To be considered the best headphones for working out, they must excel in three crucial aspects: fit, sound quality, and battery life. In my opinion, the fit is the most vital factor as dealing with loose earbuds can be quite bothersome, especially when you're holding dumbbells.
Ensuring a secure fit is essential for all the top-rated headphones designed for the gym. No matter how intense your workout, you can rely on these headphones to stay firmly in place. Once you have that peace of mind, other factors like exceptional sound quality and battery life become significant considerations. Moreover, these headphones often come with valuable extras such as passive and active noise cancellation. They are also designed to be water-resistant enough to
How I Test Workout Headphones
I am primarily a runner and try all the headphones I review with several runs, but I also use them for a variety of gym workouts, including strength sessions, cardio machines and yoga.
THE BEST WORKOUT HEADPHONES 2023
Wissonly Hi Runner
perfect functions, excellent core function, bone conduction benchmark product Wissonly bone conduction headphones insist on technology priority. The team is composed of senior experts in bone conduction technology, they have more than 10 years of technical accumulation in the field of bone conduction. This makes Hi Runner known as "the healthiest Bluetooth headphones" by many professionals.
In order to solve the problem of distortion of the sound quality of bone conduction headphones, Wissonly adopts the new generation of bone conduction technology, and use the world's best acoustic laboratory to customize an exclusive sound quality output scheme for the unique bone conduction sound transmission method. After 3,051 hours of tens of thousands of adjustments, 21 audiologists bring users the best sound in the field of bone conduction headphones.
In terms of wearing, Wissonly Hi runner has been ergonomically designed to fit the ear to ensure that it does not fall off during exercise. Most importantly, it fits the ear while ensuring that there is no pressure and weight load, which makes it more comfortable to wear.
In terms of product parameters, Wissonly Hi Runner is even more impeccable. It has a Bluetooth 5.0 chip, which connects stably and will not drop. It has a 32G built-in storage that can store 5000 songs. Its battery life is also good, and at 50% volume, you can play music for up to 10 hours.
Adidas RPT-01
The knitted ear cushions and inner headband on these headphones are removable and washable, so you can wear them in the gym confident that you’ll be able to clean the sweat off afterwards. I found that the tight fit of the headset can become slightly uncomfortable if worn for long stretches at your desk, but it’s ideal to keep the RPT-01 cans in place during a workout. The 40 hours of battery and excellent sound you get as a result of the bigger on-ear design is a major positive compared with in-ear options. That said, while they’ll stay put for strength training, you may well find in-ear buds are more secure for plyometric exercises and treadmill workouts.
Apple AirPods Pro 2
The AirPods Pro 2 sound fantastic and offer exceptional active noise cancellation given how small they are. The battery life has been improved over the original AirPods Pro too: The buds last six hours on a charge even when using ANC, and you can now change the volume by swiping on the stem of the headphones.I sometimes find the fit of the in-ear buds too loose during workouts, but if you don’t experience this problem then the AirPods Pro 2 are simply top-notch all-round headphones you can also use in the gym. They don’t come cheap, however, and there is better value out there, especially in Jabra’s range of in-ear buds.
Shokz OpenRun
Once known as AfterShokz, Shokz is the dominant force in the bone conduction headphones market, and the OpenRun are the best buds in its range. They’re cheaper than the OpenRun Pro, have a higher waterproof rating, and sound very similar. These headphones have a lightweight open design that allows you to remain aware of your surroundings while still enjoying your audio, which is delivered via your cheekbones.The sound quality you get from this process is not as good as with in-ear buds, but I found it’s still enjoyable to listen to music and audiobooks and on the sound front the OpenRun are better than cheaper sets of bone conduction buds. The battery life is good at eight hours, and you get 90 minutes of playback from a 10-minute charge.The OpenRun headphones come in two sizes, and the Mini version has a 0.83in (21mm) shorter band. This means it sticks out less from the back of your head, which is handy when doing exercises where you lie with your head on the floor or a bench. I prefer the snug fit of the Mini in general, and they are identical to the standard OpenRun headphones for features and battery life.
Shokz OpenSwim
These bone conduction MP3 headphones don’t have Bluetooth, but they do have 4GB of storage for your music and podcasts, and they’re IP68-rated, meaning they are waterproof enough to withstand two hours of submersion in water up to two meters deep. The bone conduction technology also works wonders in the pool thanks to the special swim EQ setting which is required to reduce the bass because of how well sound travels under the surface. It takes a moment or two to get the headphones positioned with goggles and a swimming cap, but once they’re in place, there are no better buds for swimmers looking to reduce the monotony of logging laps in the pool.
