#MotivationMonday: Steal this Boston Ballerina’s Workout Playlist

We all know this feeling. Photo via Scot Dir.

Symptoms
: Your morning cup of coffee, or other stimulant of choice, feels like a distant memory, as does your New Year’s resolution to cross-train. (Guilty.)

Diagnosis
: A serious case of the Mondays.

Complications
: The lure of Netflix and the thought of 30 mind-numbing minutes on the elliptical.

Treatment
: You’re one workout away from a good mood and serious health benefits. Actually motivating yourself to get into the gym before or after a long day of rehearsal? Easier said than done. So we asked Boston Ballet corps member Sarah Wroth to give us the inside scoop on her favorite workout pump-up jams.

The 13-year company veteran looks for songs with “rhythms that make me want to move and lyrics that make me want to sing out as loudly as possible.” That being said, if you can sing during cardio without being out of breath, you should probably up the intensity. “I know I’m working hard if I can only belt out a few words,” Wroth says.

See her 13-track playlist for your musical Monday motivation, and get to work!

Sarah Wroth leaping in Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco. Photo by Rutt via Digital Grin.

1. “Firework”
   by Katy Perry. Appropriate for your pre-barbeque Fourth of July workout!
2. “Viva la Vida”
   by Coldplay
3. “Mr. Brightside”
   by The Killers
4. “Nothing’s Going to Stop Us Now”
   by Starship. “Think Drake’s ‘Started From the Bottom,’” Wroth says, but a less explicit 80s/90s version.
5. “We are Young
   ” by Fun
6. “Old Haunts”
   by The Gaslight Anthem. With lines like “Your blood was mixed with wine and robbery,” how can you not feel an extra surge of energy?
7. “One Day More”
   from the Les Misérables soundtrack
8. “Single Ladies”
   by Beyoncé. A shameless hit, even for the non-single.
9. “I Will Survive”
   by Gloria Gaynor
10. “So What”
    by Pink. I am (hopefully, when two thirds of the way through a workout) still a rock star.
11. “Kill Your Heroes”
    by AWOLNATION. Wroth’s hubbie discovered this one. “He always picks the next popular song before it’s famous. He picked me, maybe I’ll be famous one day!”
12. “Sk8ter Boi”
    by Avril Lavigne. “The ‘Call Me Maybe’ of its day!” Wroth says. Plus, what bunhead dancing in the 90s didn’t thrill in the “She did ballet” lyric?
13. “Fight Song”
    by Rachel Platten

Have a favorite pump-up song? Tell us in the comments!

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