Shokz Openswim

The vast majority of exercise is vastly improved by the introduction of music. Whether it be to help with timing, motivation or just to fill your ears with pleasant sounds while you’re busy getting fit, music can be a great accompaniment. One of the best ways of getting fit is to swim and until about 5 years ago it simply wasn’t possible to listen to music at the same time. Waterproof earbuds were invented around about then and they have now evolved to such a degree that we have these headphones from Shokz.

They’re not just headphones of course. These are mp3 players that fit around your head. They don’t even plug in to your ears! Instead, they make use of Bone Conduction to get the sounds to your ears with the vibrations travelling along your cheekbones to completely bypass the eardrums and getting around the problem of trying to get that perfect fit for your earbuds. So the age-old issue of soundwaves distorting through water is completely avoided and you are free to use proper earplugs to protect your ears.

From a technical perspective these mp3 players can hold up to 4GB of data (around 1200 songs) and the buttons are fairly intuitive on the main unit with on/off, volume control and mode being the options. The battery life is good for up to 8 hours of continuous use and it only takes 2 hours to charge them up again. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you wearing these out of the water too and they only weigh about 30 grams so you’ll barely notice they are even there. There is no Bluetooth, only internal storage so no need to take your phone to the edge of the pool or to worry about range and with up to 1200 songs, there’s no need to worry about repetition. RRP £169.95

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