Tony G’s rant made me appreciate how much I love my mp3 player. Anyone else have a personal audio device that they love to use while working out?
Mine’s a little Samsumg Yepp. Less surface area than a credit card and about 3/8’’ thick. 128MB of space more than gets me through a workout. I had to purchase different headphones, but I imagine that’d be a given for most devices.
my roomates both have iPods, i am very jelous. borrowed them a couple times to work out, soooooo nice.
anyhow, my crappy strap on radio broke, and there is no music in my gym - very strange.
i wish they would make a cd player that is wireless from the headphones, so you could just set it down near you and the signal would come through. that would be nice.
Okee dokee, I’m gonna just lay this out here right now. And then I’m done.
How the hell does one wear these devices while performing O-lifts or anytype of heavy/intensity ladden training? I don’t have time to fiddle around with them. If anything, I prefer the silence of focus while training. Yes, my gym does play annoying music; but if anything, it’s helped my focus while training. I “zone” out while lifting, my concentration is on the weights - NOT what’s being piped in on the speakers.
I find them annoying as hell when others are weaing them, too. It’s like how many times do I have to say to some lumbering imbecile, “excuse me…excuse me…excuse me!!!” when they’re in my way or “are you done with this bench?” - I mean, c’mon.
Whew. And there’s my rant. Glad to get that out. Thank you.
Well, Patricia, I don’t do O-lifts, but if I did, I would have to go without the audio aide, or just let the bar smash it into little pieces. 
They don’t get in the way of squatting or deadlifting with how I have mine attached. (Should I count the extra weight? )
I don’t understand how hard it would be to “fiddle around with one”. You just figure out where you can attach it to your body and press play. That’s about it. I fiddle by skipping tracks, but not during sets.
As far as the focus issue, that’s mainly personal preference. For those of us that have gyms that play music, it’s nice to be able to tune it out and know what you’re about to hear. Also, the music actually HELPS some of us focus. If I were learning a new lift, I would find silence beneficial, but if I already know the groove I need to be in, music helps with the mindset.
And, contrary to what some would have you believe, wearing such devices does not render you incapable of staying aware of your surroundings. Some people use it as an excuse to ignore others, but, if you know what you’re doing, nobody should have to repeat anything to you.
patricia:
because i don’t actually work out, i stand around (and sometimes strut) reading time magazine and oiling my biceps aveda moisturizing gels
jk, but nothing breaks me out the zone more than hearing michael bolton come on the gym stereo, a little aesop rock can do a lot for my lifting in those circumstances.
I own a Samsung Yepp also, and it is great. 128 mb gets about 2 hours worth of music, which is more than necessary.
Patricia, the Yepp comes with an arm elastic strap, so you can place it on your biceps. When I do so, I take the headphones and run them under my sleeve and thru my shirt. It never gets in the way.
The only thing that sucks about it is that it is a battery drain.
Okay one more thing. And please excuse my flub up with the bold type in my first post here.
jp: Okay, so I’ve attached the gadget to my body, but now it’s time for me to begin my set of cleans, snatches or deads. Let’s say I have to wear a belt. So, then I have to remove the gadget. And then you put it back on, take it off, put it back on. Annoying. Not to mention having to stick the wee plugs in the ears. These gadgets are just another thing to worry about, expecially when I have training, chalk, wraps, belts and form in mind.
Besides all that, how am I able to hear Ko? You know, since we do train together. And we are constantly guiding each other on form, shouting out kudos, etc.
During strongman training we’ll be blasting tunes of choice on a boombox sitting nearby. But sometimes we even have to turn it down so that we can concentrate on what we’re doing as well as being able to hear Tod or Julie yelling out verbal guides.
Patricia, good point about the belt. I never use one, so I didn’t think about that. I like to attach mine to my waist band, underneath my shirt, so a belt would put it somewhere in my appendix.
I agree with a lot of your feelings on audio players, and that’s why I never used one before the advent of mp3 players. They’re definitely a step in the right direction - a CD could never hold so many songs by Celine Di…I mean Metallica, Slayer, and the like.
Another thing I do when training with a partner but I want my music is to either have only 1 earphone plugged in or have them immediately in front of my ears.
Trish, if you want to listen to headphones, get a tight sweat band and put it on your bi’s facing outwards with the cords going thru your shirt. It won’t get in the way of anything. Works for me.
I use a mp3 player from Nike. It’s designed for runners, and I love it for cardio cuz I need my music to get thru any kind of cardio (including HIIT). But I hate it for lifting so I leave it at home (or hotel).
I have a Nike mp3 player with an armstrap, I forget the model #. For O-lifts, I tie the headphone cord (the kind that fits tight around your ear kinda a c-shape) around itself to shorten it and run it down the neck, through the sleeve of my shirt. Never had a problem with snatches or cleans. Even if is sitting right up against the shoulder at the top of the biceps, when I rack the clean my fingers are still keeping the bar up high on my shoulder toward my clavicle and keep it from hitting or rolling back to hit the mp3 player.