(Un) Skinny Bop

Can glam make you thin? I know that listening to glam while I'm on the treadmill makes the task go quicker, help me focus, and puts me in a good mood.

I never understood people who listen to country, classical or pop music while trying to lift weights or train for a marathon. To me, if I’ve got 45 minutes in front of me at 7 in the morning, it makes more sense to listen to Metallica’s “Fuel” or “Shout at the Devil” by the Crue.

www.webmd.com recently commissioned a study about the correlation of music and exercising. Fitness experts simply reinforced what most of us already know: music makes the workout go faster, makes us work harder, and makes us have fun.

A 2005 study tracked participants who listened to music while exercising, and those who did not. Not a shocker, the people who rocked while on the elliptical machine dropped more pounds. I also bet they were in a better mood after listening to an hour of Poison.  

The final ruling found that music didn't actually help weight loss, rather, it keeps people motivated to continually exercise. This, in turn, equals scale success.

Here are some glam tunes I use every day at the gym:

1) "Dr. Feelgood" – Motley Crue (perhaps one of the best songs ever recorded for exercise).
2) "Wild Side" – Motley Crue
3) "Fuel" – Metallica
4) "Unskinny Bop" – Poison
5) "Up All Night" – Slaughter
6) "Tunder Kiss ’65" – White Zombie
7) "Still of the Night" – Whitesnake
8) "Noone’s Gonna Do It For You" – Vains of Jenna
9) "Round and Round" – RATT
10) "Pour Some Sugar on Me "– Def Leppard
11) "Black and Blue" – Van Halen
12) "Runnin’ with the Devil" – Van Halen

Of course there are more, but those were just off the top of my head.

In honor of our list, "Runnin' with the Devil" will be our song obsession of the week. Originally recorded for the 1978 release Van Halen, the album single-handedly changed modern metal music. Van Halen helped create glam while making metal accessible to the masses. Last weekend, Eddie Van Halen joined forces with Fender to launch a new line of EVH guitars. Proof positive that after 30 years in the business, a cancer scare, failed marriage and continual band feuding, old Eddie still knows how to rock.

Comments

[Rockfighter]

Is metallica glam? I hate all thrash metlers, metallica the most

[Brad]

Allyson,

Thanks for this post which, as you said, confirms something we all pretty much instinctively knew -- but was still great to have confirmed by the scientific community.

I know I've been guilty of turning around and leaving the gym when I find I have dead batteries in my MP3 player. Or just doing my workout, but doing it *really* begrudgingly!

You are doing a great job with this blog. Please keep up the great work! I especially appreciate the fact that you take a super-inclusive view of what constitutes "glam" -- a view that is apparently unlike "Rockfighter", if that *is* his real name, :-)

Your joy for your subject matter definitely comes through in your writing. And I think it is great the way you try to present opinions and fueds as evenhandedly as possible.

Best regards,

- Brad -

[sixx6sixx]

Metallica glam? Excuse me while I throw up! They are a bunch of sellouts! And frankly, they sound more like grunge than glam (to me anyway). Metallica. Blah!!!!!!!