Motor City music might be just the thing to pump up a winter workout

BY KRISTA JAHNKE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Whether you’re exercising outside under the gray skies and in the slushy streets of late winter, or you’re on the treadmill for the umpteenth time, here’s betting you could use some new music to perk up your workout. Something with just the right beat and lyrics to make you feel like a superhero. Something catchy and exhilarating enough to make you forget the pain in your leg and butt muscles. Something made in Detroit, a place rich with music, from Motown to techno to rock ‘n’ roll to pop.

Here are 13 songs with Detroit connections. Some came from Free Press staffers, and some were suggested by local trainers Jennifer DiDonato from MadeFitTV.com and Terri Gibbons, who teaches spinning and more at Detroit’s Boll Family YMCA and Wayne State University. These tunes will make your workout — from warm-up to cool down — fly by and the flab around your abs disappear. OK, so we really can’t promise anything for your abs. But your ears, at least, will thank you.

Warm-up

“Panic in Detroit,” David Bowie

Sounds like: A wild night in the 1980s.

Detroit connection: Besides the song title, it describes a weary urban scene.

Inspiring lyrics: “Panic in Detroit.”

“Detroit,” Black Gold

Sounds like: An alterna-rock anthem.

Detroit connection: The song name.

Inspiring lyrics: “I wonder where you are.”

The workout

“Lose Yourself,” Eminem

Sounds like: Taking on the man and the world.

Detroit connection: Eminem.

Says DiDonato: “This is a great one to get you pumped when you are either lifting weights or doing cardio. It goes perfectly with the concept of training: You must lose yourself in it and keep pushing harder and training harder if you want to get the full benefits of your training.”

Inspiring lyrics: “Lose yourself in the music, the moment, you want it, you better never let it go.”

“Detroit,” Fireworks

Sounds like: An out-of-control mosh pit.

Detroit connection: The band is from metro Detroit.