Born Again Gym Rat: Making Adjustments

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Making Adjustments

My old Sony hook-over-the-ear sport earbuds are really starting to annoy me. They're old so the left earbud is losing its transmission ability. Plus the uneven wire lengths has always been aggravating to deal with (which is why they were $6 at Kmart some years ago). But at least they mostly stay put. Unfortunately, as much as I try, I can't block out the grating sound of The Mayor when he's at full volume so I decided to wear my "back up" pair of ear buds.

I got a pair of Plugfones from the Run Hundred website (link here). They're a combination of earbuds and ear plugs. The Sony has better sound quality, when they work, when there isn't the din of clucking hens. The Plugfones actually do seal out the peripheral noise, but they don't stay in place although they do stay in my ears. It might just be me though. As I shift my head, the earbuds change position so there's varying degrees of soundproofing. I aim the buds slightly upward to get the best sound and noise-proofing. They are comfortable, and as sensitive as I am, I don't have any issue with these hurting the tenders of my ears, especially the tragus. (Seriously, if I sleep on my side, eventually compression pain in the tragus wakes me up and forces me to change position.) Cheap JVC and Maxell earbuds are absolute torture and should never be purchased!

What makes me crazy is getting tangled in the wires. Today I'm whacking the Nexersys for 15 rounds and between the Beginner and the Intermediate session, not only do I pull off my sleeveless sweatshirt, but I also pull off my headphones and loop them up the back of my clothes. Of course, I have to take my gloves off to do this, and my hands are still wrapped and taped. Everything is an exercise in patience. I'm tired of having the wires get caught in my bra, or in the creases of my waistband, or even just sticking to my sweaty skin under my nylon tank. Running up my back, I only occasionally have to pull the wires out of my braided hair.

When I get really fed up, I'll replace my ancient iPod with a bluetooth version and get wireless hook-over-the-ear buds. Like I got my sis for her birthday. But I can't ever see me wearing those over the head headphones that's so popular at the gym... I move around too much, and my head is too sensitive to headband pressure.

I have a pretty good workout even though the machine discounts several of my blows. The machine blanks the screen more than once during the Advance rounds and the Accuracy score is abysmal. Which is why I'm surprised that the machine thinks I'm out-pacing and out-powering the program. "Add rounds" it recommends. Well, alrighty. I do 15 min on the Step Mill, just for fun. And then I want to see how many pull ups I can muster. I get to 30, drop to a full extension and manage to squeeze out just one more. Done!

Tuesday Workout