Using song workouts to increase motivation and performance is a well-established technique for group fitness trainers.
Members will train harder, for longer, and will get better results from each session. Music is also a great way to make your fitness classes look more attractive to non-members. But what music should you pick?
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that faster tempo music can lead to more intense workouts, but why stop there? For a long time, boot camp owners have been using song workouts in their sessions.
A song workout is where you listen to a certain song, and tailor your exercise to it. Remember the macarena? It was a song which had specific dance moves for you to follow. Or there is the Cha Cha Slide, which gives you commands to follow (slide to the left).
Obviously, your boot camp can’t just be playing the macarena on a loop, that would be mind-numbingly awful for you and your members.
The trick is to find fun, repetitive songs and turn the lyrics into exercise commands. This article will demonstrate several songs that you can base workouts upon, but also help you to create your own.
In this section, we have picked twelve song workouts that you can add into your boot camp sessions.
You can either use these, or you can use the templates to create your own ones. We’ve outlined how each song workout works, and you should be able to customise it to your own preferences.
Song Workout #1 Roxanne – The Police
The Roxanne song workout is by far the most well-known example in boot camps. It’s absolutely perfect! Not only does it have a fast tempo, but it has a lot of repetition, and it is entertaining. It ticks a lot of boxes.
There are a number of ways that you can use this as a song workout. You can either assign a different exercise to the two famous lines, for example:
- Roxanne = Star Jump
- Put on the Red Light = Squat
Or, if you have a large enough group, you can split it into two. One group performs a burpee every time the song says Roxanne, the other group performs a burpee (or whatever) during the response line.
If you know the song, then you will be aware that there are more “Roxanne” lyrics than red light lyrics, so keep that in mind when setting up your groups.
Song Workout #2 Our House – Madness
The song “Our House” by Madness is very similar structurally to Roxanne. It has the same call and response. This can be split in the same way as Roxanne.
- Our House = Squat Jump
- In the Middle of our Street = Standing Broad Jump
The song can also be performed in two groups, to continue that rivalry that we saw in Roxanne. In some ways, this song actually works better as a competition than Roxanne does.
To keep the workout fair, you will have to insist that people also perform an exercise to the alternative lyrics to “middle of our street” such as “was our castle and our keep”. Don’t worry, it will be obvious when you’re doing it.
Song Workout #3 Jolene – Dolly Parton
Okay, this may not be the most obvious workout song that you have ever heard but bear with us. Imagine getting all your members in the push up position, and then telling them that they have to perform one push up (or Burpee) every time that Dolly sings the name “Jolene”. That’s about 20 push ups (or burpees) within a 2 minute 43 second song.
Now, Dolly sings this pretty fast, so you may find that people don’t manage to hit four push ups in the time it takes her to sing four Jolenes, but that is not too big a deal.
This works with most exercises, squats are a great alternative, or medicine ball tosses, or kettlebell swings, if you have access to them.
Song Workout #4 I Get Around – The Beach Boys
This song works in the same way as Jolene, assigning an exercise to the term “Get around” or “round”. This is a lot tougher than Jolene though! The song is shorter, and the lyrics are much more common. Pick an easier and quicker exercise for this and use it as a workout finisher.
Song Workout #5 Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
“I get knocked down, but I get up again” is as close as a song will ever get to advocating multiple burpees! Get into the push up position when they say, “I get knocked down” then jump up when they say, “But I get up again”.
This song is fast paced, anthemic, and a lot of fun. It’s also an absolute killer for song workouts. You can make it easier by splitting the group into two and getting one group to perform an exercise during the call and the other group to perform an exercise during the response.
Song Workout #6 Everybody Get Up – Five
Not only does this song have clear instructions “everybody get up” and “Five will make you get down” but they also count out reps “one, two, three, four”. The song is perfect for boot camps. It is also guaranteed to get the loudest groan of any song on this list!
- Everybody get up = Squat jump
- One, two, three, four = Run on the spot
- Five will make you get down = Lie on ground (then do push ups or crunches)
Again, this song can be split into two groups if you want to make things a little easier (and more competitive) or it can be used as a really tough finisher. It works really well for planks too!
Song Workout #7 Hey Mickey – Toni Basil
Is this one of the most annoying songs on earth? Possibly. Is it a fantastic choice for a song workout? Undeniably! Add in some burpees, star jumps, squat jumps, or even some push ups, for every “Mickey” in the song and you’ve got an incredibly challenging 3 minute 48 second workout.
Song Workout #8 Sweetest Thing – U2
This song breaks a lot of our rules, it is medium tempo, and is pretty relaxed. But it works perfectly as a song workout due to its repetitive lyrics “sweetest thing”. You could do push ups, burpees, squats, lunges, or any exercise to this song quite easily.
It could also work out quite well as a cool down, pick a low impact exercise (perhaps an ab exercise) and perform one rep each time they sing, “sweetest thing”. The relaxing song could really help calm people down after a tough workout.
Song Workout #9 Jump Around – House of Pain
How much explanation does this need? It’s a song where the word “jump” is sung about 50 times! Pick a jumping exercise (squat jumps, burpees, jumping lunges, standing broad jumps) and perform one every time they sing “jump”.
Song Workout #10 Jump – Kris Kross
This is basically the exact same song workout as Jump Around but performed with your jeans on back to front (just watch the video if you don’t understand).
Song Workout #11 500 miles – Proclaimers
Something a little different to the other song workouts here. Marching in place during each verse and then performing a more challenging exercise (mountain climbers, squat jumps) during the chorus.
A great warm up if you use lower impact exercises, or a great finisher if you use more challenging exercises such as burpees.
Song Workout #12 Blue – Eiffel 65
Possibly the most annoying song in history, but also a perfect example of a song workout. The word Blue is used about 10,000 times in this song, so just pick an exercise (mountain climbers might work well) and perform one rep every time they say Blue.