Choosing the ‘right’ music for your group exercise classes

Without fail, I get asked about music choice and availability at every workshop I teach.Music plays such an integral part of our group exercise classes and therefore makes choosing the right type, speed and style of music so important.

We first need to adhere to the generally accepted speeds of music per class type;

• Water fitness classes 128 – 140
• Step classes 128 – 138
• Conditioning classes 128 – 145
• Hi/Lo impact classes 135 – 156

(where you can work on the beat or on the half beat)

Moving into the style of music, your first priority as an group exercise instructor would be to look at your clients, the goal of the class you will be teaching, the time slot (time of day) of the class.

Obviously, in our cardio focused classes, we looking for a clear beat and perhaps mixed or mash ups of older and newer songs that are spinning at the night clubs.

In our conditioning and toning classes, our clients enjoy more commercial music that they can identify and even sing along to.When teaching stretch style classes, we looking for music with little or no lyrics with a wonderful and interesting background sound that the clients can tune into or not depending on focus of class.

It is important to realize that a CD might sound wonderful in your car and perhaps in a studio but awful in a group exercise class. for example, next to the pool because of the acoustics. Most importantly we need to consider what our clients enjoy. Be it 60s hits or 90s melodies, music that will put a smile on their face, bring back wonderful memories and at the same time keep us as instructors motivated.