Hail Ipod

Happy Friday!

It's Laura.

Fun Fact #1: 10 is the number of repetitions people could complete while listening to their favorite music on an MP3 player. This is according to a study from the College of Charleston.

I know that I use my iPod shuffle  constantly whether in the gym, while I am out running and even cycling (but safely).  I even have an underwater MP3 device that I try and use for my swim workouts (but it’s not working as well as I would like it to work).

My shuffle is my best friend during a running work out. I often ponder how we hear music with the ear buds, since its sounds like it is in the middle of my head and not in my ears. I Googled this and my searches have not yielded much.  If you have any insight, please share. 

Choosing songs for my shuffle is very important to me (I am far less discriminating on my regular iPod). All the songs have to be upbeat and happy while having a certain beat (I cannot identify that beat as I am not trained in music lexicon but I know it when I hear it). Every once in a while I get a song that I have never heard before. Take today, this unfamiliar sound fills my head and I am like “What the#$%&!?” I own this song? This is not my genre (which by the way is indie/indie pop/alternative).

Fun fact #2: 2 is the number of times better people did on cognitive tests after exercising while listening to music compared to sweating in silence , according to an Ohio State University study. GO BUCKS (The Husbands alma mater) [Editor’s note: Michigan Sucks!]

So not only do you do better on your cognitive tests, but ear buds act as a shield from unwanted intrusions. Chatty ladies on the elliptical, the old man that just wants to talk, more chatty ladies on the running path, they pretty much keep you antisocial in the gym and highly unapproachable (more about this later) as you are tune out not it. (I will never understand the people who try talking to you when you are clearly listening to music and have ear buds in! Dude? Seriously?) The one thing the ear buds cannot keep out is smells (and yes I am talking about the trainer at the JCC who wears too much cologne).

 

Back to the iPod.  Mine makes me happy.  In the gym, I groove to my tunes. When I run and ride I sing. Singing usually makes me happy (definitely not sad, too hard to sing through tears).

Fun fact #3: the iPod was released in 2001

I think, no wait, I KNOW, I was not an early adopter of the iPod. It was a big as a brick and in 2001 pretty expensive for me at the time. The first shuffle was released in January 2005 and I wanted one desperately but could not afford it. I was running with my Sony AM/FM Walkman and decided to hold it in the palm my hand. Let me just say that running to music is SO MUCH more enjoyable than to static on the radio playing Howard Stern ( before Sirius ).

I don't think I was paying much attention to Apple's MO just yet but in September of 2006 the released the next generation of shuffle.  The Husband got me one for Christmas that year and it still cranks. I am very grateful that I have no issues with mine like The Husband has had with his. [Editor’s note: All my apple products break!]

In conclusion, the iPod makes us smarter, healthier and happier! Hail iPod. [sound of editor mumbling angrily!]

Have a great weekend!

Play hard & sing loud!

Laura