Wearing Headphones and Running: Only at the Gym

So long, Soundgarden. Goodbye Ozzy. I have to leave you home on my next run around the neighborhood.

You’re just not good for me.

I’ve always known in the back of my mind that running up and down the streets in my subdivision with the music cranked as loud as comfortably possible, is probably not the smartest thing. I can’t hear anything when I run. It helps me tune out how hard I’m exercising, or panting, as I push myself to make it one more block.

It really is no surprise that apparently I’m also oblivious to the moving vehicles around me.

A sobering study tells it like it is.

The number of pedestrians injured while wearing headphones has tripled in the last six years. Seventy percent of the victims died. Now, two-thirds of them were male and under 30 – which doesn’t apply to me – but here’s the scary part: in one-third of the cases, the victim didn’t hear a warning sound from the car or train.

Sigh. I really can’t ignore these statistics. And neither should you.

Looks like I’ll need to save the music for the treadmill or get used to the sound of my own labored breathing.

Alice Warchol is a freelance health writer and fitness instructor.

Sources: University of Maryland Medical Center news release; the peer-reviewed journal Injury Prevention

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