Throughout my 20 plus years as a hearing instrument specialist, I’ve discovered that patients are often concerned about their long-term effects on their day-to-day life after receiving hearing aids.
This tends to be an ongoing concern for patients with an active lifestyle, whether it be in a professional sense such as an athlete, personal trainer, or perhaps someone who participates in high-intensity sports and exercise as a hobby.
Many patients are concerned that wearing hearing aids will negatively impact their sporting performance.
At Inland Hearing Aids, it gives me the utmost pleasure to reassure my patients that instead of causing a negative response, hearing aids are more likely to cause a positive response in your overall sporting performance.
Of course, hearing aids won’t allow you to lift heavier weights or successfully catch that last-minute touchdown, but what they can offer is improved reaction times, better concentration and focus, greater awareness of your overall surroundings, and perhaps even allow you to better connect with your teammates.
As an industry expert in the field of hearing, I recommend that you wear your hearing aids at all times during exercise. They’re built to last, will support your active lifestyle, and could end up enhancing your overall performance.
Why Hearing Aids & Exercise Are a Perfect Partnership
1) Keep Your Balance
Anyone who has ever participated in sports as an individual or as part of a team will know that without adequate balance, your skills and accuracy are likely to be negatively impacted and could result in unfortunate accidents.
Removing your hearing aids effectively destabilizes your internal balance before you’ve begun competing. It will also result in sound distortion of your movement, slow your reaction time, and increase the chances of injury resulting from you being less aware of your surroundings.
2) Communicate and Understand
Whether you’re a personal trainer, being molded into shape by a personal trainer, or are part of a team and compete as a hobby, communication is a key factor to all success.
If you remove your hearing aids, it will be harder to communicate with your trainer, teammates, coach, etc., and it could lead to missed instructions. It’s also likely you’ll notice a drop in your overall performance, lead to a drop in team morale, and hamper any chances of long-term success.
3) Music is the Motivator
Everybody knows one of the main inspirations behind a successful workout is a well-determined gym playlist. Whether breaking personal bests, urging a few extra reps, or running that extra mile, music’s power should never be underestimated.
Most modern hearing aids connect wirelessly to your phone or music player, meaning that you can use your hearing aids as headphones with little to no fuss and offering you additional drive during those workouts when your heart’s not in it.
If you need advice on whether your hearing aid is Bluetooth accessible, speak to our friendly team here.
4) Care for Your Equipment
As an industry professional for over two decades, I’ve been amazed at hearing aid technology’s evolution and progress. Still, the one thing that remained the same is the importance of a device and how it contributes to your well-being.
Please remember to take care of your hearing aids as you would your cell phone or your laptop. I would recommend that you keep your devices away from water at all times.
The majority of modern hearing aids are designed to withstand moisture and condensation, but bacteria can still grow, and damage can still occur.
You can buy sweat covers, headbands, or security clips to use during contact sports. However, I would also recommend cleaning your hearing aids after every workout. If you were to consider hearing aids as an extra limb, it makes sense to treat and clean them as such.
Sticking to a cleaning routine and taking care of your equipment will ensure that your hearing aids remain in perfect condition for years to come … while saving you money in the process.
For advice on how best to clean your hearing aids after exercise, click here.
If you or someone close to you has been struggling with their hearing lately or you have ongoing concerns or anxiety regarding hearing aids, please don’t hesitate to call us at Inland Hearing Aids.
We look forward to hearing from you.
