It seems like every other PR video I upload, there's always a comment or question about what music I'm playing in the background.
Everybody has their own person preferences for choice of music to listen to during a workout. Powerlifters seem notorious for playing some sort of heavy metal music, but personally it's not my thing. There's something about the constant screaming that doesn't appeal to me.
I prefer epic battle music, which is mostly instrumental and has a little bit of incomprehensible vocals thrown around here and there.
There's something about beating drums and trumpets that brings up images of warriors in a far off land in a distant past, preparing for some glorious impeding battle. A battle where you have to give it your all, or die in the process. You know, stuff you see in fantasy movies or anime.
The idea of preparing for battle parallels the moments before attempting to set a new personal record in the squat, bench press, deadlift or overhead press. More specifically, preparing to blast (or grind) through a sticking point that’s unique to each lift, which really seems to be where the “battle” takes place.
During my warm ups, I’ll listen to some interviews or something educational. Or sometimes nothing. I don’t need a high level of arousal when warming up, but when the top set of the day approaches (which, these days is a PR attempt), my focus begins to narrow…and the real battle is just on the horizon.
I’ll usually start playing some music during the last few warm up sets, in order to get in the zone prior to lifting a weight that I've never lifted before for a given number of repetitions.
Anyhoo, my entire PR Music playlist is here. But here's my current top 10 list of training music to get psyched and pumped up to prepare to hit a new PR:
1. Conan The Barbarian Theme
2. Conan The Destroyer Theme
3. Riders of Doom (From Conan The Barbarian)
By the way, that's Franco Columbu with the painted nipples at 1:08.
4. Deidara Theme Song (From Naruto Shippuden)
5. Emergence of Talents (From Naruto Shippuden)
6. Kokuten (From Naruto Shippuden)
7. Ip Man Theme Song
8. Legends of Azeroth (From World of Warcraft)
Dat nostalgia…
9. Seasons of War (From World of Warcraft)
This was used in the cinematic trailer for World of Warcraft.
10. Sasori Theme (From Naruto Shippuden)
Sometimes, getting too hyped up leads to sloppy technique. If I feel I need to relax and get even more focused on the task at hand, I'll play something slow.
Now, crush some PRs!
