And you thought working out was a good thing. Apparently, it may have some negative consequences for hearing. Well, only if you crank up the tunes while you work out.

Research shows that gym-goers are more likely to turn up the volume on their iPods and other personal music devices while working out to drown out the surrounding, noisy environment. A gym, in fact, may have some consequences all on its own.

The whirring of cardio equipment and clanking of weights can be quite loud.  Gymnasiums for team sports are loud as well with the reverberating sounds of shoes squeaking, balls bouncing and shouts from excited players or spectators.

If you use an iPod to workout, you may be tempted to turn up the volume so you can actually hear your music over the background noise. This can lead to hearing damage in a hurry. Just 5 minutes a day of listening to your personal music device to full volume can cause hearing damage.

The good news is you can purchase custom earphones that fit snugly in your ear canal and seal out background noise. Stock earphones that come with your personal music device do not fit properly in the ear canal, which is why you hear so much background noise. By blocking the background noise, you’re able to hear the music or pod-cast more clearly without cranking up the volume.

Personally, I workout at home and while I’ll use my iPod and custom fleximonitors whilst the family is around, if I have opportunity to use my stereo, I give my ears a rest. Instead of my custom earphones, I use my custom musician’s earplugs so I can hear the music more clearly despite the whir of the treadmill.

If you do use stock earphones with your personal music device, you need to keep the volume at 70% or below to prevent hearing damage. So, you may want to save your ears a bit and do part of your workout, perhaps the cardio, in a more quiet environment such as a hike in the country.

Personal trainers or professional athletes who are exposed to gym noise for long periods of time should use noise earplugs to protect their hearing. More and more athletes are using custom earplugs out on the field as well to block distracting stadium noise.

American football quarterback Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings has worn earplugs for years so he isn’t rattled by crowd noise while making play decisions. He seems to have started a trend with all the players wearing custom purple coloured earplugs for the big championship game a few weeks ago. Apparently, the earplugs do not help much with interceptions as Brett’s last throw of the game in sudden death overtime lead to the opposing team’s victory.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 4:55 am and is filed under Noise Earplugs, custom earplugs, musicians earplugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.