Beth Tweddle, 28, former Olympic gymnast and Dancing on Ice contestant talks to Eva Caiden about her top tunes for working up a sweat
‘If I had to sum myself up in a song it’d have to be Chumbamba, I Get Knocked Down or Aaliyah, Try Again. I’m such a perfectionist. As soon as they show me something on the show I want to pick it up straight away. The ten hours training a week isn’t tough for me – I used to do 30!
‘In the last year my exercise routine has changed drastically. When I walked away from gymnastics I didn’t do any exercise. I’ve found it hard as my shape’s changed; I’m not as toned.
‘Since I was seven I’ve been used to having a conditioned body. But I’m learning you don’t have to have the body of an elite athlete 24/7.
‘Now I love taking my dog, Bonnie, for long walks in the fields near my house. I use it as thinking time, no music, just silence, and go off into my own little world.
‘When I’m warming up on the ice in the morning, I listen to Emeli Sande, Clown. It‘s one of my favourite routines from DOI last year. I find it really hard to count music so Lukasz, my partner, makes me listen to songs in the morning and tell him the beat. I train for two hours a day on the ice, sometimes in Liverpool, near my home, and sometimes in London.
‘The Black Eyed Peas, I’ve Gotta Feeling puts a smile back on my face when training is tough. It reminds me of warming up for competitions when I was younger and good times in the gym when I’d be having a laugh with my friends.
‘Before the show, when I’m in my dressing room, I listen to Pitbull ft Neyo, Give Me Everything or anything upbeat. It gets me pumped and gives me that little bit of buzz and adrenaline.
“Adele, Rolling in the Deep and Rumour has it remind me of London 2012. They were our two warm up songs, so the whole team did them every single day for about six weeks! Rolling was a stretch warm up – a dance routine with the splits in it as well as hamstring and shoulder stretches. Rumour Has It was our ballet dance – it got your calves warmed up and moving.
‘I don’t belong to a ‘gym’ gym now. I’d be bored running on a treadmill. Instead, I’m trying to go to my old gymnastics gym three times a week for about an hour and a half of core work. There’s lots of variations of sit ups and ankle exercises to make sure my feet are ready for skating when I start jumping.
‘In the gym I like upbeat music – stuff like Olly Murs, Dance With Me Tonight. But the radio’s always on so sometimes my guilty pleasures – One Direction, That’s What Makes You Beautiful and Dolly Parton, Nine to Five come on and keep me going when my muscles are aching!
‘I didn’t have a playlist when I was training full time. I’d have got really bored listening to the same thing over and over so I’d just put my iPod on shuffle. Songs like Taio Cruz, Dynamite, which reminds me of winning the World Championships, would always spur me on.
Beth’s playlist:
1. Chumbamba, I Get Knocked Down
2. Aaliyah, Try Again
3. Emeli Sande, Clown
4. The Black Eyed Peas, I’ve Gotta Feeling
5. Pitbull ft Neyo, Give Me Everything
6. Adele, Rolling in the Deep
7. Adele, Rumour has it
8. Olly Murs, Dance With Me Tonight
9. One Direction, That’s What Makes You Beautiful
10. Dolly Parton, Nine to Five
12. Taio Cruz, Dynamite
Catch Beth in Dancing on Ice, Sundays on ITV
Interview by Eva Caiden
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