Total Workout: Power Songs

When it comes to your total workout, you gotta do what it takes, and sometimes what it takes is tunes to power you through. Tunes like Heart's "Barracuda" to bring out your lean, mean inner beast; Run-DMC's "Walk This Way" to help you fight fat butts with phat beats; or OutKast's "Hey Ya!" to get it shake-it-like-a-Polaroid-picture ready. Whether you need the epic force of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" to boost that last treadmill mile, or the muscle-rippling riffage of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" to inspire your thirst for world domination, our Total Workout: Power Songs Essentials is your supreme soundtrack to workout triumph.

Power on to Next Steps for more songs to get strong by.

Inertia? Forget about it! There’s no way you’re gonna let go of your goals when you’ve got U2’s rocket-launcher “Elevation” to lift your workout to new heights. That’s the beauty of super-strong workout tunes — they pick up the slack when you need it most, with never-say-die heroes like Muse energizing your “Uprising,” and super-freak supergroup Parliament lighting the way to fitness with the funkedelic “Flashlight.” So, let it rip to rock gods Led Zeppelin and the righteous “Rock and Roll,” while LL Cool J takes your game to a whole new level with the hip-hop powerhouse “Rock the Bells.”

Push into Deep Cuts to keep the power on.

Hey, sometimes we all need a little help kindling that fire in the belly — now it’s as easy to ignite your inner spark through motivators like Cypress Hill’s “(Rock) Superstar” to make you really feel the burn. From there, you can gas up the tank to Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” while you put the pedal to the workout metal and let the power loose to the old-school flow of Young MC’s “Bust a Move.” Go fitness crazy to the rap-metal madness of Incubus’ “Megalomaniac.” And when the energy starts lagging, we’ve got Foreigner’s classic “Hot Blooded” to reignite that fire all over again.

When you want to wring the most out of your workout — we’re talkin’ the last, everlovin’ drop of no-guts-no-glory brute force — you need our Total Workout: Power Songs Essentials. This is the playlist for the serious workout monster, the kind who thrives on pumpin’, shout-it-out throwdowns like “Slam” from the hip-hop drill team Onyx; or guitar goddess Orianthi’s “According to You,” with its boastful “I’m everything you’re not” command. This is where beginners and lifers alike turn for the “don’t stop, y’all” beats of Moby’s “Bodyrock,” the heat-igniting rap-rock pulse of “Let It Rock” from Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne. We know you might not need Smash Mouth to tell you you’re an “All Star,” but, hey, it never hurts to hear it.