Before I go into some of the responses that I received and the playlist that they have submitted, I would like to try and offer up a debate regarding the playlist (of any sort) and the work out. Is it beneficial to listen to a playlist or does it serve as more of a distraction? Is it fueling your fire or draining your efficiency? Does the playlist keep you focused or does it create yet another distraction for you? I only ask these questions because I myself constantly face these crossroad like conundrums.  And for the most part it really comes down to inconsequential factors for me, such as time I want to physically spend at the gym, the mood I am in, the muscle/muscles I am trying to target on that given day, the type of day I have had, the means by which I am getting to the gym and the amount of people at the gym, just to name a few.
               Most days I will take my iPod to the gym with me, but it is about a 50/50 crap shoot to whether or not I will actually put in the head phones and use it and it really has to do with running down the list above. If I get to the gym on a day where I am doing chest or back, I will most likely use a playlist, for three main reasons. One, those are usually Mondays and Tuesdays so I typically just need that extra “umf” to power me through my workouts – and believe me the playlists that I made for both days are more than enough to get the blood going. Two, I know that I will easily eat up an hour at the gym for either of these days, so I budget my work day and week out so that I take an hour lunch on both days and stay that extra ½ hour (assuming I work an eight hour day which doesn’t really ever happen –usually 9-11hrs). So with that being said I have the luxury of listening to music while I work out because I can get caught up in a song and space out for a couple minutes here and there and it’s no big deal, because I have already allotted that time for my workout. But on bicep and tricep days I can usually crank out a 35 minute full workout and typically don’t listen to music if I am trying to get my workout in during lunch, because often times music distracts me because I love it and find myself more attuned to the songs I am listening to than to my workouts themselves. Three, my mood is always a factor. If I am in one of those, I can’t live without the new music I just got, then it doesn’t matter about anything else, I will definitely listen to my playlist. But if I have spent most of the day listening to music while I crunch numbers at my desk all day, I will take a break from it while I am at the gym and just enjoy the cluttered silence of my thoughts while I find some solace within my workout. And typically on Mondays and Tuesdays I have days of reporting that require my utmost attention, so I usually won’t be listening to music while I process them so I will plug in the phones at the gym and drown out the world for an hour while I work out. Another factor that comes into play is the mode in which I travel to the gym. Usually it is by car, but about once a week I will run to the gym and anytime I run I have to listen to music because it distracts me from all the elements that want to work against me when I run. Then when I arrive at the gym I typically just leave them in and go about my work out.
               As you can see I have created this complicated mental equation for using or not listening or listening to music while I work out. I was just really curious if most people preferred to listen to music while exercising or preferred to just go without. I ask this question not only based on my own antics but also on those of others I see at the gym. I see about 20 of the same people at the gym every time I go at lunch, of those people I see about three who always have headphones in about four that never have headphones in and the rest have them some days and some days they don’t.  So as usual this peaked my curiosity. I am sitting here talking about how music distracts me but as I am writing this I can see that I am often distracted by the practice of others – sheesh I got to get it together here. Like I have said my mind is constantly going it is what space mountain would like if you turned the lights on. Anyways please, if you have any opinions on this one let me know, because I am genuinely curious.
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