The Ultimate Workout Playlist of 2017

Music is a powerful motivator. It keeps your mind off the pain and provides entertainment, whatever type of workout you’re doing.

While you want your favorite music, you also need music that will get you moving, keeping you pumping, and generally support you in all aspects of your workout. That means you need an ultimate workout playlist.

There are always new songs and new artists coming out. They can provide some of the best beats for your jobs, aerobic sessions, and even swims – yes, you can get waterproof MP3 players, and they are well worth the investment.

So, it’s time to get your workout playlist together for 2017. Here’s the ultimate list of songs to put together to make sure you have all the beats that you need when you need them.

Start with Your Warm Up

Whatever type of workout you’re doing, you need a warm up. That means you need music that isn’t too fast to push your body too much. We tend to work on the speed of the music, even without thinking.

So, start with songs that between 80 and 110 beats per minute. You need about three songs since most them are now over four minutes long! This will give you plenty of time to stretch and get the muscles ready.

P!nk’s Just Like Fire is the best one to start. It’s relatively slow but uplifting and motivating at the same time. You’ll start your workout with a smile on your face, and that gets you going for the rest of it.

Then move onto The Greatest by Sia and 24K Magic by Bruno Mars. These two songs will gradually pick up the pace, so you’re ready for the next set of songs for the main part of your workout.

So, for your warm up:

Just Like Fire by P!nk
The Greatest by Sia
24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Get the Beat for Your Workout

The next set of songs will really depend on the length of workout that you want to do. We recommend between 30 and 60 minutes since that’s what the experts recommend. 30 minutes is the minimum that you want to do. If you are looking to lose weight, 60 minutes will be a powerful set to help you burn far more calories.

We’ll give you a playlist for a 30-minute workout to get you going. You can then find your favorite songs with similar beats if you want to double the exercise routine.

In the majority of fitness classes, your warm up and cool down will be included as part of your routine. These classes are usually 60 minutes in length, so you’ll do around 40 minutes of high intensity/steady state exercise. But you can personally choose to do a full 60 minutes if you want to your 10 minutes warm up and cool down.

Let’s start with a track that nobody can stop them from dancing along to. Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake is addictive. It instantly puts you in a good mood and was designed just for exercising, really.

How about we move into a bit of Rihanna? There are a few of her songs that work for exercising and make excellent playlist inclusions. Work with Drake is one of the best from last year to include in your playlist for 2017. You can also include Too Good.

Technically, Too Good is a Drake song that features Rihanna. You can run them back to back or pop another song in between. It really depends on just how much of Rihanna you love. I prefer to have them with a song in between. That song has to be Cake by the Ocean by DNCE.

Cake by the Ocean is just a little faster than both Work and Too Good, so fits perfectly in the middle. As the workout increases, it’s time to look at a few other faster tracks. I still love Pharrell Williams’ Happy, but I’ve started replacing it with Runnin’. This is one of the faster songs on the list, sitting at a 137 BPM track.

Let’s not forget about Side to Side by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. This song even has Ariana Grande and her backing dancers on spin bikes in the music video. Okay, so they’re not in the context of a proper workout, but it makes it clear that this is a track to work out to.

It’s time for another Drake song, but this one is with Future and is called Jumpman. Follow that up with Kanye West’s Pt. 2. Whatever you think about West, at least his music has the tempo to get your body pumping and pushes you forward.

So, to wrap up this part of your workout:

Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake
Work by Rihanna
Cake by the Ocean by DNCE
Too Good by Drake (feat. Rihanna)
Runnin’ by Pharrell Williams
Side to Side by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
Jumpman by Drake and Future
2 by Kanye West

It’s Time for the Cool Down

The cool down needs slightly slower music. You don’t want to push your body at this point, as you need to stretch and get your heart rate down. It’s best to find tracks that are slower than 80 BPM. The great news is there were plenty of them in 2017.

Start with Shawn Mendes’ Mercy. This is just slightly slower than your last few songs on your workout playlist, so you don’t get a sudden shock of going a lot slower than you have been. If you’re running, widen your stride a little and allow yourself to take in deeper breaths. Now you’ll be ready for the stretching in the next song.

Love Yourself by Justin Bieber is the next good option. Okay, so it’s the Biebs, but the song is quite catchy – and reminds me a lot of the Ed Sheeran style than the typical Justin Bieber. The slow beat is also excellent for the stretching phase of your cool down.

Finally, This Town by former One Directioner Niall Horan is the song that you want on your playlist. You don’t even need the full song – as just half of it will usually take you to the 10 minute cool down time. Use this slow 56 BPM song as a chance to take your deep breaths and get yourself ready for your shower.

To recap:

Mercy by Shawn Mendes
Love Yourself by Justin Bieber
This Town by Niall Horan

Why Is the Perfect Playlist So Important?

You may think that just putting together your favorite songs is the best way forward. While this can be good, there are chances that your favorite songs are too slow for your workout. Remember that I said we tend to work out as fast as the music.

If you have constant slow tracks, you won’t put as much effort into your workout. You’ll find yourself slowing the pace to time your steps in with the beat of the music. This can do one of two things: you either need a much longer workout or you feel like you’re not quite achieving anything. In fact, working out without the music can be more effective than having the wrong music.

The music above may not be your favoritetracks, but they are powerful for exercise. This list is put together with your average workout taking into account, making sure the faster music is strategically placed when you’ll have the energy to push yourself more but before you need to get ready for the cool down stage.

Getting the wrong tracks will also affect the quality of your warm up and cool down. You need these two stages of your workout, and you need to be in the right mindset for them. The warm up is the stage that gets your muscles ready for what’s to come next. You get the blood pumping so that your muscles have more flexibility and can take the force of the workout. If you push your muscles without warming them up, they’ll rip, and you’ll be out with an injury.

The cool down is necessary to prevent lactic acid build-up and avoid injury. You help to get the heart rate down to slow down the blood flow around your body. You stretch off the muscles to help start the healing process.

What If I Hate That Music?

No matter how great the playlist is for your workout, it’s not always going to be the best for your mind. If you absolutely hate the music up there, you won’t put effort into your workout. You’ll spend all your time wishing that you had something better to listen to.

Well, you can put together a list with your own music, but follow the guide above. Find something with a beat that’s around the same as the songs above to do direct swaps. That means if you love Happy by Pharrell Williams, you want to replace it with something around the Runnin’ track. You don’t want to switch out Love Yourself for Happy because the beats are going to contradict each other.

Likewise, putting a typical Ed Sheeran song in the middle of your main workout is going to slow the pace right down! Sheeran’s songs are better for towards the start or end of your workout.

You will find that hip-hop, R&B, dance, and similar styles of tracks are the most preferred for workouts. As a rock fan, I hate to say that I’ve found hip hop and dance among the best for my workout playlists.

Why Change Up Your Music Regularly

You will get bored of your music after a while. Like with your exercise routine, you need to change up the music and your playlists every now and then. You may even find that listing to a podcast is favorable at times!

When you change up your music, your body gets excited about the next track it will hear. It doesn’t know what to expect but will have an idea of the beat. It gets ready for the next stage of your workout and is entertained the whole time. You’ll find that you push your body more and get a much more effective workout.

Plus, you actually look forward to the workout because you’re looking forward to the music. You know that you’re going to have something that will motivate you, but you don’t have to deal with the same lyrics repeatedly.

There will always be new tracks that come out. Take a listen to the Top 40 on a weekly basis and find new songs that entertain you. Every three months or so, make a change to your playlist, including some of the new tracks. Just do the switch as I’ve already mentioned above!

Reminder of Your Ultimate Playlist 2017

This is your full breakdown of your playlist:

Just Like Fire by P!nk
The Greatest by Sia
24K Magic by Bruno Mars

So, to wrap up this part of your workout:

Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake
Work by Rihanna
Cake by the Ocean by DNCE
Too Good by Drake (feat. Rihanna)
Runnin’ by Pharrell Williams
Side to Side by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
Jumpman by Drake and Future
2 by Kanye West
Mercy by Shawn Mendes
Love Yourself by Justin Bieber
This Town by Niall Horan

You have a 30-minute workout or so there, along with the warm up and cool down sessions. This is plenty of time to get your blood flowing and burn a few extra calories. If you want to make it a 60-minute session, you can add a few other favorite songs in there. Think strategically about where you’re placing them.

Use your music to your advantage. It will motivate you, but it must be the right beat to get you pushing yourself to the max. Only then will you get a workout that you feel like you’ve done your body some good.

KAREN REED