It would probably be impossible for anyone to count how many workout sessions have either been inspired or enhanced by something related to the Rocky sage: the training sequences, the Bill Conti musical score, the parallel to Stallone’s real life rags-to-riches story.
Bill Conti is a film legend. He has scored countless big Hollywood movies and he’s the guy who conducts the orchestra at the Oscars every year. So you have to appreciate it when he takes a little extra time and effort to add to the soundtrack of the Rocky Legends video game.
The following track is “Overture” and it is pretty much a 10-minute combination of the best instrumental tracks from the first few Rocky films: Gonna Fly Now, Going the Distance and Redemption.
But it’s ten minutes of good listening and inspiration…and for the die-hards: from about the 2:15 to the 4:45 mark, there are some new arrangements that aren’t in the movies and appear to have been put together just for (what I presume to be) the most inspirational video game ever made.
But this is the opening track to the 1986 ice hockey film Youngblood, the track to which we first see Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) alone on a poorly lit sheet of ice, doing what needs to be done: practising nonstop and honing his skills.
The film catches a lot of people on their way up: Lowe, Patrick Swayze (RIP) and Keanu Reeves. Plus you get underrated character actor Ed Lauter as the no-nonsense coach, real-life hockey hall of famer Eric Nesterenko, and a young Cynthia Gibb (oh yeah) as the female lead…
So the next time you need a little imagery to fuel the demands of a hard training day, I offer you: Youngblood.
Does this have much to do with training, fitness or any social issues? Not really. I guess I could point to the fact that the film has Arnold Schwarzenegger and use that as training inspiration of some sort…
But the fact is, it’s just an action classic and it’s time to pay tribute to Schwarzenegger at his peak as he was kicking the asses of child-kidnapping terrorists. Here is the theme from the 1985 film Commando, where if Arnold likes you, that only means he will kill you last.
From the files of great workout, running, racing or weightlifting music comes the following song – one I first came across in the trailer for the documentary Facing Ali, which will be appearing at festivals soon.
It is one of those rap songs that seems to have a bit of crossover appeal, striking a chord with gymrats and athletes, even ones that typically avoid rap like it was swine flu.
After seeing the trailer, I spent a bit of time trying to track this song down and only recently succeeded. Naturally, I’m playing the living hell out of it right now, and we’ll see how long the honeymoon period lasts with this one. I’ve got a feeling it could end up being a staple.
Anyway, it is a likely candidate to make my playlists for any 5K or 10K, marathon or weight routine going forward. For your consideration, here it is…
Don’t know who this kid is, or how he came up with this pretty cool arrangement of Michael Jackson classics, but he did a couple cool camera tricks and overlayed a half dozen a capella vocal tracks to produce a pretty kick-ass product and tribute to the King of Pop.
I’ve never been shy to point out some good 80s music, and that goes double when it comes to the acoustic 80s crew. These guys have come up with a bunch of unique arrangements to some 80s classics, but I thought these two really stood out, so here are their versions of:
We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off by Jermaine Stewart
The song is called Monkey and it is performed by the group Low.
Why is this relevant and why am I making this post? Because I saw the movie a while back and I have since been on a bit of a search to track down this song. Over the course of that search, I came across many other people asking the same question but none providing the answers.
So anyway, here is your answer: Monkey by Low from the album The Great Destroyer.
The song isn’t even new. It was a 2005 album, but the Killshot producers must have had it in the back of their minds for a few years and realized they had something pretty good to fit into an appropriately themed movie if they ever made one.
Proof that I’m right? You can listen to a clip in the widget below. As you can see, it has also appeared in the film Cry Wolf.
Today I present another sample of my iPod playlist for the heavy weight training days in the gym. This is one of Jay Z’s signature songs and is about as hard-hitting as his stuff gets. Pretty good for a kick around the fourth or fifth set of an exercise when you need a little bit of extra fuel.
Below are a couple of versions of the much-remixed track.
Jay Z – 99 Problems (Instrumental)
And here is an interesting remix I came across in my travels. Bears little resemblance to the original but is kind of catchy…
Today I present another sample of my playlist for the grueling weight days in the gym. This one is a fairly obscure song by one of the masters of rap and, more importantly, a master of weightlifting-inspiration rap.
This is Pain by 2Pac. And if you are doing your job right in the weight room, your pain will run deep! Share it with me!
Today I present a further sample of my playlist for the heavy weight days in the gym. This a tried-and-true gym classic, and is of some good utility in timing your rests between sets. If you begin the song at the end of your last set, you will be hitting a high-intensity, additional-adrenaline-push point in the song at almost exactly two minutes in and, while not as inspiring, there is a distinctive point in the song three minutes in if you are using three-minute rests.
These are the little things that can save you some mental energy or provide an audio cue to resume your sets if you get distracted. I prefer to expend my mental energy on focus during the exercise rather than worrying about when to resume the workout and if the music can save me some of the effort of getting psyched up for the upcoming set, all the better.
Oh, and if you happen to use four-minute-and-thirty-five-second rests by any chance, this is also the song for you.
I am a longtime fitness advocate and a veteran of many grueling battles in the gym.
You never know when you might be struck by lightning, so I am gladly sharing the knowledge and experiences I have accumulated over the years.
Here you will find articles about fitness, nutrition, motivation and bodybuilding. I write about and track my own training and progress in varied activities such as weightlifting and distance running.
I am also an avid sports fan, and write from time to time about hockey, mixed martial arts and other athletics, as well as film, music and occasionally social issues that pique my interest.
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