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So last night as I was sweating away, doing my cardio (yeah, my Friday nights are super exciting), I was thinking about which music pumps me up to push another mile or another 5 minutes and why.  And I must have been inspired by Angela and Bess because I wanted to share some of my workout tunes with you.  Here are some of the songs that kept me moving yesterday when I almost skipped the gym:

This Keri Hilson song goes along with that whole vanity thing.  But hey, I like being cute, which is one of the reasons I work out.  The song’s a little cocky, but I love that about it.  I also love that she doesn’t necessarily relate being ‘pretty’ with being a certain size (so many female artists do this, and it drives me nuts), and she tells all the ladies to do the ‘Pretty Girl Rock’ because we all should know we’re beautiful.  Amen, girl.  This song totally makes me do a little hip pop every now and then on the treadmill or elliptical. Good thing I go to the gym at off hours.

This song is NOT new, but it came on last night, and I was jamming at the gym.  Again, such a good thing I go to the gym at weird times.  I love JLo, her dancing, her gigantic fly girl hoops, her ridiculousness, and her confidence (mostly about her ridiculousness).  And I can’t help but rock out to her stuff because she’s a fellow lady with a behind.  I can’t help it! I totally have a girl crush on her — along with Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and Jessica Biel.  I’m sensing a theme!

Just good for sprints or if you’re angry.  Nothing else to say about it.  This song never fails me.

Yes, I know she’s like 9.  Yes, I’m completely serious. This one warrants a hip swivel (as long as I’m not running –disaster!) instead of a pop.  You know what I mean.

This one makes me feel like a BA chick in a completely different way.  Also good for sprints.  Or imagining yourself wearing black eye liner, sneering, and strutting around with hair that belongs in a White Snake video.

For some reason, this song was my go-to running jam for a while (while I was still running a lot).  I would turn it on for timed half miles, knowing that if I wasn’t almost done with 800m before Jeezy was done rapping, I had better pick up the pace.  “No pain is forever. Yup, you know this” always pushed me on when I was thinking of how much I didn’t want to run that day.  And this song still wakes me up every morning! (That’s more out of laziness though, since I just haven’t changed the CD in my alarm clock in a year. The ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ at the beginning apparently isn’t quite annoying enough yet.)

This one seriously makes me want to dance during cardio.  And I am slowly revealing myself as that crazy person at the gym right now.

Speaking of the Gaga, this one is amazing for intervals.  Stay steady on the verses and go all out on the choruses.  I usually pick up the pace even more on the bridge.

Equal parts anger, defiance, and optimism.  I like it.  I feel a little invincible (maybe even… bulletproof?) when working out to this song.  Get ‘em, girl.

You know what this sampling of my cardio tunes has shown me?  a) That I totally know why people pick the treadmills farthest from me, b) that I’m all about the girl power (OK, like that’s a revelation), and c) that I need some new music since nothing on this list is even remotely new. (Still working on uploading some of the awesome suggestions I got a few weeks back!)

What tunes do you rock out to for cardio? Do you share any of my favorites?  Do you think I desperately need to update my iPod?  Spill!