Fitness Blog

Music Can Make You

Nothing has the power to motivate us like music. Nothing. And nothing can move you–literally move you–like the right song. Anyone who has been to a wedding reception has witnessed (or felt) the primal response. Tired people after a long day and a big meal would typically be glued to their seats and loosening their belts, but when the DJ drops the right single, everyone jumps up and takes it to the dance floor expending energy their friends haven’t seen them exert in years. Suddenly they’re sweatin’ to the beat.

We are intimately familiar with music’s power to move us, so why don’t most of us capitalize on it in any systematic way to take our fitness to the next level? Why indeed. Activity trackers like FitBit and Viviosmart remind us that fitness is the sum total of how we use our bodies, but most of us lack the in-the-moment motivation to make our movements more dynamic and improve our cardiovascular health, muscle tone, agility, and ease of movement.

The biggest roadblock to frequent dynamic movement is lack of energy, so even when we walk to or from the bus stop, most people conserve their energy and drift through their footsteps. Each day we lose hundreds of opportunities to shape the bodies we want or improve our health, but music can change that, and here’s how.

Become your own DJ

Make your life the best party-slash-rave-you were never invited to. Grab your smallest and most convenient portable music delivery device, and import songs with the power to move you like Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti or Aretha Franklin’s Respect. Then sync that device so you can listen to it throughout your day. Instead of just an alarm buzz, you can wake up to something like American Authors Best Day of My Life which has the energy to get you stepping lively to the sink to brush your teeth (2, 3, 4 Hoo! Hoo!) maybe segue into Andy Grammer’s Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah) for a quick dance routine before getting into the shower. See where we’re going?

A day with music that builds your energy up to the point where you have to fight the urge to shake your thang is an incredibly effective way to get a strong and healthy body. It also has superlative mood-enhancing properties and innumerable psychological benefits. So make it a point to stop wasting your opportunities listening to regurgitated news on morning radio and television, give yourself a moratorium on talking-head entertainment and attention-snatching gossip babble. Instead, take an extra lap around the block on your way home, do that set of lower body squats you’ve been meaning to do when you get to your door, get in some alternating lunges while drying the dishes after dinner along to The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction.

When so many of us struggle with motivation and lack of energy, why would we choose to live our lives without the medical miracle that are songs packed with the power of Michael Jackson in The Jackson Five’s Blame It On The Boogie? What are you waiting for? Get up and get down. Your body will thank you for it!