Running is considered to be one of the best cardio exercises. However, running often can become mundane and boring, and therefore many people tend to ask the question "should I listen to audiobooks when running".
My effort in this article is to find an answer to this question. I positively affirm that there are good reasons to use audiobooks when running. I will explain it as best I can over the next few lines.
In short, should you listen to audiobooks when running?
Listening to audiobooks when running is more beneficial than listening to music. It increases your productivity, learning capacities, listening skills, and sparks new interests.
1. Increased Productivity
In today’s modern world finding spare time is quite difficult. I know that many of our lives have become chaotic and busy as we try to juggle between jobs, family, relationships and friends. We also need to find time to raise children
I have come across people who would like to spend more time relaxing their minds and refreshing it. When this is not possible, running with audiobooks could be a good alternative. They can not only save time and make themselves more productive.
Audiobooks can increase productivity quite significantly. Many audiobooks last for around 8 hours. It could help me to complete one audiobook every two weeks and this, in turn, would mean 24 books a whole year.
It does help save money. At the same time it also helps maintain a decent running schedule. Hence, it would be a great idea to become more productive.
2. Increasing Learning capabilities
I would like to point out here that many people often believe that learning and knowledge gathering should be only the priority of children alone.
This is not right. We keep learning throughout our entire life. There is an old adage that says, the more we learn the more we earn.
Therefore, I am one of those who believes that we should take full advantage of the time available to us and devote it towards learning.
Listening to educational audiobooks while running is a great opportunity and it would not be a bad idea to use this as extensively as possible.
If you look around, do some research, you will be able to come across thousands of audiobooks out there in the market. Many of them are non-fictional and have a wealth of knowledge and are highly educational.
I suggest that you identify your area of interest.
It could pertain to accounts, science, law, medicine, general knowledge, arts and culture, history of nations and much more. Using these educational books while on your running workouts could certainly help you quite a bit.
I have also seen many people learning new languages making use of these runs in the morning, evening or other time that is convenient to them.
I am sure that listening to the right audiobooks can do a world of good for you. You identify your area of interest, you will be able to come across many audiobooks that you could choose from.
You also could read and go through more than one audiobook on the same subject because it could help you to enhance your knowledge even better.
3. Running and Being Entertained
There are long-distance and middle-distance runners who have a passion for running for comparatively long periods of time.
They need to keep their motivation high and also remain entertained at the same time. They also would like to keep their minds occupied, especially because running often becomes a repetitive and monotonous affair.
In such situations, there are many who believe that making use of a good fiction audiobook could help a lot. They also believe that it could be a perfect way to keep the person entertained and I am in full agreement with that.
I have seen many people getting themselves into the main character or characters that are a part of the audiobook.
Hence, when they run, their mind gets fully occupied. This not only makes running interesting but the quality, speed of the running may also improve significantly.
If you are planning to be in a competitive running environment, these fictional audiobooks could also help you to improve and better your timings.
Hence, it is quite obvious that choosing a good audiobook could not only make running interesting but perhaps make a runner become more proficient, and competitive. If you are running on a dreary winter day, your mind and mood could be down. In such a situation a good audiobook could be the best way forward.
You are limited only by your imagination and you have many options to choose as far as interesting and entertainment fictional characters are concerned. A hard slog on runs that are long and demanding can become a cake-walk if you have the right audiobook to keep company.
4. It could help in strengthening listening skills
I have read some books about highly successful people and have tried to learn more about the various reasons for their success.
I have found that successful leaders and successful people always have been great listeners.
In fact, many employers today look at those candidates who mention a few lines about their listening and analytical skills. To analyze a problem, one has to be a good listener. Hence, CVs that talk about a candidates’ listening skills are looked at positively.
Like all skills, listening also can be honed and developed. Listening is extremely crucial in all walks of life. As a student, you should be a good listener. If you are a family man or even if you are dating a lady, you must learn to be a good listener first.
Hence, there is no doubt that listening is extremely crucial for becoming successful in life.
Listening can perhaps be done best when you are running. A good audiobook that has an interesting topic. I know that when you are listening to an audiobook, you have no other option but to put your heart and mind to the audiobook. It will be one-way traffic and you will be listening only to what the speaker has to say.
On the other hand an ordinary conversation often is a two-way happening, where you can cut out the other person and seek some clarification or put forth your point of view if you feel that you are not on the same page. This is not possible in case of an audiobook listening especially when you are running or engaged in some other activity.
Running with an audiobook in your ears forces you to listen to what is being said and you try your best to absorb it. It therefore offers you a fantastic choice of becoming a good lilistener.
5. Sparks New Interests
Because of lack of time, many people are not in a position to look at new areas of interests. They get stuck in the daily rigmarole. In such situation, running with an audiobook could be a good option.
I would strongly recommend that one should choose a topic that is new and in which he or she has an interest. You could also zero in on the right audiobook and listen to it when running.
It is a promise that if the topic is close to your heart, you not only will learn a few new things but your running will also improve quite a bit.
It is quite clear from the above that listening to audiobooks is a proven and time-tested way to hone and develop one’s listening skills. Apart from being a good runner you also have a chance to become a very good listener. It certainly will help your professional life and also your personal life in more ways than one.
Is listening to audiobooks when running dangerous?
While the above five points are certainly unmistakable benefits associated with running with an audio book, there are many who believe that it could be dangerous.
Is it really dangerous to run when listening to audiobooks? Let me try to give some answers to this valid and important question.
Many people leave their headphones home because they fear that the audio that is emanating from the surroundings could be blocked. This they feel could hamper and endanger their safety.
However, if you are able to choose the right track for running this should not be a problem. But if you have heavy traffic and cars and if you are required to cross lanes and roads regularly while running, you could have a problem in hand.
There are a few people who believe that audiobooks, music and running become so intertwined that doing away with one of the two could pose problems. Hence, you must see that your body continues to treat running and audiobook listening independently.
Should I quit listening to music when running?
No, it is not necessary that you should quit listening to music if you are planning to run with the headphones on.
According to experts, it would be a good idea to have a fifty-fifty approach as far as using headphones are concerned. You could devote 50% time for audiobook listening and 50% for listening to some of the best music that touches your heart and soul.
While audiobooks could be knowledge enhancing and fun, music could touch your heart and help you in unwinding from inside.
There are many ways by which you could learn to have a balance between the two.
Can podcasts be a good substitute for audiobooks?
Yes, there is nothing wrong in making podcasts a part of your running exercise. But audiobooks could be a better option for those who are trying to become proficient in one area or are looking for some healthy but light reading.
What are the best audiobooks for running?
There are thousands of audiobooks to choose from and the choice of the persons would depend on their individual tastes, preferences and likes. However, there are some famous audiobooks that are considered to be ideal for running. Here are a couple of them.
· "Rich Doll" could be useful for those athletes who are trying to break some bad habits.
· "Unbroken" is an awesome audiobook that talks about an athlete by the name Lou Zamparini and who was part of World War II.
· "Once a Runner" is a good book for not so professionally minded runners but who love running.
Conclusion
Running without any doubt is a fantastic workout and it can be made fun, enjoyable and even knowledge enhancing provided one has the right mindset towards it. Running and audiobook listening are perhaps made for each other.
