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General Fitness Tips

I Took My Headphones Off In The Gym And Here’s What Happened 

This College Life Staff

You need headphones in the gym, says most people. Frankly, I put them on most of the time and blare music like there’s no tomorrow too. But that isn’t particularly great for your ears, according to sciency people. So now and again I will run the old experiment of *gasp,* going to the gym with no headphones on. About a week ago I did it again after feeling my ears popping uncontrollably (likely due to the loud bar I was in on the previous Saturday) and here is what happened:

  • I talked to a lot of new people
    • Having your headphones off in the weight room suddenly makes you about 10x more approachable. It also doesn’t seem as weird if you approach someone to say something. Imagine: You walk up, take off your headphones, then say something to someone. Seems a lot like you were contemplating talking to them for awhile, then finally did it. It may come off as a little strange. If you don’t have headphones in and while walking past someone talk to them, the spur-of-the-momentness of it makes things less odd.
  • My hearing wasn’t getting beat up

    • It actually felt pretty good not having my ears vibrate. Admittedly, there is a slight decline in adrenaline if you don’t have some music going. At the end of the day though and in the long run, you will want to sacrifice that extra rep/minute/whatever for being able to hear when you’re 54.
  • The lift was faster and more efficient
    • I think this only happened because I follow a somewhat rigid plan, so to keep myself focused I just kept zipping along from lift to lift. Typically, if I was listening to music I would stop and search for stuff on YouTube, adding on a few minutes here and there until I ended up staying 45 minutes past the time I usually left.

So yea, if you think you can handle a lift with no music, I would highly encourage it. Otherwise, most gyms also have a stereo system playing something. It happened to be good music at a non-ear shattering volume in mine, so I had at least something to draw adrenaline from.

 

-Buck