Less than perfect sound system is music to my ears

By Andrea Freedman

Anybody remember the old Sony Walkman and how when you first got one it felt like you were at the height of modern technology? Oh, what I wouldn’t have given for one of those the past couple of months, despite the inconvenience of having to change the cassette tapes after my second iPod Shuffle broke and what was usually a fun time at the gym became tedious and boring.

When I first started going to the gym almost 29 years ago, the norm was that upbeat music would be played so that everyone in the gym could hear it. I also used to do aerobics classes way back when and so could rely on the instructor of the class to choose appropriate music that was sure to make us feel like moving.

After my first few silent workouts, even me, who is usually so gung-ho on getting to the gym in the morning, had been finding it harder to get myself in the mood to get there and even harder to get into “the zone” once I did. The time spent there, especially during the cardio portion, seemed to go by at a snail’s pace and I found that I was actually dreading it some days, rather than looking forward to it like I usually do.

As the computer I had originally put my songs on had since also been irreparably damaged, and as my new compact laptop does not come with a feature on the side that pops out and allows you to put a CD in to copy to your iPod, I was loathe to purchase yet another iPod as it would be difficult to load music to.

Not too proud to be seen with less than up to date electronics, I considered resurrecting my old portable CD player that I had purchased several years ago specifically for the gym but quickly gave up on the idea when I discovered that it was also broken.

There came a point when I would have been grateful for even a small transistor radio, even though I would not have the flexibility of song choices that I did with my iPod. Just to hear any music would be an improvement.

Thinking that it would be better than nothing, I tried bringing just a headset to plug into the TV on the treadmill or elliptical, only to find some of the TVs broken or the sound inaudible, not to mention that there is only one channel available that plays music, and the song choices are not always conducive to working out.

That being said, the minute I took my headset off a personal trainer or so-called motivator would come over to try to sell me some training sessions or to ask me what I was working on and what exercise I planned to do next. I found it so annoying that I began keeping my headphones on even if there was no music coming out of it, just so that I would have a chance of being left alone!

At the end of my rope, I went to my cell phone provider to regale their staff with the details of my woes. After one of the gentlemen who worked there downloaded a free music app to my cell phone, I thought I was on my way. Off I went enthusiastically back to my gym, only to be disappointed when I was told that they do not have Internet service there and so I would be unable to play my free music while exercising.

Luckily for me as my husband is incredibly patient, he didn’t mind devoting several hours to finding a music program that I could listen to without an Internet connection and setting it up for me. He did run into a slight problem when practically the moment after he got the process started, he realized that I had very limited storage space left on my phone, which required most of an evening to delete things in order to free up some memory.

After much frustration and time, I am happy to report that I finally have music again! There are still a few glitches to iron out as well as things to get used to, like my cell phone battery running low faster, stopping in the middle of a song, and making sure I don’t drop or let the phone fall accidentally while I am running on the treadmill or that it doesn’t slip out of my hands when they start to sweat; besides all that I can hardly wait for my next workout!☼

 

Copyright © by Andrea Freedman 2016