No doubt you saw this link about Punk Aerobics making the blog rounds a while back. Since my local gym doesn't offer anything similar, I decided to perform a very unscientific test on my own using an mp3 player* and an elliptical trainer, to see if listening to Punk, as opposed to other forms of music like Soul or da Blues, made any discernible difference.

I did 45 minutes on the machine while listening to each genre. The results were definitely different for Punk than they were for the other two...I went faster and burned about 20% more calories. I guess this isn't too surprising when you consider how fast the tempo is compared to other forms of music, but what was a bit bizarre is that even though I was exercising faster, harder, and louder, my heartrate didn't increase.

Anyway, here's the playlist I used. You'll note that I actually listened to a mixture of Punk, New Wave, and Glam as opposed to pure Punk.

* - (No, it wasn't an iPod. Do I look like I'm made of money? Besides, real punks eschew such plastic trendiness. Of course a real Punk wouldn't go to a health club either.)