Build a Workout Cool Down: Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine

Wow. What a beautiful cool down! Bill Withers sexy voice and thumping guitar slowed me way down so that I could stretch out my sore muscles walking the last couple minute of my workout in perfect bliss.

Build a Workout Mix: Successful Mix 5

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This mix is an altered version of Successful Mix 4 which you can find HERE

1. One-Winged Angel (orchestral version) – Nobuo Uematsu

2. Du Hast – Rammstein

3. IT’S SHOWTIME!! – B’z 2003

4. Aaj Ki Raat – A R Rahman

5. My Body Is A Cage – Arcade Fire

6. Totalimmortal – AFI

7. Baby Boy – Beyoncé

8. Path Vol 2 – Apocalyptica

9. Aint No Sunshine – Bill Withers

10. Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss

The first thing you’ll notice about this mix is that it is LONGER! It’s a good idea that you constantly push yourself to run further and faster. To run longer, obviously you want to add more songs but you also want to have more strides since this is the portion where you can gain some steady productivity. Faster requires more burnouts to encourage you to run your hardest. Lets look at the changes.

I started off with a new warm up. Most people who know “One-Winged Angel” would immediately think of burnout. The final boss music for one of the most beloved videogame villain of all time. I chose the lighter orchestral version specifically so that I could use it as a warm up. The song does have a slowly progressive nature as it spins and winds toward something grander. This allowed my body to start off at a gentler pace and slowly work my way faster. It never got me running at top speed but it definitely prepared me for the additional ten minutes on the end of this run.

Industrial Metal and specifically Rammstein music lends itself VERY WELL to the stride. Strides are all about keeping a steady pacing which is most easily found in dance music. Metal rhythms are also great because a good guitar riff works much the same way. “Du Hast” works to combine these two elements into something great. The metal side adds lots of little guitar flourishes to keep your brain occupied and the dance side adds little digital noises like at 2:04. I must also mention that the drums are beast!

Continuing this so far all new mix, we have a new burnout in the form of B’z’s all caps “IT’S SHOWTIME!!” How can a song with a title in all caps and two exclamation points not be a burnout? This song was used a lot in Japan for national sporting events and even the 2004 Olympics. The song was specifically made to ramp you up and thats exactly what it does!

I was then treated to ANOTHER new stride! Here’s another from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. “Aaj Ki Raat” is a monster of a stride topping out at over 6 minutes! It kept me going with its simple danceable beat and trance inducing singers mesmerizing me for the entire time. So pretty!

We finally get to some familiar ground with the newly located “My Body is a Cage” warm up which I absolutely loved in my last run and couldnt bear to part with yet.

This was followed by two other recent staples, the burnout “Totalimmortal” and the stride “Baby Boy” which both continue to succeed completely. I was definitely getting tired by the time I got to “Baby Boy” and thought I’d slow to a walk. The beat was so good I had to keep running for another four minutes!

“Path Volume 2” by Apocalyptica is one of the rare occasions where the band is accompanied by a singer. This song blew my mind the first time I heard it years ago and I knew it would work perfectly as a burnout. I mentioned how tired I was at the beginning of “Baby Boy” and this point I was ready to collapse. The haunting vocals and insane chugging cellos made it impossible for me to slow down and there I was off sprinting all over again!

Wow. What a beautiful cool down! Bill Withers sexy voice and thumping guitar slowed me way down so that I could stretch out my sore muscles walking the last couple minute of my workout in perfect bliss.

“Aint No Sunshine” was originally intended to finish off the mix. This leads to another lesson for a successful mix: ALWAYS CARRY SOME BACKUPS! In this case, my legs just werent ready to stop walking. They were really tensing up and cramping and I needed another couple minutes to walk it off. Thankfully I always pack some spares so I simply pulled out this wonderful acapella spiritual that I first heard on the O’Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and walked off those extra couple minutes in peace. This song is the perfect way to cool down after a long and tiresome run.

Song of the Day 09/22/12: Alex Clare – Too Close

Have you ever thought to yourself: “You know, I’m kind of interested in that new dubstep sound that everyone is talking about, but it’s just so loud and heavy!  Skrillex’s voice just doesn’t work for me.  If only Gavin DeGraw and Adele had a child who’d make softer dubstep music for me…” ?   If you have, you don’t have to wish anymore!  Because Alex Clare is more than willing to be that man for you.

Song of the Day 08/02/12: James Blake – Limit To Your Love

My last couple songs have been kind of loud so I thought I’d go with something more mellow today. Im a huge fan of James Blake. He’s definitely trying to create a completely unique blend of music. He takes elements of dubstep (oh how I love dubstep!) and incorporates them into a blend of elctronica and soul. “Limit To You Love” is actually a cover of the song “The Limit to Your Love” by canadian folk pop artist Feist. There’s just something about this song that somehow turns staring at a wall into something enjoyable. Seriously. I stare at the wall while I listen to this. And its awesome!

Song of the Day 11/26/10: John Legend – Again

So this is a strange one.  Sometimes there’s just a song that captures a specific magic.  There isn’t one oustanding reason why the song is so great, but it is.  In the case of “Again”, by John Legend, I think it’s a good song but there is a specific raw, live version of the track that is just leaps and bounds better than any other version.  It holds the spot of my favorite John Legend track.  I think that sometimes, an artist plays a song on a specific night in a specific mood, and it’s just different!  Magical.  Powerful.  Whatever the word, I wasn’t able to find this version on Youtube!  I guess it’s a rarer cut than I thought.  I couldn’t bare to put up one of the lesser versions because in this case, it’s that specific recording that has all the magic for me.  So if you want today’s song of the day, send me a message with your email address and I’ll send you the track.  It’s worth it.