Posted on July 23, 2015 by Kate Halsall

Wow – this is a hard blog to write! Like most people, I have a massive range of music that I like, so narrowing it down to 10 is hard! From old school Indie tracks from the likes of the Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets and Pulp to Prodigy, Cappella and Pendulum; from Nirvana, Iron Maiden and Guns and Roses to Morcheeba, Massive Attack and Light House Family- I like it all!! Harder still,  50% of my job relies on music – not only that, it requires specific soundtracks depending on the type of exercise that is being done. As such, my own training is not that dissimilar;  and like exercises I choose for clients and classes, I have soooooo many favourites!

Recently, I’ve been splitting my training between cardio sessions and weights sessions. I’ve also been revisiting some tunes from my younger years (not that long ago!) and some old gigs I’ve been to and the results show in my playlists. I’ve divided my playlists into 2 – the top 10 workout tracks for cardio and the top 10 for weights!

Cardio tracks need to be upbeat and fast. I like to keep up with the music whilst I’m running, spinning or rowing. It’s an added bonus if I can sing along! Here are my top 10 cardio tracks (but not in any specific order!):

1. Raindrops (Encore une Fois) – Sash
2. Sandstorm – Darude
3. Bullet In The Gun – Planet Perfecto
4. Something Good – Utah Saints (the original!)
5. Breathe – Prodigy
6. Light My Fire – Clubhouse
7. Beautiful – Matt Darey feat Marcella Woods
8. U Got 2 Let The Music – Cappella
9. Set You Free – N-Trance
10. Insomnia – Faithless

My music for weights tend to have a heavy baseline and are slower. I find it helps to encourage me to go heavier and stick to tempo. I don’t need to sing to these, but dancing whilst having a break between sets can’t be bad:

1. Weak – Skunk Anansie
2. Going The Distance – Cake
3. Blue Birds Are Blue – Cable
4. Sherriff Fatman – Carter USM
5. Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
6. Speakeasy – Shed Seven
7. One To Another  – Charlatans
8. I Alone – Live
9. Sweet Child Of Mine – Guns and Roses
10. Symphony of Destruction – Megadeath