We’ve launched Gym Buddies, an online fitness community to help you make lasting changes towards a healthier lifestyle. Sign up for daily motivation straight to your inbox, whether complete beginner or seasoned pro looking for a new challenge.
Music can make or break your workout. A good playlist can make you push harder or even (dare we say it) enjoy yourself, a bad track can make you clock watch, counting down the minutes until you can hit the showers.
One woman who knows how to get people moving is Kim Ngo, a London-based personal trainer and instructor-cum-DJ at 1Rebel, one of London’s hottest gyms.
The 30-year-old blogger, who launched Food & Lycra with two friends, recently switched from working as a chartered accountant to focus on her true love: fitness. You can also check out her classes at OneLDN.
We asked Kim to be first to curate the Gym Buddies Spotify playlist, which we’ll be adding to every Friday. Follow it on Spotify to use it for your own workout.
When it comes to exercise, Kim believes that music sets the mood. “I don’t want to be doing a savage workout while listening to Céline Dion and I also don’t want to do yoga listening to Wiley. If the music is right I can give an extra 10% to my workout. Especially if I’m training solo, music is my workout partner egging me on to go a little further.
“There is nothing better than listening to a workout playlist and then a banger comes on while you’re working out. You get the same feels that you would have when it comes on at a gig/festival/night out - except all that energy gets applied to your reps and sets!”
Speaking about her selections she explained: “The playlist starts quite chilled and slowly gets faster as you go through it. The start is to warm up and when you need it most (towards the end of your workout) the pace speeds up.
“I do this with all the workout playlists I mix for Reshape and Rumble at 1Rebel. I always support UK artists so you will always hear a friendly accent in our playlists.”