That's Fit

Here at That's Fit, we're forever grateful for the service, courage and sacrifice made by the heroic men and women who serve as military, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. We're so grateful, that we'd like to dedicate some features to both showing our heroes off, and learning a little bit in the process as well. If you serve your country courageously, are a veteran or know someone who does, please return this form completed to Fitz along with a photo and we'll share your story with the world.

Name: Frank Kinsey

Age: 29

Heroic Occupation: Deputy Sheriff

How often do you exercise? Two to three times a week.

What type of exercise do you do? I lift weights, run and play basketball.

Here at That's Fit, we're forever grateful for the service, courage and sacrifice made by the heroic men and women who serve as military, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. We're so grateful, that we'd like to dedicate some features to both showing our heroes off, and learning a little bit in the process as well. If you serve your country courageously, are a veteran or know someone who does, please return this form completed to Fitz along with a photo and we'll share your story with the world.

Name:

Age:

Heroic occupation:

If you're in the military...where are you?

How often do you exercise?

What type of exercise do you do?

When it comes to putting in hardcore workout, I honestly don't know how some people do it consistently without music of some kind. Granted, many gyms have sound systems playing, but if your gym is anything like mine, the station is set to some of the worst music on all of planet earth. And then there are the people who follow a more monastic approach, working out in complete silence. I don't know how they do it, but to each their own, I guess.

Still, there is actually a growing body of evidence that suggests listening to music while working out can actually enhance performance. In a recent article in Maximum Fitness magazine, a senior instructor from the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia stated that some people experience central nervous system stimulation from music, which helps psych them up for heavy lifting (I'm paraphrasing here, of course).

So, whether you're into hip-hop, rock, country, techno, or pop music, it seems that plugging those ear buds into your ears while you workout may do more than distract you from the bad music being played at the gym; it may actually be helping you get a better workout.

Have you ever been in the middle of a workout and the least favorite song on your iPod cropped up? Maybe you created a high-powered gym mix, yet there was one song -- about butterflies and picnics or whatever -- that somehow sneaked its way into the playlist. Then, with great difficulty, because you're in the midst of exercising, you reach down and change the song. The problem is, the next song was recorded at a lower volume level, so you have to again reach down and increase the volume to adjust for the difference. Just - a - little ... aaaahhh!! This small slip of the finger has now practically blown out your eardrums.

As much as a problem as the above example can be, the more common problem is listening to your music too loudly all the time. You should try not to listen to music higher than 85 decibels for more than 30 minutes at a time, as you risk developing permanent noise-induced hearing loss. Of course, unless you carry a decibel reader with you wherever you go, how will you know what your current level is? The much easier way is to use certain outside noises as guidelines. For example, if you're listening to music in a weight room, you should still be able to hear the clanking sound of the iron weights clanging in your vicinity.

Also, many newer models of iPods and other MP3 players have downloadable software that limits the volume to safe levels.

I'm not one to carry a bunch of gadgets with me when I work out -- I feel a little bogged down with just my iPod and cell phone, so forget a pedometer or anything else even though I'm definitely interested in tracking that sort of thing. But now here's the perfect "all-in-one" gadget for somebody like me: a cute phone geared towards the stylish, active, fitness-minded woman! The Samsung SGH-E570.

It's got all kinds of fun features but a couple of the funnest things are the built-in mp3 player and pedometer, and some kind of cool motion-sensitive wallpaper. It comes in a variety of colors and although they've designed the phone with women in mind (pink is the most popular) if you buy one in black it can be perfectly masculine too!


Via Book of Joe

The stethoscope in your doctor's office may be on the way out, and an mp3 player may be on the way in. No, doctor's aren't jamming to tunes while assessing patients, but instead are using the gadgets to better hear breath sounds and everything else they used to listen to with a stethoscope. By pressing a microphone to the chest doctors and nurses get much better sound quality, and can even record and replay what they hear and store the sounds on computers for others to reference later.

Stethoscopes have been around for over 200 years, and although there will always be some uses for them I say there's no shame in retirement!

If you're into beauty gadgets with questionable usefulness, then this MP3-with-built-in-facial contraption is just what you need. Coming out of Japan (where else!), this MP3 player has an attachment that generates negative ions for a mini-facial while you groove happily to your own hand-picked tunes.

Gadgets for better skin are always awesome as far as I'm concerned, but is having it attached to a MP3 player really that useful? How about something we hold up to our faces anyway, like a cell phone? If my skin got clearer for every minute I talked on the phone ... now that would be a great invention.

There are two trains of thoughts out there. One that says to stay completely focused on every moment of your workouts to get the best out of it, and then there is mine. Mine says do whatever it is you need to do to accomplish your goal, make the time fly by, and allow your training to remain as enjoyable as possible so you continue to go back to it.

For example. I love exercise! In fact, I've made my career out of it. I'm also human. Sometimes my four mile jog just becomes freaking dull and if I don't have anything to take my mind off of the constant 'left, right, left, right' in my mind I would just be one more quitter in the world. So this is what little Miss Fitzness does to pursue her amazing goal of ultimate fitness. I get on the treadmill, stepper, gauntlet, rower, etc, completely armed. I bring an mp3 player, cell phone with ear piece, magazine, and then I usually set up in front of a T.V. At that point I set my magazine with many pretty pictures (think Cosmo or Glamour) on the machine and start to run. Then I choose my noise. Sometimes I chat, and sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I talk on the phone, while looking at pictures and then check out the scroll on FOX News.

Does any of that make my workout suffer? Heck no! It allows me to complete it. All of these nonsensical distractions allow me to avoid any silly chatter in my head that would talk me out of finishing. In fact, usually I end up going harder than I planned, because I'm not bored to death! On the flip side, when I'm training for my sport, Full-contact Kickboxing, I'm 100% without interference. Fully focused. Ready for everything. If you are an athlete, I encourage you to do the same.

Clumsy girls like me rejoice! Finally a solution to keep my mp3 player from constantly crashing to the floor. I've put the darn thing in my shorts pocket, on the little ledge of whatever machine I'm using, and I've even tucked it into my bra. Without fail, my teeny little music machine is guaranteed to make its way to the floor with the batteries and door scattered around the gym. Everlast has the coolest new solution.

iPod pants. Yep. Your tushy will sing as you put your eensy boom box in a little zipper pocket with a hole in it, which allows for your headphone cord to sneak out. The material apparently whisks moisture away to keep your sweaty hiney from causing a short in your shorts! Talk about fancy pants! Everlast put the iPod pocket on both dance pants and shorts. The pants retail for $36 and the shorts go for $30. I spotted them at EverlastWomens.Com.

Having just learned to run with earphones, I am still deciding whether I like it or not. There are the issues of safety foremost, and then also comfort and logistics (where does that cord go when you run?)

What music should be on my list is something I haven't even begun to refine. But I do know that loud music when it's hot out makes me feel sick, and new agey music when I'm running in the deep of night with the stars overhead is blissful.

Just in time for my exploration of the perfect running playlist, there's a new resource for adding some oomph to my next run, walk, jog, or skate. The Martha Stewart magazine called Blueprint is offering downloadable jogging playlists of their staffers' favorite exercise music, which they promise to update frequently throughout the fall. Whether they have good taste remains to be seen, and will surely be a decision for each reader/downloader to decide for him or herself.

What's on your exercise playlist? Is it free and downloadable? If so, give us a link!

[Photo by Leonid Mamchenkov.]

Take a look around any gym and at least 9 out of 10 people will have headphones on, either listening to the news/soap operas/sports that the gym TV is tuned into or playing music from an mp3 or CD player. In the gym, the desire to listen to something other than the strangers around you panting for breath is understandable, but do you listen to music outside of the gym as well?

Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. I like background noise, so if I can play music in the area that I am in, I enjoy it. Sometimes I find it to be distracting to have music playing right in my ear, where I can't really tune it out, though. Music is helpful with motivation and consistency when the beat matches your own rhythm, but it can really throw you off your stride when it doesn't.

What do you think? Do you workout with music?