You Better Work, Bitch: The Essential Britney Spears Workout Playlist

Everyone has Their Diva, and mine is, without a doubt, Britney Jean Spears; I’ve been a fan since the opening school bell of “…Baby One More Time” first rang out and low-key rewired my brain. She’s a great entertainer who has turned out one incredible pop song after another, and I’m thrilled she’s finally free of the conservatorship that she called “abusive” and said left her “traumatized.” 

It’s hard for me to decouple Britney’s music from cardio workouts; some of her biggest hits (many of which were written by pop genius Max Martin) came out when I was first starting to go to the gym, and got me through my treadmill runs and elliptical routines for years. Even now, I put Britney songs on pretty much every workout playlist I make. 

But you know what I inexplicably hadn’t done, until today? Put together a master playlist of all of my favorite Britney Spears workout songs. Well, that ends now. 

Below, you’ll find the Britney bangers that I think are perfect for a high-energy workout. You’ll get things started with “Lucky” (also my go-to karaoke song!) and then move into a few classics before hitting “Work Bitch,” a song that was seemingly created in a lab with the sole purpose of powering spin classes and drag performances for the next several decades. There are also a handful of remixes, including “Kimme More” (iconique!) and the Rihanna “S&M” collab. After a couple more classics and at least one deep cut, we’ll cool down with “Everytime” and, finally, end with that perfect 1999 ode about how “it’s been hours seems like days since you went away”: “E-mail My Heart.”