The best workout songs will amp up your fitness routine

When it’s cold and dark, and a long winter looms ahead, you need all the exercise motivation you can get. The best workout songs can help with that. Unless you’re one of those rare souls who runs or lifts weights with no headphones in at all, then the right bit of music can be crucial to your performance. Making yourself to do that extra rep, or extra loop of the park, is that big easier if you’re psyched up by a song.

The kind of song depends on the kind of exercise – the best workout songs are, of course, the ones that best match your activity. If you’re doing an extended run, you’re probably best off tuning into some repetitive beats, as on the albums we’ve selected for the job here. But if you need a shot of primal motivation for weights, or for a sprint, or indeed for anything else that requires it, then bone-shaking intensity is in order. Here are our top selections, spanning hip-hop, rock and dance, that can help you push though the most unforgiving routines. After all, it’s not like the gym soundtrack is going to do it.

This song’s title has become slang for ultra-locked-in energy, but for the avoidance of doubt, the gym is very much the right place to go “sicko mode”. That squealing synthesiser intro leads into one drop… which immediately leads into another. Three minutes later, the beat switches again. That’s very good value for a 5-minute song – if you need a second and third wind in a tricky set, put it on.

Let’s rewind past Kendrick Lamar’s eviscerating rap disses and recent albums, and go back to 2012’s Good Kid, MAAD City. In “Backseat Freestyle”, Kendrick raps in character – specifically, as a naïve young man bragging about what he doesn’t actually have. But with Kendrick's energy behind the performance, it goes incredibly hard. The spare, clanging beat, courtesy of Hit-Boy, teems with energy, and Kendrick’s flow is one of his best ever. It’ll have you screaming “Martin had a dream!” on the squat machine.

The American swimmer Michael Phelps went viral during the 2016 Rio Olympics for the “death stare” he pulled by the side of the pool before an event. “I was in the zone with Future’s track ‘Stick Talk’ blaring in my headphones,” he explained later. Phelps was on the money: “Stick Talk”, with its earth-shaking 808 bass and Kill Bill–style sirens, is ridiculously motivating. It would probably turn you into the Hulk if played loud enough. It’s definitely powerful enough for a few push-ups.

Let’s be clear: UK rap can go just as hard as its American equivalent, as anyone who’s been in a club when “Pow!” has come on can attest. Another stellar example is “Man Don’t Care”, a canonical grime banger by JME and Giggs. Few songs go 0-100 like this one: within the first lines of the first verse, JME is rapping about punching people in the face with his front door key; back door key; car key; and bank fob. Later, Giggs waxes lyrical about digestives and cinnamon tea, which, weirdly, is just as hyped-up.

No, we’re not joking. Remember that, before “Eye of the Tiger” became the clichéd soundtrack to every sports training montage, it was specially written for Rocky III, with a riff that synched up to every punch. Truly a stroke of genius. So open your mind, press play, and channel a sweaty Sylvester Stallone. At the very least, it’ll inject a bit of fun into another evening at the gym.

For something truly gnarly, why not try the most expletive-crammed song to ever top the UK singles chart? A brutal, crunchy anthem protesting police brutality, it features a killer riff, and the line “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” repeated 16 times, with a “Motherfucker!” thrown in at the end for good measure. Needless to say, this will amp up your aggression levels if needed – but use with caution.

Guns N’ Roses are mostly known for long, intricate guitar solos and long, wailing power ballads, but the heavier end of their catalogue is great too. Exhibit A is “Welcome to the Jungle”, the opening track of their debut album. After a delay-drenched guitar intro, we’re into a rich, rolling riff, over which Axl Rose growls in a deep, husky voice. An instrumental breakdown halfway through, before the guitars return with even more gusto, is just the thing to help you crank your willpower up to 11.

If you’re after electronic music a touch more amped up than the steadiness of regular house and techno, there are plenty of tracks that can oblige – like “Burn Dem Bridges” by Skin on Skin, which combines a relentless beat with a repurposed drill vocal from Sav’o and Horrid1’s “Violent Siblings”. That’s two sources of intensity right there, which combine to create a properly overwhelming dance tune that can go toe-to-toe with anything from the rap world.

The more experimental end of dance music isn’t just for stroking your chin to. After an extended, atmospheric buildup, Joy Orbison’s “Hyph Mngo” comes in with an all-timer of drop – an ecstatic, genre-defying drop that sounds like what aliens might spin in their discos, and which affirms why the song has been venerated as a classic since its release. If you need a moment of pure transcendence in the middle of PureGym, this is guaranteed to take your workouts intergalactic.

Tessela is the old producer alias of Ed Russell, one of the two Welsh brothers now behind the festival-conquering electronic act Overmono. “Hackney Parrot” was his signature, much-remixed tune, and this mix might be the hardest of them all. Frantic breakbeats drag you in from the song’s outset; the only other things on it are a chopped up vocal sample and a hyperactive synth line. There is no let-up, and someone that’s exactly what you need.