As humans, we need to remember to actively take care of our bodies. For that we need to consider different things, for example, healthy eating and sleeping habits. Another one of those things is the basic need to exercise regularly.
Exercise provides a lot of benefits for the body and mind. You’ve probably heard some of them. I can say for myself that during the times of my life that I have regularly exercised, I’ve felt so much happier, and enjoyed more energy. If you have done it too, you know what I mean.
The thing is, you need to find a type of exercise or sport that you really enjoy doing. That way you’ll not only feel good while you’re doing it, but you’ll be able to commit to it for the long run, and reap its benefits.
For me, the exercise of choice has always been swimming. I’ve been swimming on and off throughout my life. I always go back to it. I’ve concluded by now that is the the only type of exercise that I personally don’t get bored of doing over and over. To be honest, for the most part, I always look forward to swimming days. It’s something I actually plan to keep on doing for the rest of my life, if I can.
It’s that unique, and always refreshing, feeling of moving through the water, combined with that cozy sensation that you experience when you submerge yourself completely underwater. It’s like a total break from the outside world. I’ve always considered it my own personal type of meditation, really. It seems to help me forget about all the crazy stuff that’s always going on, and enables me to just focus on gliding through the water, while listening to the flow of my own toughs, and the water. Sometimes I almost feel like I’m kind of flying. It’s very liberating.
Also, swimming is a great full body exercise, that will help to keep your body healthy, and in shape.
In any case, some years ago, I discovered that modern technology had advanced far enough to the point that we now have underwater music players available for purchase. I couldn’t rejoice myself more when I discovered it! As a swimmer, and a music lover, it was like a dream come true.
I’m kind of used to the experience by now, but I must admit that those first swimming experiences while listening to music where very powerful. They still are very exciting, though.
So, add to the feelings about swimming I described before, the act of listening to music, (which just by itself, can be one of the deepest and most powerful experiences a human can have in this Earth.) It becomes something really special.
I also started appreciating music in a different way while listening to it underwater, as you get to feel it inside your head like you haven’t really experienced it before. It’s very direct, like you can almost see it’s shape. Maybe because being submerged in water already kinda separates your senses from the rest of the world, you’re able take the music inside yourself in a more open way. Anyway, for me it’s a delight.
Some other, more obvious, benefits of listening to music while swimming, also apply to any other type of land based exercise. For example, making the training session more fun. Also, music stimulates your energy. I confess I sometimes only get the motivation to complete those last few laps because I’m listening to some good tunes.
Now, about which underwater music player to choose. As of now, there are 2 main technologies, (at least that I know of):
- Traditional earbuds based music players: these are just small music players that are waterproofed, (there’s even a regular iPod Shuffle version.) There are many brands and models, but all work quite similar. You set them up them around you head, and connect to them waterproofed earbuds that you slip inside your ear. Those earbuds create a tight sealing between them and your ear, thus preventing water from coming inside the ear canal, so you’re able to listen to music as you normally would with regular earphones. This approach theoretically works, but in practice water can sometimes enter your ear, and then it becomes somewhat difficult to achieve a tight sealing again.
- Music players based on bone conduction technology: I only know of one company that uses this technology, named Finis. The idea is that instead of having regular earbuds connected to the music player, you get “a sleek, two-piece design to deliver crystal clear audio through cheekbones to the inner ear.“ In essence, you set up the music player so the two main pieces sit over your cheekbones. When you turn it on, those pieces vibrate a bit with the sound of the music, which then is carried over by vibration through your cheekbones, to the inside of your ears. Very interesting stuff. And the sound is kinda nice.
The music players that have worked far better for me are the Finis ones. They have the advantage over the regular earbuds based ones, that you don’t have to deal with the hassle of having water potentially coming inside your ear, mid training, an ruining its functionality. I tried first a couple of those players, and even if they can deliver better sound quality, I’d rather pick a Finis player and have a smoother, trouble free listening experience.
I’m still curious about trying current waterproofed earbuds, though, as it’s been quite some years since I gave them up. Maybe I’ll give them another chance one of these days, and get a waterproofed iPod Shuffle in the process, so I can at least load it with High Quality ALAC music files (which is the Apple equivalent to FLAC files,) because as of now the standard for underwater music players is, sadly, still the MP3.
Either way, whichever waterproofed music player you choose, you’ll definitely make your swimming sessions way more fun.
