Body Positivity for Runners Playlist: 26 Songs to Help You Thrive

Ever thought about body positivity and running?

• Here's a quick way to get your mind right: Run with music.
• It has numerous performance enhancing benefits, which you can read about in this Runner’s World article.

⚡Performance benefits aside, running with music can do something even more...

• It can promote and highlight positive social movements; in this case, the body positivity movement.

🎶I created a 26-song playlist to help you feel strong, powerful and confident, and help you remember you're always enough, just the way you are.
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🎧Ready for a boost of motivation and some upbeat music to crush your next run or workout?
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🏃‍♀️Here. We. Go...

To begin, the most apt name for this playlist is:

• “Body Positivity Love the Skin You’re In, Imperfect is Perfect Running, Mountain Biking & Workout Playlist.” 

The playlist focuses on lyrics that speak openly about body image and issues and ones that tell each of us just how beautiful we are, exactly as we are. 

• Think: “Not Your Barbie Girl” and “Victoria’s Secret,” two of my personal go-fast-and-strong favorites.

For the sake of brevity, though, I shortened the playlist title to Body Positivity Running & Workout Playlist.
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Before we get too deep into the music, let’s first define and examine body positivity.
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It’s a buzz phrase that’s having a moment, and I’m here for it.

Body Positivity Defined 

According to Psychology Today, body positivity:

• Is a social movement to accept all body types, shapes and sizes.
• Emphasizes self-worth and self-acceptance
• Strives to improve body image and body confidence
• Encourages the appreciation of the functional abilities of the body. 

🎧Check the playlist:

• Regina Spektor’s “Folding Chair,” the 24th song on the Body Positivity Running & Workout Playlist, provides a good example of gratitude for the body with this lyric: “I’ve got a perfect body ‘cause my eyelashes catch my sweat.” 

Thank you, eyelashes! 
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In summary, if we gave body positivity a motto it would be “Love the skin you’re in!” 

Body positivity was born from the fat rights movement of the late 1960s when a man became fed up with the way his overweight wife was treated.
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Despite this decades-old movement, body positivity didn’t really catch on, at least in my sector of the universe (did it in yours?!), until the recent rise of social media.
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Chalk one up for Instagram!
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Despite the uptick in body positivity messaging in the media, making it more pervasive in our culture through other means may help fortify the healthy body image we want for our youth.
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🔥Hot take: Let’s add a body positivity unit to the elementary through high school curricula. Maybe one already exists. Or perhaps it’s up to parents to cultivate body positivity. 

As a child of the 80s, teen of the 90s, and 2001 high school grad, body positivity was not something I encountered in the teen and fashion magazines I read or MTV I watched. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
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Did we millennials miss out on body positivity messaging because of our media diet?
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No. It was all: 

• How to get bikini-ready (as if we aren’t worthy of being in a bikini if we have stretch marks, cellulite or love handles?) 
• Low-cal snack options (as if we need to avoid weight gain at all costs) 
• Makeup essentials (as if we should cover ourselves up), and...
• Images of human flawlessness via supermodels and celebrities… 

📷From the words of Meghan Trainor in “All About That Bass,” song seven on the playlist:

I see those magazines working that Photoshop
We know that shit ain’t real
Come on now make it stop
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🧁In 2000, we got some reprieve from the media norm when plus-size supermodel Ashley Graham busted onto the scene, which cupcakKe references in “Biggie Smalls,” song nine on the playlist. 

Celebrities and supermodels aside, even athletes weren’t safe from the manipulation of their bodies to look more “ picture perfect.” 

• Olympic runner Kara Goucher famously describes the horror she felt when Nike released manipulated images of her body - they replaced her pregnant belly with ripped abs but kept her pregnancy breasts.
• These are just a few examples of a culture with a sick obsession on perfecting the female body, which perpetuates low self esteem, poor body image and body shaming. 
• Speaking of body shaming, calling someone a “skinny bitch” and remarking snidely to another woman about her thin physique is also body shaming. 

Now, as I flip through magazines or cruise through Target, I’m elated to see that models and even mannequins of all shapes, sizes (petite to plus) and color are represented. 
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Even more, I’m thrilled that musical artists are singing about it, and that social media has amplified its importance. 
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It is many small steps in the right direction. 

Despite being voted “Best Physique” in high school, I still had body positivity issues, and it all began with unwanted attention. 

• The award was based on my love for getting fit, lifting weights, running and playing soccer, which accentuated my already naturally athletic body. 
• It was a welcome accolade, because I enjoyed strengthening and using my body for sports. 

What I did not welcome were boys who whistled, commented, cat called or sometimes even grabbed, as I walked through the hallways or down the street. 

My otherwise confidence in the power and ability of my body became diminished when it was sexualized by the opposite sex. 

• At times, I became self-conscious and uncomfortable in my own skin. 
• However, most of the time I was able to overcome those feelings and get lost in sports. I felt empowered by what my legs, arms, hips and core brought to the track, weight room and playing field. 
• Fortunately, participation in sports and embracing the functional strength of my body fought the downward spiral of body negativity brought on by the behavior of adolescent boys and men. 

Unfortunately, too many girls have experienced this type of treatment and much, much worse. 

The whistleblowing on coaches like:

• Albert Salazar of the Nike Oregon Project
• Larry Nasser of U.S. women’s gymnastics, and...
• Olympic swimming coach Jack Nelson...

Reveals the sexual abuse that female athletes have suffered from male authority figures for decades. 
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Mistreatment and abuse, clearly, is profoundly detrimental to body confidence, to say the least. 
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All this to say, at some time or another, most of us have had to work on our body positivity, in one way or another, and I wanted to create a playlist to process and honor this work. 

Another aspect of body positivity is one’s relationship with food.
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This week, I heard on a running podcast (I forget which one) that 62 percent of female endurance athletes suffer from disordered eating.
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Underfueling leads to Low Energy Availability (LEA), which has numerous negative impacts on performance and overall health, such as: 

• Decreased bone density
• Increased injury risk
• Amenorrhea 
• And more

Alessia Cara paints a clear picture of LEA in “Scars to Your Beautiful Cages Remix,” number five on the playlist, in the following lyrics:  
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So she’s starving, you know, cover girls eating nothing

She says, “beauty is pain and there’s beauty in everything.
What’s a little bit of hunger?
I can go a little while longer,” she fades away
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Those lines sum up ELA pretty well: When we as runners and athletes don’t eat enough, we literally fade in workouts and races.
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Avoid Fading! Learn About Healthy Fueling from Two Podcasts for Runners & Athletes 

• Fuel for the Sole: with sports dietitian Meghann Featherstun and Believe in the Run duo Meghan Murray and Thomas Neuberger
• Your Diet Sucks: podcast hosted by journalist Zoe Rom and Kylee Van Horn, recently debuted on July 24, 2024

Here's the playlist: Body Positivity Running & Workout Playlist.
The songs:

• Speak openly about personal body issues
• Call out the societal norm of what’s beautiful or perfect 
• Celebrate one’s own body and all other bodies 

The playlist consists of:

• 26 songs 
• 90 minutes of music
• 12 minutes (three songs) for warming up 
• More than an hour of uptempo songs, many top hits, lots in remix version, with a dash of rap and a pinch of metal 
• 10 minutes (two songs) for cooling down/ post-run strength work and/or stretching - they’re even good enough for strides!
• Three, repetitive, new-age blend songs for the intros and outros (song number one and the last two) that are meant to get the listener on board with the intention of the playlist 

The songs can be played in order as originally intended. Or get wild and try shuffle mode!  

Beats Per Minute (BPM): 

• I don’t know! I am no strickler for numbers and data, so I didn’t look up beats per minute for each song. To be honest, it would have sucked the joy out of making it.
• Instead, I made countless iterations, tested them, and where I wanted faster songs, I found dance remix versions, and retested, over and over until I got this finished product, which I hope you enjoy!
• In my opinion, BPMs aside, it’s great for tempos, fartleks and intervals. 

How to Use the Body Positivity Running & Workout Playlist

• Running on any terrain (I use it for trail runs)
• Cycling (I use it for mountain biking)
• Working out (I do strength training before my kids wake up so haven’t tried it this way - let me know if you do!)
• However you want - get creative 

Here’s to promoting body positivity in running and beyond!
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And, lastly, from the words of Mona Haydar’s “Good Body,” song number 22 on the playlist, always remember: 

You got a body

Where’s it at

It’s a good body

Believe that

That body need love

Now run it back

Everybody a good body

And that’s facts

Share your favorites in the comments!