I don't think I've ever seen the word "bodice" used outside of the phrase "bodice-ripping." Good work.
Also we share a lot of musical preferences. Feeling a little weird about that.
Why would sharing musical taste with me make you feel weird, hmm?
Lift weights! It's easy, and fun, and will affect the fit of your clothes a lot faster than cardio. Buy one of those big horrible books with a disgusting-looking man with veins all over him on the cover, put a workout together, and go to town.
"Hearts on Fire" by John Cafferty. Best workout song ever.
Tia, that's a fine selection. I suggest the addition of "mighty wings" from the top gun soundtrack.
It makes me excited, but also frightened.
Also, what LB said.
just purchase the top gun soundtrack, everyone.
Freedom—George Michael.
La Copa de la Vida—Ricky Martin.
no music recs, but - they're dorky, but if your gym offers them, i recommend spinning classes. besides running it's the best workout i've been through.
4: It will? Lifting weights seems boring to me. Like, even more boring than the cardio machines, on which I can at least listen to enjoyable music and find a groove. It seems like you'd always have to interrupt yourself to move to a new machine. Also, one day I may acquire a means of watching DVDs while doing the cardio. Although I guess if I can't afford an ipod, that will be longer coming.
Thanks, everybody. MAW and Ca, who are the artists on those tracks. I'm very ignorant. Condescend to me, please.
John Zorn's Kristallnacht.
"Zorn warns in the liner notes, 'contains high frequency extremes at the limits of human hearing and beyond, which may cause nausea, headaches and ringing in the ears.' While nearly unbearable, it is a fitting sound representation of Kristallnacht, as thousands of layers of shattering glass assault the ears."
Bouncy!
Buy one of those big horrible books with a disgusting-looking man with veins all over him on the cover
If you're going to buy a book on weightlifting, the one to get is Science and Practice of Strength Training.
The author is on the faculty out at Penn State. Used by top powerlifters, now has chapters aimed at women, youth athletes, seniors, etc.
18: It's the dudes who wrote this.
Condescend to me, please.
All tracks suggested by MAE and myself are Steely Dan tunes and would probably slow you down on the machines. They have an excellent beat but it is not a bouncy one.
"West of Hollywood" has a fairly bouncy beat. Still, probably not what Tia is looking for.
Tbh, kickboxing isn't a great workout if you want to lose weight. Or that's my experience at least. I have lost weight throught it, but slowly.
It's more anaerobic than aerobic so not brilliant for fat-burning and, while it's pretty tough on the muscles, the muscles it's tough on aren't really the big core muscle groups that weight-training would target.
I suspect that the aerobics classes will operate at a lower level of intensity than kickboxing -- or they ought to if they are about fat burning.
LB is totally right in 4 about the effects of weight training. Building muscle also helps with burning calories at other times. People with decent muscle-bulk burn more calories than other people just sitting on their arse.
#16: Lifting weights seems boring to me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says lifting weights is actually quite stimulating.
Well, actually, that's not exactly how he phrases it.
I agree with LB on the weightlifting thing. You'll definitely want to do cardio stuff as well, or else you end up with the embarrassment of still getting winded after running up a few flights of stairs. Muscle just raises your baseline metabolism by a good bit, and you'll always burn more calories during the 20 hours of sleeping/sitting on your ass than during the 1-2 hours of working out in the gym.
Also, I'd recommend grabbing a cheap flash mp3 player for exercising. They only run $50-70, their batteries last for ages, and they'll never skip. Plus, they don't screw up after being bounced around like a hard-drive mp3 player does.
As for music, try "Darktrain" by Underworld, it's a great steady song for running, rowing or biking, and it'll take you through 10 minutes of a workout just on its own. I could recommend a lot more, but I'm unsure how far you really want to stray from poppy dance stuff.
But if you're doing the weights, don't keep track of your progress with a scale. (We've had this conversation before, but: muscle is denser than fat, so you can be smaller while weighing the same.)
It wasn't proper kickboxing, it was exercize class type kickboxing, where you mostly punch and kick around without an object to receive your punches and kicks, and then stop to do crunches and pushups or squats, and I don't know from exercise, but the punching and kicking part felt aerobic to me.
Anyway, what I was thinking was that if I got into shape for the hard yoga classes, that would basically be everything in one.
re: 28
Ah. Proper kickboxing is pretty high-intensity. Short bursts of intense exercise -- more like sprinting than jogging. Or a bit like playing squash or some similarly explosive sport.
The exercise class type of 'kickboxing' sounds more effective as an exercise class with fitness as the main aim.
I'll echo everyone's suggestions about weight training: it's great. For books about it, I've heard good things about Bill Pearl's stuff.
For workout music, I suggest Karmella's Game. But watch out for heart failure.
"Lose Yourself" by Eminem. "Touch The Sky" by Kanye West.
To clarify my 29, it seems to me that hard yoga would have all the benefits of weight training, but I would enjoy it more.
The hard yoga class will probably be generally good. I'd imagine it's a lot like pilates, actually, really good for muscle balance and stretching while helping with some strengthening and cardio fitness. Still, it's always good to cross-train for general fitness if you have the time. Take whatever you prefer as your main activity (yoga, in this case) and then try to stick in other stuff like weight-lifting or biking around it. It's amazing the difference it makes when each of those activities start to reinforce one another.
Of course, this is only if you have the leisure time, or just really enjoy that sore/exhausted & elated feeling after a good workout.
Hip-hop works for me.
Early 90s G-Funk style stuff in particular.
e.g. Lady of Rage - Afro Puffs
that sort of thing. Also, any 70s funk.
Ditto on the weight training. But for weight training you need different music. I'd recommend hip-hop with a slow, hard beat. "Who we be" by DMX may be the greatest lifting weights song ever.
#34: Great pick! How could I leave out the Loaf?
To clarify my 29, it seems to me that hard yoga would have all the benefits of weight training, but I would enjoy it more.
This doesn't seem right to me. Admittedly, my own experience with yoga is primarily from having grown up with a hippy-ish mom. And I have no doubt that hard yoga can be very, very hard.
But muscle hypertrophy is really about short bursts of intense activity. And, perhaps more relevantly, the bone density benefits of weight training that are of particular concern to women come from the bone being under load above and beyond what you experience by carrying around your body weight. Based on the classes I've watched and practitioners I've met, I have a hard time believing that yoga -- fine exercise though it may be -- would help you achieve either of those benefits.
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Bad Religion - Any Album
Lady Sovereign
The Roots
Sole
Gnarls Barkley
Prefuse 73
Some good workout music that I have endured while riding my bike on the trainer or rollers.
Selections from my workout mix (currently titled my "pep mix", since I haven't been to the gym in ages and felt a little silly): Losing My Religion (REM), Ha Ha You're Dead (Green Day), Letter From An Occupant (New Pornographers), Palmcorder Yajna (The Mountain Goats), The Sporting Life (Decemberists). And, um, also the numa numa song.
You should definately lift weights, too. After you've been doing it for a little while, it actually makes working out more interesting. Also, with the whole resting metabolic rate stuff that's been mentioned.
re: 40
Yeah, the Gnarls Barkley and Lady Sovereign stuff would be good.
Hard yoga definitely does not have all of the benefits of weight training. Of course, this presumes you do real weight training and not what the vast majority of women do. Most people who lift weights find it far more enjoyable than cardio because you are constantly changing what you are doing.
If you are going to do cardio you should do interval training. It burns more fat in less time and provokes a longer term metabolic change than simple jogging or bike riding.
I second the recommendation of getting a cheap non-Ipod flash based mp3 player for workouts.
The Fiery Furnaces: Asthma Attack. Though it might make you fall down.
I just discover axé music, seems appropriate. FRom Bahia in Brazil.
Oh, and how about I rephrase "all the benefits of weight training" to "the one benefit of weight training previously discussed," which was that it builds muscle mass. I don't see how it possibly couldn't. I've definitely noticed myself getting stronger when I was doing a lot of hardish yoga, and things like a kazillion vinyasas in a row where you have to lower down to chataranga (like a slow, extended push up) involve a lot of weight bearing that those muscles don't usually do.
Ashtanga is great exercise, and if it's all you're going to do, imho, it's enough (especially if you regularly walk around NYC). But weight training really is fun. And it's kind of cool to get that muscular definition going.
IME, Ashtanga does build muscle. But yeah, not as much as weight training.
The original gay thread was about men doing sterotypically female (by which I don't mean kegels) exercises, right?
"Letter From An Occupant" is, as Matt F says, excellent workout music. In fact, pretty much any New Pornographers should do it.
I fourth the recommendation for weight training. It's great for muscle building, bone density, and balance. Even if you just do squats, the fat will come off faster. (Squats are great. They work all the leg muscles and a lot of the ab ones.) Plus, then you will be able to compete for the title of world's most awesome ass.
Music. I have no taste. I listen to things that keep me from going crazy from boredom when I have to do the stupid elliptical thing.
So with no requirements other than they're up tempo and make me not want to kill myself during cardio workouts:
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love", Queen.
"Begin the Begin" R.E.M.
"Magic Dance" David Bowie
"Take Me Out" Franz Ferdinand
"Just Let Go" Fischerspooner
"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic", The Police
"Sinner Man", off the Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack (Nina Simone?)
"Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marchez", which is yes, just these boots were made for walkin', but it's better in French.
"99 Luftballons", Nena, German version only.
I second Joe Drymala's recommendations.
"Holiday", Green Day.
The Liz Phair cover of "Mother's Little Helper."
And if you need to listen to Radiohead:
"There, There"
"Idiotheque"
Most physical activities build muscle mass to some extent. The question is really one of effectiveness. Bodyweight exercises have certain limitations, one of which is that they tend to require a very high number of repetititions. Instead of doing a kazillion vinyasas you might achieve the same (hypertrophy) results in 60 seconds of presses.
Of course, the best exercise is the one you enjoy doing because that's the one you'll keep doing.
Even better than "It's Raining Men" is "It's Raining Men" with Gov. Schwartzenegger shouting encouragements in the background. "Up! Down! Ja! one more! Wery! good! One more!"
It's Raining Men (Arnold Schwartzenegger mix)
Cala, you're correct that it's Nina Simone.
"Let Go," by Frou Frou
"Must Be Dreaming," by Frou Frou
"It's Good to Be In Love," also by Frou Frou is a catchy one for steadiness - treadmill as opposed to elliptical, I'd say.
"Milkshake," by Kelis
"Born to Run" by The Boss
"Perfect Day," by Hoku
"Toxic," by Britney Spears (I know, I know)
"Crazy in Love," by Beyonce
"I'm Just a Girl," by No Doubt
"Only Happy When It Rains," by Garbage (ah, high school)
And cheers to the Shrek version of Holding Out For a Hero.
"Toxic," by Britney Spears (I know, I know)
Actually, thanks to the popist backlash among music critics, this is as "critic-approved" as any Velvet Underground song. Besides, those synth strings really are fricking awesome.
If you're still looking for music, I've always found DJ mixes to be helpful. They're made to be energetic and dancy, plus they're continuous so there's no pauses to slow between songs. A few favorites of mine (warning, could be dangerously indie):
DJ /rupture - Gold Teeth Thief
DJ /rupture - Low Income Tomorrowland
2 Many DJs - As Heard On Radio Soulwax (any volume)
50,000,000 Soulwax Fans Can't Be Wrong
DFA - Dance to the Underground
Diplo - Favela on Blast 04
M.I.A. and Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1
DJ Shadow - Funky Skunk
There's a papist backlash my music critics? (Pre-kabbala) Madonna isn't popular enough already?
Actually, I just remembered that Gold Teeth Thief is available online for free. Sadly, Low Income Tomorrowland isn't anymore. He makes great high energy mixes of mainstream rap, underground, reggaton, dancehall, and some random bhangra and other lesser-known styles thrown in. He's gotten me through many a rowing workout.
Hey, how can we have overlooked "Everybody Dance Now" by C & C Music Factory?
yeah, ashtanga will build muscle mass. the weight you're lifting is the rest of your body. just make sure you do the full vinyasa between each side, esp. the part that looks like a push-up and the part where you use your arm muscles to swing yourself directly backward from a crosslegged sitting position to a push-up position (lolasana to chataranga). it also develops a lot of internal long muscles underneath the shorter ones that weight-lifting neglects, and it develops everything evenly, so you won't have giant biceps and wimpy everything else or injure yourself.
nothing was odder, back in the day when i taught yoga at a gym, than teaching big muscley men poses like navasana or the related lower variant of n., and watching them fall out of it in exhaustion or start puffing with effort...
There's a papist backlash my music critics? (Pre-kabbala) Madonna isn't popular enough already?
You know His Holiness, he just can't get enough of "Like a Prayer" (none of the cardinals have the heart to show him the music video).
But yeah, popism vs. rockism is a big can of worms that you should only open if you're really into music and music criticism, and willing to wade through piles of ignorance, pretension, contrarianism and counter-contrarianism.
Actually I think that if you're really into music there's no reason to wade into "popism" and "rockism", which are really only for people who are big into wanking.
His Holiness, he just can't get enough of "Like a Prayer"
Don't forget "Papa Don't Preach".
If the people hashing out popism and rockism were really that into wanking, they wouldn't spend all that damn time at the keyboard. But that is why I said you have to be into music criticism (which usually implies liking music too, in some way).
Don't forget "Papa Don't Preach".
And of course "Act of Contrition".
Have you tried running? It's free. And real easy. One foot in front of the other, round the park or whatever, half an hour every day, time yourself and become fitter than a fiddle ... you'll soon notice that you fuck better, harder, longer, more intense orgasms, etc.
Weight training does very little for orgasms, I find.
68: There are many uses for increased quad strength -- likewise with core muscles.
Watching David Swenson do the Ashtanga Yoga sequences is crazy! He makes it all look easy, because he's slow and graceful, but man, it's nuts.
Yup, it's hard. But it's a damn good (and fun) workout.
Adam, you are wrong. Any sort of concentrated physical activity is good for one's sex drive. I lift weights, and I am hornier on any given day that I do so as compared to non-lifting days.
"Toxic", all poppist/rockist debates aside, is just a bloody great tune.
A lot of recent pop singles, imho, are pretty great. Pop producers, at the moment, seem to be churning out a lot of great stuff.
"The Battle" by Lady Sovereign is just under 8 minutes long and has a good steady beat, just the soundtrack for running consecutive 4-minute miles.
re. 62: Googling reveals the name of that song to be "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)".
hey ttaM, any specific pop singles you were thinking of? Don't assume I know them.