The Secret of My Energy

My iPod is my trusted companion whenever I go to the gym (I thought of saying "whenever I work out" but considering how little I do compared to others who are in the gym at the same time, calling it a 'workout' seems disrespectful to them!). My iPod has only Tamil songs on it and not surprisingly, I do have a separate playlist for the gym and start listening to it when I step on the treadmill.

I have to admit that the iPod does help me work out just a little bit better. I know its purely a psychological thing but hey, whatever works! While I do start listening to songs when I start running, their usefulness is seen mainly towards the end - at the point where I think I'm done. If I'm in the middle of a song at that point, thinking "let me run until this song ends" really helps in keeping me going for a little bit more. In fact, I think that's the reason music works so well during a workout. "Let me run until this song ends" in general works much better than "let me run for 2 more minutes".

My rule for a song to be moved into the 'workout playlist' is pretty simple. It has to be fast and have some good, fast beats. Slow songs, however much I love them, will never find a place on the list. The kind of song doesn't really matter. It could be a solo number(male or female), a duet, a group song or a duppanguthu number. So my collection of songs is pretty eclectic. Right now, I have on there songs as different as Ballelakka..., Karkka Karkka..., Uyirin Uyire..., Undhan Vizhimunai..., Boom Boom... and Manmadha Raasaa....

But my favorite workout song, by far, is Arjunaru Villu... from Gilli. The pace of the song, its lyrics and its picturization make it one of the best in this category. I don't think its a coincidence that the song takes off with the sound of a whistle - like at the start of a race - because thats exactly what the sequence seems like. The pounding beats and Sukwinder's energetic singing make the entire song, a continuous shot of adrenaline. The song is filled with inspirational lines (edhiriya kollu, imaiyatha vellu, unakkoru ellai kidaiyaadhe) and the lines
Eru munnEru, idhu karaiye illA kAttARu
Odu munnOdu, oru vetri enbadhu kaikoodum
seem like they were written just for runners!

For me, the song sequence always plays in my mind when I'm listening to the song and Dharani's picturization of Arjunaru Villu... is simply brilliant. The quick editing and the variety of camera angles give the sequence a lot of energy. It is brilliantly choreographed in sync with the song(my favorite part is in the middle when Trisha is narrating her story and her brothers' murders by Prakashraj sync perfectly with peaks in the music). And when a shirtless Vijay lifts his jeep(for its tyre to be changed) with a cigarette held in his mouth, it proves that even a thin, bony fella like him can be made to look like a stud!

I have this song towards the end of my playlist and always navigate to it when I am nearing the end of my run. It helps me go the extra mile... well ok... the extra 0.1 mile :-)

For those who share my thots about the song and need a boost of energy, here's the song.

PS: By the way, I love listening to Arjunaru Villu... in the car too. I've found that as I listen to it at a high volume while going on the freeway, I become Vijay, my wife turns into Trisha and all those harmless drivers in Camrys and Accords turn into stick-wielding goondas in Tata Sumos!