Slipknot, Slayer, pantera!!!
[quote]swivel wrote:
i get easily distracted by music especially stuff i like. it’s easier for me to ignore the stuff they play @ the gym since i don’t like it.
if i’m working out @ home i do like to crank it. it’s a whole different vibe though when you feel the house shaking, than just having something loud in your ears. but even then i have to put on a disc i know really well. if it’s something new i get too distracted/can’t focus. [/quote]
Definitely, having nice speakers turned all the way up is amazing @ home.
And my mp3 player broke so I’m stuck with gym music for a while…at least the guys there listen to the classic rock station…
[quote]Freaky Styley wrote:
It is also useful as a way to keep gym 'tards from talking to you. I like this aspect so much that when the Shuffle’s battery died the other way, I kept wearing it.[/quote]
ha, ha I have done that too! Sometimes I get sick of the sex-crazed guys in the weight room & continue to wear the ipod even if the battery dies. 
Brilliant!
[quote]Freaky Styley wrote:
My iPod Shuffle is a must for me. Wear it around the neck, run the headphone wire under your shirt, and voila, it’s out of the way.
It is also useful as a way to keep gym 'tards from talking to you. I like this aspect so much that when the Shuffle’s battery died the other way, I kept wearing it.[/quote]
[quote]djoh615893 wrote:
Here is why I bring an MP3 player with me…
While lifting at a gym in Iraq, I got tired of the rap, R&B, hip-hop, pussy rock, etc and brought in a Slayer CD. After a bout of arguing and debating with the retarded Philipino bastard at the desk I got him to put it in the multi-changer. My CD came on 20 minutes later and the beautiful strains of War Ensemble came screaming through the speakers and stunned the crowd in the gym, kinda similar to the response to a very loud bomb going off nearby. The bastard changed the song! The rat bastard!! I went out and got an MP3 player right after that. How can you play the crap every day, like the rap and hip-hop, and that trendy new crap that spends a few weeks on the billboard and peters out and have the balls to shut down vintage metal like that? Not like I was imposing on anyone, since it was a public stereo for anyone to use, and everyone likes to impose crappy music on everyone else daily.
Enjoy your iPods and MP3 players. Holy crap I feel for all of you that have to listen to garbage music when you lift. I have a power rack and GHR in my basement, and love the solitude and the ability to crank whatever the hell I feel like, as loud as I feel like (but in accordance with the wife).
Be strong[/quote]
What I find funny is those who don’t understand not everyone likes the same music. If I was forced to listen to Slayer, that would be the reason to bring my MP3 player. Hip Hop, the entire genre, is crap? That is why he changed the music on you.
I used to lift without an MP3 player, and to be honest, I did feel more focused at the time. Now that I have been using an MP3 player for a year now… I like it. I can play music to get me pumped up, but I usually don’t hear it when I’m pushing or pulling the weight. It’s just the beat that keeps me going. Lately… I find it’s a great conversation deterent as I don’t have to listen to other people chatter, or get involved in conversations.
~V
I don’t wear mine while lifting anymore. I found the wires got in the way and the pod itself too. But if I bought a pair of those wireless Bluetooth speakers, I might consider it.
I usually train in a dungeon like high school weightroom. So, no irritating top ten, Britney, boy bands, or any other T-sapping stuff. I can usually crank the stereo up if I want to. But often I prefer to train in silence. Sometimes it is a great pleasure- to escape the noisy world where we interact with others, and to train in silence, with the whole gym to myself.
[quote]djoh615893 wrote:
Here is why I bring an MP3 player with me…
While lifting at a gym in Iraq, I got tired of the rap, R&B, hip-hop, pussy rock, etc and brought in a Slayer CD. After a bout of arguing and debating with the retarded Philipino bastard at the desk I got him to put it in the multi-changer. My CD came on 20 minutes later and the beautiful strains of War Ensemble came screaming through the speakers and stunned the crowd in the gym, kinda similar to the response to a very loud bomb going off nearby. The bastard changed the song! The rat bastard!! I went out and got an MP3 player right after that. How can you play the crap every day, like the rap and hip-hop, and that trendy new crap that spends a few weeks on the billboard and peters out and have the balls to shut down vintage metal like that? Not like I was imposing on anyone, since it was a public stereo for anyone to use, and everyone likes to impose crappy music on everyone else daily.
Be strong[/quote]
So because he doesn’t like exactly the same music as you he is a ‘retarded Philipino bastard’?
Not everyone likes heavy metal. I like it sometimes. I like rap sometimes. But usually I listen to trance and house. British dance music. Am I retarded too? Or just someone with different tastes?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Yo Momma wrote:
consumer wrote:
So how about it?
I do not lift with an iPod as i feel it diverts my attention away from lifting, i want my absolute best when i lift, but i wonder if i’m being entirely anal?
what do you guys think about blasting music while lifting?
I don’t use my iPod when I lift either. The musician in me has a “critical ear” that demands the music be the primary focus. Instead of concentrating on my lift, I’m thinking about the bassline and where my fingers should be or how I would change the timing etc. Way too distracting. But I crank the tunes when I run…or whenever I NEED the distraction.
I’m a musician too and I generally can’t go very long without listening to music. Perhaps I am more into “feeling” the music than worrying how they are playing an instrument. Music has emotion or a vibe to it. Unless I am working out around people that I know and who happen to be serious about training as well, I generally use it to tune everything else out.[/quote]
I too am a musician and feel my iPod is essential for training…
[quote]TheWookie wrote:
I will say the earbud wires do get in the way sometimes.
[/quote]
just bring the wire in from behind your back and inside your shirt.
Am I the only one who needs to concentrate before lifting, making the mp3 player a nuisance?
I mean, I’ve worked out in different gyms, and the one playing crappy music did not make a difference, I do not listen to a damn thing before lifting. Oh well, I must be some strange ass
[quote]daraz wrote:
Am I the only one who needs to concentrate before lifting, making the mp3 player a nuisance?
I mean, I’ve worked out in different gyms, and the one playing crappy music did not make a difference, I do not listen to a damn thing before lifting. Oh well, I must be some strange ass[/quote]
Possibly…or maybe you have no rhythm. Music is a large part of my life and always has been. To someone who doesn’t “feel” music, I suppose it can be distracting. I personally have a hard time understanding someone who can listen to music but feel nothing from it unless it is simply a genre of music they don’t like. Even then, I find music I don’t like to be irritating and grating. I can’t just tune it out.
I’ve had my iPod for a few months, now, and I wouldn’t go back to lifting without it.
I’ve almost been crushed while lifting, on more than one occassion, from having all the strength leave my body when some silly pop song came spewing out of the gym speakers (and I don’t consider all pop to be silly, so don’t drill me for making an anti-pop statement).
The iPod allows me to choose my own lifting music (primarily Disturbed), and it isolates me from all of the trivial bullshit going on around me.
I “feel” the music, as well (and I can’t imagine not being able to), so rather than being a distraction, the music [that I choose] enhances my focus on my lifts. So much so, that I was halfway through my workout yesterday when I kinda ‘came to’, and realized I’d missed my favorite part of my playlist. That was after hitting a PR deadlift.
So in a public environment, where the public “tastes” don’t jive with your own, I consider a mp3 player to be a huge plus.
I hate not having my ipod. The gym I go to only has one station and its god awful (out in bumbleville). All I need is my System of a Down and Im good to go.
[quote]Charles Staley wrote:
Many of the more “hard-core” lifters will shun the idea of using an iPod (or any other type of Walkman, etc) during workouts. Their rationale is a sound one: you shouldn’t be trying to distract yourself from the task at hand.[/quote]
But what if the distraction is caused by people around you or gym music that you can’t control? Then creating your OWN atmosphere is essential.
The only time my iPod is a “distraction” is when I realize before a set that the song with the particularly good driving beat is going to end before my set is up; then I have to reach to my hip and press the “back” button to start it again. Time lost: 2 seconds. But then I’ve got 3-4 minutes of being in a zone that’s ideal and shuts out the distractions around me.
On “off” days I do a lot of stretching and ab work, and I don’t worry about the noise around me. But if it’s a day of moving iron…let’s just say that the iPod has made my workouts more efficient.
I cannot go back to lifting without one again. I keep my headphones on when the battery dies as well. I find the music puts me in my own little environment and helps me focus. The wires rarely bother me at all. Its just a case of personal preference.
I lift in a high-school gym, usually just with one other guy since we come in before it opens for the kids.
Turn up the Rage Against the Machine CD, get angry at the government and lift some heavy (for me at least) weights. My favorite part of the day.
Then I stick around and help out when the high schoolers are lifting and I get to hear “S.O.S.” about a million times.