It portrays a kid who starts a food fight during a school talent show while the band performs the song dressed as superheroes surrounded in 1980s video game imagery.

The song was included on Walk the Moon's setlist for the Talking Is Hard Tour (2015) and performed live at events such as Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and the NBA All-Star Weekend's Slam Dunk Contest.

"Work This Body" was written by all four members of Walk the Moon with John Ryan and recorded at Rancho Pagzilla in North Hollywood, California.

[2] Frontman Nicholas Petricca recounted how the live room after the song's recording was "completely trashed with every percussion instrument that [he could] think of", which included timbales and shakers, explaining its worldbeat element.

[3] Additionally, Petricca cited the guitar solo featured in Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" as the inspiration for the one found in "Work This Body".

[7][8] It has been described as a pop song with a "vaguely Caribbean lilt" and was compared to the works of Bleachers, Fun, Steel Train, Vampire Weekend, and Animal Collective.

[11] Petricca told Billboard Argentina that "Work This Body" has a lot of Latin American influence and described its rhythm and percussion as having "a very Zamba vibe".

[2] Lyrically, the song's chorus encourages one to work their own body until they beat everyone else fair and square, with Ray commenting on how its title could be interpreted as "a direct invitation to exercise".

[18] Kenneth Patridge of Billboard magazine wrote that the band "certainly knows how to start a party" with "Work This Body" and says that the song "lives up to its title [by] hit[ting] listeners with a groove that forces them to shut up and dance".

[2] Chris DeVille of Stereogum said that "it's pretty wild to hear" a song like "Work This Body" "become top-40 pop", which he characterized as "late-aughts blog fodder".

[10] The Village Voice's Jill Menze said that "Work This Body" is "a tune that hopped on the Vampire Weekend revival train a few years too late".

[26] The band was also set to embark on a Work This Body Tour in 2016, but it ultimately got canceled due to Petricca having to tend to his father, who was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

[41] A video of Walk the Moon performing "Work This Body" live on the Honda Stage was uploaded to their Vevo account on November 17, 2015.

[47] Billboard's Colin Stutz wrote that the video showcases them "grooving to the catchy tune, encouraging fans to get moving and try it for themselves at their next Zumba class or at home".