Creating The Perfect Fitness Or Posing Music

By: Ed Murphy

I've been a big fan of music all my life. As a young teen of the 80's, I reveled in the powerful rock beats and chords of the hairbands of the day, and some not-so-hairy bands.

Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Van Halen, ACDC, Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Rush filled my eardrums and air guitars most of the time. Ok, I had air drums too.

How I Got Into Creating High Energy Music

I soon broke away from my adolescent comrades after hearing my first rap song. The minimalist attitude regarding melody and strong focus on bone-jarring rhythm caused in me the first real reaction to want to dance. It's funny how sound can influence our mood, energy level and physical state. You may have heard of rap, now incorrectly referred to as HipHop. But I'll save that history lesson for another day.

I decided I wanted to control that power in music and got my first set of turntables, mixer and a ton of related equipment that caused my father and sister to pound on my door pretty much daily to "Turn That Music Down!" But I never did, of course.

I experimented with all types of music, mixing rock with techno, rap with house, rock with rap, which is all so common now... and made tapes for myself to work out to. Soon friends wanted mixes, and I gave them away freely.

Then I started working for a gym as an instructor. I would play my mixes on the gym sound system and make all the 30 and 40-something's angry, including my boss. Then I was asked by an aerobics instructor to make her one. She was ecstatic at the result, and I continued making high energy workout mixes for many years.

Music and physical activity go together. Some may hear Tchaikovsky in the clang of iron plates, but I wasn't one of them. I would zone out with my Walkman, a mix of White Zombie, Public Enemy and anything else that would make you want to rip out a man's spleen... then explode into my set, usually with a lot of screaming on my part.

That was a long time ago, but I'm sure you young testosterone-raging lunatics know the feeling.

How I Got Into Creating Routine Music

A couple years ago my wife Linda Rose Murphy went with me to watch our first bodybuilding and fitness competition in Boston, MA. My long-time friend Ron Harris was competing after finally returning home from living over a decade in California. Neither one of us really expected the women.

Yeah, very important aspect

mixing music is deff a good idea, i have many friends that do that, and many boxing friends that actually train to angry music ^ ^ however i did loose my cd player and no ipod. gota be super nice and steal my gfs heehehe.

thats cool your mind is the temple true to that i love rap

it's nice if you include music in your fitness life

lol ... "Walkman" .... havent heard that in ages.

Everything from Motorhead, "Ace of Spades" to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, "Relax", w/ a good dose of Rage Against the Machine.
Music puts me in the right state of mind everytime i work out. as long as it's got a lot of energy. i also like punk and rap.

"Click Click Boom" by Saliva, brilliant song (rock)