Fast songs with high beats per minute [BPMs] are the latest casualty in the war on COVID-19 in South Korean gyms. Music that is higher than 120 BPMs is banned from group exercise classes like aerobics, spinning, zumba, or others because of heavy breathing or sweat spatter. This means that many of Korea’s beloved K-Pop songs are banned from the gym.

Not only is this new rule laughable because of its unenforceability, but it’s also just outright dumb. Heartbeats range from 60 to 90 BPMs. Doing exercise raises heartbeats. Listening to faster music helps people exercise better, which in turn helps people’s mental states from being stuck inside during COVID-19 lockdowns. What’s even worse is that the South Korean government limits taking showers inside gyms, won’t let people go faster than six kilometers per hour on a treadmill [!!], and only two players can play ping pong at one time. A gym-goer in South Korea told The Guardian, “It’s as if those who devised them had never worked out at a gym.”

Luckily, Hip Hop music is usually between 80 and 110 BPMs, while Trap is usually between 60 and 80 BPMs. It may take a while for people to get their own heartbeats up listening to it, but once they get into the Trap groove, it’s just as hard-hitting as these high BPM songs.

At LiFTED, we’ve come up with a few South Korean Hip Hop and Trap bangers for people who wanted to work out with those lower BPMs.

Keith Ape ‘It G Ma’ [51 BPMs]

The song that blew Korean Trap up

GRAY ‘119 remix’ [80 BPMs]

51 artists on a sinister beat for 20 minutes will definitely pump you up

CL ‘Lifted’ [90 BPMs]

When pushing yourself at the gym, you need to lift those heavy weights

Jay Park, pH-1, Big Naughty, Woodie Gochild, HAON, TRADE L, Sik-K ‘The Purge’ [81 BPMs]

Nothing like a hyped-up posse cut to get those last few reps in