A quick look around the cardio room, the park, or even the roadside shows that many people choose to exercise to the beat of their own drummer. Listening through headphones can help people focus, but the distraction it creates also raises an issue of personal safety.

Whether while walking or running, listening to music through headphones is an accepted part of today's aerobic exercise milieu. Made possible by the same trend toward miniaturization that made the Sony Walkman so popular in the 1980s, technology has given us digital music players capable of storing several albums' worth of sound, but the idea remains the same. To borrow a catchphrase from another influential decade, the 1960s, many headphone-wearing exercisers want to "tune in, turn on, and drop out."

The flip side is that music pumped through headphones, especially those with external noise rejecting designs, can mask the sounds of fellow exercisers, oncoming cars and other environmental cues best heeded.

Among competitive runners, for instance, the official position from many event organizers is that headphones are allowed, but not recommended. It's easy to see why. With throngs of runners jamming the streets, headphone wearers' impaired ability to detect those around them could lead to accidents.

What Type of Exerciser Are You?

Obviously, many resistance exercise moves preclude wearing headphones, and most personal trainers would find competing with an iPod for a client's attention to be counterproductive, to say the least. However, some aerobic fitness instructors go so far as to select music for their clients based on tempo and song form, since rhythm and cadence can help focus the runner focus on aspects such as pace and foot strike.

It is a commonly held belief that the mindset of most exercisers fall into one of two categories: associative and dissociative. An associative runner, for instance, could be described as one who is aware of his or her body holistically, including everything from breathing foot strike to mental strategy. In other words, this is someone who runs to his or her own beat.

A dissociative exerciser, in contrast, focuses on something outside of him- or herself, such as music or conversation, listening to the beat of some other drummer. This same dualistic view can be (and often is) applied to other forms of activity. Although one school of thought dismisses listening to music as a purely distractive, there is some evidence to support the concept of listening to music as a performance enhancer.

Some research has shown that the slow, soft music often associated with Western classical music reduces psychological and physiological arousal and can increase endurance performance. Other studies have found that music reduces the body's perception of how hard a person runs by approximately 10 percent. And as an external stimulus, music can help prevent internal stimuli such as fatigue messages from registering in the brain.

Unlike the issue of public and personal safety from texting while driving, the issue of distracted exercise from headphone use in public places doesn't seem likely to be subject to legislation any time soon; the decision rests squarely with the individual.

So, if you choose to wear headphones during a run or other outdoor workout, the following are a few ideas to keep you and others safe:

• Wear just one headphone. This will help you to be aware of your environment.
•  Keep the volume low enough to hear traffic sounds.
• Wear the cord underneath clothing to avoid tangles with objects.

So enjoy your workout, but keep in mind another catchphrase, this time from the 1980s: "Hey, let's be careful out there."

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