Alt Rock Workout 2

Let's be honest here: the gym mix you've played for the past year has got to go. It's not bad so much as it is predictable — to the point that you could hum and howl the whole thing from memory. That's why we've thrown a curve into your routine and introduced our second round of Alt Workout Essentials, ranging from such limb-loosening standbys as "Burning Down the House" and "Whip It" to recent doses of disco (the sweeping strings and bubble-machine synths of "Jimmy"), avant-pop (the haunting gospel hooks and simmering church organ rolls of "Going On"), and noggin-knocking rock (the meat grinder guitars and raucous, pass-the-mic vocals of "Salute Your Solution").

Now that you've worked up a good sweat, there's no time for slowing down — not when we've got a whole level of Next Steps to step up to.

If, over the next couple of hours, feeling the burn is your main concern, the restless disco-punk of Bloc Party, the Rapture, and !!! makes perfect sense. But Animal Collective? That must be a misprint, right? Wrong. Give "Fireworks" a quick spin and you'll find yourself running in place alongside a steady stream of skittish samples, steam-pressed percussion, and heavenly harmonies. It's not the only pulse-spiking surprise in our Next Steps, either. "Ooh La La" is electro-pop custom-made for clubs and treadmills, the synth-washed "Someone Great" is a rare cool-down cut from LCD Soundsystem, and "Holiday in Cambodia" is punk rock with a purpose — turning the free weights area into a mosh pit.

Now go grab a bottle of water and rest those aching muscles for a second. Our Deep Cuts has more than an hour of excuses to up your reps or hop back on that elliptical machine.

Owning the perfect step-by-step playlist for an energy-draining workout is one thing; we've done that and then gone one step further by sneaking in songs you may not otherwise hear — as if a taste-making DJ were dropping tracks in a booth overlooking the entire gym. Don't be surprised if you end up listening to some of these tracks on the way home as well, especially the neon-doused new wave of "Lights & Music," the spastic post-rave mania of "Okie Dokie," the speaker-thumping Francophile pop of "Je veux te voir," the tap-dance takeover of "Bad Education," and the guitar-guided 8-bit explosions of "Seventeen Years."

As much as we love sweating to the oldies and nonstop dance mixes, there's nothing quite like cranking up some high-octane alt-rock cuts while raising your heart rate or conquering the top rungs of a bench press. While our second dose of Alt Workout Essentials dips into the finest college rock cuts of the past couple of decades — everything from Liz Phair to the Pixies, from Sonic Youth to XTC — we've mostly stuck to the cooler-than-thou acts of today. That includes the post-everything pop of TV On the Radio, M.I.A., Gnarls Barkley, and Gorillaz; the club-clobbering, peak-hour anthems of Diplo, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice, and Does It Offend You, Yeah?; and the groove-riding guitar rock of Arctic Monkeys, Radio 4, Kaiser Chiefs, and Interpol. Get ready: you're about to cue up a whole new level of workout.