Once a routine is completed, it’s time to put it into a playlist. The classes that meet 2-3 times a week have 3 rotating playlists each month, and that’s what I’ll be using for this explanation.
This part of the process is where I have to switch from being creative to being logical, and a spreadsheet is my best friend during this part. I have every song that we’re doing along with the following categories: song length, cardio, arms, core, legs, coordination, cognitive, flexibility, balance, agility. Cardio is rated on a 1-10 scale, the rest are 0-3. It’s far from a perfect system as it’s all quite subjective, but I try to give as accurate a rating as possible. I add in the new routine, as well as usually a seasonal routine, and fill in all their categories.
Here comes all the technical stuff! For those currently in my classes and on my email list, I’ll send you a video breaking this down visually. (If you’re not on that list and you’d like to see it, message me and I’ll get it to you!)
Usually there’s 1 new routine from the previous month, 1 new one from this month, and our seasonal/holiday routine. Each of these will be in 2 of the 3 playlists, with each playlist having 2 of them (so you’re not overwhelmed with new stuff but have a chance to get used to it.)
Once those are in place (with an X in column A, B, or C) I look at where they are on the Cardio scale. Let’s pretend they’re a 3, 6, and 10, or a Medium-Slow, Medium, and Fast. I’ll fill in all 3 playlists so they all have the same number of those 3 speeds. Then I’ll start to fill in the rest. I usually want about 1-2 Slow, then 2 each of Medium-Slow, Medium-Fast, and Fast, and the rest are Medium. I tend to leave the Mediums until the end, and before I fill them in, I use the Spreadsheet magic to calculate where I’m at with the length, core, arms, etc. I want them to all stay pretty equal between the 3 playlists—we don’t want one that has a ton of arms in every routine, or no core work, or is way too complicated coordination-wise. Once I see what I need more or less of, I fill in the Mediums, and then adjust as needed (if one playlist is too high or low in any category, I’ll see where I can make a switch.)
The last thing to fill in is warm-ups and cool-downs. I don’t have ratings on these aside from the length, and I use the length of these to try to reach my 45-minute mark (or 30, or 60, depending on the class.) I allow an extra minute or so for a water break in standing classes and for any chatting we might need to do before class, so usually the playlist will be about 43-44 minutes long.
Last step! I need to put them in order. Warm ups and cool downs are easy, they go to the beginning and end. From there, Cardio is my main guiding point. All our classes use cardio intervals, which would look like rolling hills if you put them on a graph using the numbers I assign. Our 2 fast songs are the peaks, and they gradually speed up and slow down in between. If I have them in order and then notice all the arm or core routines are next to each other, I’ll swap them with another one of the same Cardio rating.
This whole process can go quickly or take a couple days—sometimes it just falls into place and other times it’s hard to make it all work out! I do the best I can with it, and then adjust as needed once we’ve gotten started. (More on that next week!)
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