What My Workout Music Says About Me

Most people would find the music I workout to bizarre and ever changing. For the longest time, I remember working out to Halloween music, in the middle of January. Soon, I switched out Monster Mash for the nostalgia of the Pokémon and Mortal Kombat theme songs. Those are still on my rotation, along with 80’s and 90’s hits, some rock, with a dash of new music thrown in.

Every one of these songs tells a story about who I am. My favorite genre of music is 90’s alternative, and has been since the 90’s. In fact, Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry has been my favorite song since the first time I heard it in the 90’s. I remember turning the dial on my old boombox as a preteen, hoping to hear Eagle Eye Cherry’s upbeat voice. Sometimes I only caught the ending, but the times when I caught the song from the start were amazing. The opening beats of Save Tonight instantly bring a smile to my face, and most days I can’t help but to sing along or at least mouth the lyrics.

Despite my love for Eagle Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight, there was a brief time period when I couldn’t listen to it. I had been listening to the song for years, long before I’d ever been through a breakup. I guess you could stay that I didn’t fully understand the lyrics until I went through a bad breakup myself. I avoided that song for as long as I could, but it came on one day when I was working at a mall. I thought the song would hurt too much to listen to, but I was wrong. My love for that song hadn’t changed. If anything, my love for the song had grown.

Other bands that bring back memories are Better Than Ezra, Bush, Seven Mary Three, The Spin Doctors, Live, and Collective Soul. Whenever I hear a song from these bands, I feel like I’m transported to back to my past. I have such fond memories of playing Mortal Kombat at a restaurant called Mo’s Pizza while these songs played in the background. There’s nothing like the experience of playing a fighting game on an arcade cabinet while listening to 90’s music. I hope to own the Mortal Kombat 1up gaming cabinet so I can semi recreate the experience, but today these songs are just on my workout rotation.

80’s music gets my body moving. Sometimes I even stay on the treadmill a little bit longer so I can finish my song. The music is so happy and upbeat that I can’t help feeling gleeful as I work out. Rock music on the other hand is what I listen to when I don’t want to be at the gym. It helps to remind me that I’m a badass who can crush her own goals. I find my movements to be faster and more aggressive when I listen to rock music while working on. I can’t help but feel like there’s a rock song for every mood.

I hate admitting this, but there is one rock band that I can’t listen to anymore. Their music used to be among my top choices to workout to, but now the only thing I can do is press the skip button when they come on. It’s not because they’re problematic. It’s not because of them at all. During one of my breakups, my ex-boyfriend went in the bathroom and blasted Linkin Park’s In The End and sung along with it. His message was clear: he felt that nothing he did within the relationship had mattered because it ended. I haven’t been able to separate that song from that experience, but maybe today’s the day.