Sometimes it is good to be a little irreverent. Laughter is the best medicine right? So today, something a little… silly.

I love my headphones when I work out. Truly love them. And it ain’t something new either. The first “working out” I ever did was walking. Growing up I lived about a mile and a half from my high school and it was all back roads to get there. There was actually no bus service so I walked to and from school every day. With my headphones. As soon as the weather got warm, I would walk that same route almost every day during the summer. With my headphones. And this was the mid 90s, so those headphones were attached to a huge portable tape player/radio. With a mix tape made from songs off the radio.

I used that portable tape player through most of college. I went to a big school with a large campus that involved, you guessed it, a lot of walking. By then I had moved up to jogging for some of my workouts and added strength training, too. I had a portable CD player, but anyone who exercised during this time period will tell you those things were a pain in the keester to work out with; ungainly to move around with and they would constantly skip. But I can’t say that I never used my CD player either. Because, headphones.

For Christmas my senior year of college, my parents got me an iPod (like one of the first releases). And that thing was life-changing. Small, light, portable, tuckable into a pocket. I used that all through graduate school (where I walked to and from campus again) and into my first full time job managing a fitness center. I used that iPod until the battery would literally not charge anymore. I disliked how the digital music files transferred, so when I “upgraded” I went with a simple mp3 player that worked like a thumbdrive. Super teeny, in fact I could clip it onto my clothes. And it used an actual AAA battery. And like the iPod before, I used my mp3 player until the casing broke in half from replacing the batteries. It actually lasted me seven or eight years.

Then, like everyone else, I just started using my cellphone. Cause, why not? Because my cell is bigger in size, I chose to upgrade my actual headphones this time around. Earbuds are great, but as anyone who strength trains will attest to, cords are a constant strangulation hazard. So I went Bluetooth. Also life changing. I love them and use them all the time. They actually allow me to use music for  my singular yoga workouts without disturbing anyone. Score!

Why all the love for my headphones? My workouts are my time. My time to amp up or zone out as I need. And my headphones deliver the background to drive that. I can lose myself in an audiobook and the lunges don’t seem to hurt as much or the miles just fly by. I can use music to destress and forget about daily cares. Nobody bugs me when I have my headphones on. My husband knows that unless it is a dire emergency, it can wait. Part of my love for my workouts comes from the fact that I know I have dedicated time most days that I can pump up my favorite jam (on repeat 20 times usually) and not bother anyone else. I fully believe that many of the mental benefits of exercise I have personally experienced come from the fact that I complete almost every single workout with my headphones on.

While everyone else has moved on to just projecting sound from their phones’ speakers now, I love the sense of privacy headphones provide. I can listen to whatever I want without judgement or ridicule. Also, from both a gym-goer and gym manager, it is rude to force everyone else to listen to your music. Everyone should have headphones for the gym.

So, yeah. I love my headphones, a lot. And please, if you see me with them on, just wave. Oh, and hope that my cell phone battery holds out!

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