expecting a great turn out for the TRX class I taught this morning. Fortunately we had a good bunch and everyone came ready to work up a sweat.
Workout Music Resources for Fitness Instructors
After my class, I spent some time talking to two women who took my TRX class for the first time. One used to teach fitness classes and the other was recently hired by USF to teach at their gym. We started chatting about music we like to use in our classes and our go-to resources for upbeat workout songs.
I know a bunch of you out there teach group exercise or are in the market for great pump-up music for your own workouts, so below you will find a few great resources for upbeat workout music.
This website allows you to select your music and change the beats per minute to suit your preference. You can also eliminate gaps between songs so they flow from one right into the next which is great for continuous workouts where you want to keep the energy high the whole time. I love this for boot camp workouts!
Power Music lets you search for music by BPM, class type, music genre and more. Lots of upbeat songs!
iSweat is another great resource for those who want the ability to find energizing music and search by the pace of your activity. For example, iSweat Music lets you search for music for an easy/moderate walk, a moderate walk or a fast-paced walk/run. You can also find music by decade which I love for my water fitness classes that tend to prefer music from the ‘50s and ‘60s. If you’re a Whitney Houton fan, check out the “A Tribute to Whitney Houston” album with remixed Whitney songs set to 130 BPM.
Though I haven’t tried this option myself, I know many people love the workout playlists on Spotify, such as the Cardio, Workout and Workout Power playlists.
Another great option for streaming music! Notable playlists: Dance Cardio, ‘80s Cardio, Pop and HipHop Workout and Pop Fitness.
- Les Mills Music on iTunes
You guys already know I am a huge fan of Les Mills workout classes and a big part of the reason I love them so much is the energizing music. You can find a lot of the songs they use in their classes on iTunes by searching for Les Mills.
Talk about a serious beat!!! Basshunter music never fails to get me in the zone. Two of my favorite Basshunter songs to use in my classes include “Now You’re Gone” and “All I Ever Wanted.”
I know there are many, many more fabulous workout music resources out there, so please share if you have any additional recommendations!
Lunch
After working through the morning, I swung by Subway on my way home to pick up a chopped club salad to eat for lunch while I typed up this post.
Plus a pear and a small tangerine on the side when I got home.
Now I’m heading back to the gym where I’m working through the evening. I hope you guys have a great Thursday!
Question of the Afternoon
- Where do you find most of the music you like to listen to during your workouts?
Most of the inspiration behind my favorite workout music comes from group exercise classes, my fellow instructors, old CDs and the radio.
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My blog posts new workout music every Wednesday!!! Come check it out :). We have 35 weeks of mixes so far.
awesome!!
These are great resourced Julie! I love spotify because I can pick exactly what I want to listen to or I can put it on radio where it chooses similar songs to play. That feature reminds me of pandora which I also regularly use.
SO funny that you posted this- I’ve been searching the web so much for new songs to play in my Cycling classes! I keep a well-updated playlist on Spotify called “Spin Class Songs” that anyone is free follow 🙂
I run outside whenever possible and I don’t really listen to music. However, now that the ice and snow has hit, I have been running on the treadmill and I need music to fight the boredom. Thanks for the great resources.
That salad looks really good BTW….why have I never thought about getting a salad from Subway???
Thanks for the tips Julie!!!
I usually use Pandora but I’m going to give these other options a try. I find that my pandora gives me the same music too often 🙁
Great post! Love itttt
I teach yoga and LOVE spotify! I pay the $10/month in order to have access on all of my mobile devices, so I’ll put together playlists on my computer and sync it to my phone so I can play it in the studio. You can follow people and access their music and there’s a radio function, similar to Pandora.
This is so interesting!
Weird question: about how much time would you say you spend prepping music, etc, for classes? I’m considering becoming group fitness certified (simply because I love fitness), but since I already work full-time, my biggest hesitation right now is that amount of time I’d likely need to dedicate outside of teaching classes to prepping music, etc. I’m be curious to hear your thoughts!
This post was so helpful! Thank you so much for sharing this!
This is great! Thanks so much.
A lot of my music comes from listening to Pandora at work all day 🙂 I’ll screenshot favorites and remember them for later!
Oh my gosh I had never heard of Clickmix but I am listening to it now at work and jammin’ at my desk!
(Thank god I am hidden in my cube so no one can see!)
I’ve never heard of some of these! Going to have to give them a try. I use Pandora but don’t love it. It gives me the same songs and artists over and over.
I listen to a lot of oldies and mid 90s rap music haha.
Hey Julie!
I LOVE your blog and have been reading it for a few years now! I am so happy you have gotten into teaching, and I am sure you are amazing! I love all of your workouts! I have been teaching for about 9 years – everything from Bootcamp, Step, Kickboxing, HIIT, Cycle, and BodyPump (which I know is one of your favs!) My favorite place to buy music to teach to is Jon Sines. It has the best selection (I always like top 20 stuff, but they have everything), and you are able to pick the BPM. Just wanted to let you in on my favorite secret to share with other instructors! 🙂 Happy Holidays!
Anna
Hey Julie!
I LOVE your blog and have been reading it for a few years now! I am so happy you have gotten into teaching, and I am sure you are amazing! I love all of your workouts! I have been teaching for about 9 years – everything from Bootcamp, Step, Kickboxing, HIIT, Cycle, and BodyPump (which I know is one of your favs!) My favorite place to buy music to teach to is Jon Sines. It has the best selection (I always like top 20 stuff, but they have everything), and you are able to pick the BPM. Just wanted to let you in on my favorite secret to share with other instructors! 🙂 Happy Holidays!
Anna
Follow-up — it looks like the website recently changed. It is now called instructormusic.com.
Thank you so much for sharing!!! I’ll definitely look into it!
Fit Radio app
I didn’t realize you could find Les Mills music on itunes! Super cool 🙂 Our gym has been rather slow lately too…oh the holidays!
I didn’t realize you could find Les Mills music on itunes! Super cool 🙂 Our gym has been rather slow lately too…oh the holidays!
I love Spotify! Thanks for posting this!
These are cool resources! I’m a spottily fan!
These are cool resources! I’m a spotify fan!
I love RockMyRun! They just released an app for us Android folks. Their mixes are excellent and many of them are free.
thats a huge salad! ur subway is generous 🙂
My boyfriend is really into his music so I find stuff through him on Soundcloud. I also listen to the radio and look at what is doing well in the charts, as well as listen to videos on youtube.
Love all these new resources though!
thanks for the workout music ideas, I don’t teach a group fitness class currently but I hope to in the near future and I’m sure these sites will be super useful!
I usually listen to iHeartRadio or I’ll listen to podcasts (super boring but true! haha)
Thanks so much for this list! I’v been looking for some new workout tunes and have struggled to find just what I’m looking for. Can’t wait to try some of these out!
i love yes! music and instructormusic for getting new music to teach! i’m in a fitness leadership program at my university so they have us slowly teaching parts of classes. by the end of the year i will be (hopefully) certified and passed the program so i can teach at my university’s gym!
Wow! Thank you so much!
This post is incredibly helpful and timely.. I just got my certification to be a Spinning instructor last weekend!
Steady 130 is a great site to use as well!
I consider myself to be somewhat of a music aficionado lol, I’ve been to countless concerts and music festivals within the past couple of years, so I’ve heard a lot of different stuff. That being said, I’m very music involved in the electronic music scene, which is PERFECT for working out. I do have a page on my blog that I’m starting to dedicate to music (it is still new but I have a good amount to start with)
I typically actively search for music through soundcloud and spotify, but you have to kinda know what to look for to use those sites. Usually, I see what artists are recommended to me that are similar to the ones I follow to find other stuff!
Have a great day 🙂
I love the chopped salads at Subway but get frustrated that they never fill me up.
We have yet to put up our tree…I know, a major fail on my part. But in my defense, it’s because we thought we were traveling for Christmas, now that we aren’t…my mission this weekend is to Christmas the house!!!!
Steady mixes (http://www.steadymixes.com/)! I use it for all my boot camp/bodyworks classes and absolutely love them.
I’m not always a HUGE subway fan (crazy, I know) but that salad looks AWESOME!
I use Songza and usually listen to the “Drop a beat Workout” playlist. It usually has up to date music and NO commericals!
I’ve had good luck with 32mix.com
SONGZA! It’s my absolute favourite. I believe it’s similar to Spotify – you choose your mood and/or your activity, and it plays a pre-made playlist for you. I love using it for everything from cooking to falling asleep to working out!
Hey! I will check some of those out. I buy from 32mix.com and I absolutely love it. Everything flows from one song to the next and a lot are mashups. You can choose the BPM as well, so it works perfect for kickboxing!
Thank you for these tips! Spotify has been really helpful to me lately. I just have to click on a pre-made playlist for workout and voila! It gives me all these upbeat dance/songs that really put me into the working out mood!
What app do you use during your classes? The Schwann class tamer isn’t for android!!!
Great Stuff !! I love the power music, music helps to do workout more. When i get tired and wanted to stop, the music is the only thing which pulls me back to the workout. My body is going to be better only because of that extra efforts. Thanks for this collection and surely I will check it out on every Wednesday. Eagerly waiting for the next 🙂