Categories
2013

Running unplugged

Why I don’t wear headphones when I exercise, and how I still hear the music.

Harmony

It’s Sunday morning and you’re about to head out the door for a run.

Fifteen minutes ago you were lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to convince yourself to get moving.

The good side won the battle, and now you feel motivated – proud even – to tackle your training plan, but still not happy about leaving your comfy bed.

You lace up your shoes, put on your hat, grab your keys and phone, and take one more gulp of water before stepping outside.

You lock the door behind you, zip away your keys and are almost ready to go get it.

Only one task remains before you go galloping off:

You pop in your headphones and press play.

The music starts pumping – Eye of the tiger, Master of Puppets, Kelly Clarkson, AC/DC, some trans, dub step, electronica stuff I ain’t even heard of, or Nickelback (God help you) – and you’re off and running in a blaze of glory.

The sun is shining, people are smiling, and birds are chirping (even though you can’t hear them).

You – like lots of people – use music as a tool to get moving, stay moving, keep pace and/or add some color and entertainment to your training sessions.

And more power to you if that’s what it takes for you to get through a workout.

Everybody trains, performs and responds differently, and you need to figure out what works best for you.

Personally, I don’t wear headphones when I run. In fact, I can’t remember ever wearing headphones during workouts (be it runs, rides, swims or strength training).

This music debate is a pretty hot topic, so I’m sharing my list of reasons to unplug when exercising.

If you’re avidly pro-headphone, I hope it gives you food for thought and leads you to try out the unplugged method (or give it another shot if you’ve attempted it in the past).

If you’ve already unplugged (good on ya!) I hope you learn something new about the subject.

Here it is:

headphones

Safety

Honking cars, rumbling engines, yelling cyclists, caring passersby and other alerts may be missed with the tunes blasting. Headphones are especially dangerous when you’re cycling, given the proximity to cars and increased speeds, hazards and severity of consequences. For those of us in broken cities like Phoenix – where cyclists and pedestrians are treated like second-class citizens – it’s even more important to be as careful, aware and defensive as possible on the bike. If you take only one point from this post to heart, please don’t wear headphones when cycling.

Race rules prohibit headphones

If you want to train like you race, you’ll need to unplug when you train because most races don’t allow athletes to wear headphones during competition. Listening to music during every workout may help you build-up and prepare, but what’s going to happen on the big day when that constant companion (your playlist) is absent on the big day? In addition to all of the race-day nerves and chaos, you’re left alone to deal with the dark and scary void that is now your mind without music. That’s not the calm and confident place you want to be on race day. Serenity now, serenity now, serenity now.

Disruptive pacing

You probably have a carefully manicured, ever-evolving playlist of songs to pump you up. More than likely, you also have a running, pedaling or swimming cadence that you’ve also been working hard to fine-tune and improve. What are the chances that your training cadence matches up with the beat of all the songs on your playlist? I’m guessing not very good. Your body will mimic and respond to the alternating music’s rhythms and this may throw off your pace.

Body cues on mute

One of the mantras we harp on is listen to your body. If you’re body is trying to tell you something, it’s harder to hear it when it’s competing with Lady Gaga and Foreigner. Personally, I already find it difficult to distinguish good pain from bad pain, or exhaustion from weakness; adding a distraction would make the communication even foggier.

School Unplugged

Zen

When I started running a few years ago, I didn’t make a conscious decision to unplug. For whatever reason, I just didn’t wear headphones and it never developed into a habit. But now that I’ve been running for a while, this headphone-free behavior is one I choose to continue, for the reasons listed above, plus this last one: the harmonious running high is music in itself (or meditation, or zen, or inner peace or whatever you want to call it). In addition to fitness and endurance training, running – and exercising in general, to an extent – has grown to serve a mental cleansing/strengthening function (for lack of better terms). A big part of its beauty is learning how to connect with myself, my thoughts and my surroundings. As much as I love music, headphones would distort my running soundtrack.

– Live every day –

Adam

Here are a few interesting articles that delve deeper into the subject:

The New York Times – Phys Ed: Does Music Make You Exercise Harder?

Runner’s World: Running With Music – Two sides of a very hot topic

The Guardian: Running with music: the case for and against

Reader poll: Do you wear headphones during workouts? Share in the comments!

Photo credits: Jo Morcom, Tony Hall, Brendan Lynch