No matter what sort of train you’re into, when you’re understanding, you’ll desire a pair of wi-fi exercise headphones. They will let you be free and untethered throughout a critical weight-lifting session, a 5K run, an hour on the skate park and in all places in between the place you’re shifting and sweating a ton. There are dozens of nice wi-fi headphones and wi-fi earbud choices on the market, however for train particularly, there are extra components to contemplate earlier than selecting one up like water resistance, battery life and total consolation.
At Engadget, we’ve examined a bunch of fitness-ready headphones and earbuds to give you our prime picks, plus some recommendation to contemplate earlier than you decide up a pair. All of our prime picks under will work out and in of the health club, so you possibly can spend money on only one pair and make these your every day driver. In case you’re primarily a runner, try our listing of greatest headphones for working.
Greatest exercise headphones for 2025
Beats
Connectivity: Wi-fi | Model: In-ear with wingtip | Assistant assist: Google Assistant, Siri
Learn our full Beats Match Professional evaluate
The Beats Match Professional got here out on the head of the pack due to their snug, safe design, good sound high quality and transparency mode, amongst different issues. As my colleague Billy Steele detailed in his evaluate of the Match Professional, the buds’ wingtip design units them aside from different Beats earbuds and makes them significantly good for working and different exercises. The buds are pretty small and lightweight, and the wingtip on every is versatile sufficient to hug your ear properly with out placing an excessive amount of strain on it. This helps them really feel safer whenever you’re shifting round quite a bit be it throughout a morning jog or whereas taking a HIIT class. The buds are additionally IPX4 rated — not the best quantity of safety I encountered, however sufficient to maintain the buds working effectively even throughout my sweatiest periods.
Because it had been, the Beats Match Professional stayed put throughout each single exercise. Nevertheless, adjusting their place on the fly can result in one in all my few gripes with the buds: unintentional presses of the onboard controls. There have been a variety of occasions after I went to regulate a bud and I ended up pausing my music within the course of as a result of the buttons are really easy to set off.
Sound high quality is stable and significantly nice for exercising due to its punchy bass and total balanced profile. Spatial audio assist is nice to have, and whereas Adaptive EQ means you possibly can’t regulate the EQ your self like you possibly can with different buds, it does make for persistently good audio high quality. It’s additionally one much less factor to play with out of the field, which I anticipate many individuals will respect; these earbuds are a real unbox-and-go possibility. ANC can also be robust and transparency mode will turn out to be useful for individuals who usually run, cycle or in any other case train exterior. It was probably the most natural-sounding transparency mode of any earbuds I attempted, and it’s straightforward to activate or off both with onboard controls or from the management panel in your iOS or Android smartphone.
Talking of, the Beats Match Professional work significantly effectively with iPhones due to their built-in H1 chip, however Android customers can obtain their companion app to entry issues like fast pairing, management customizations and a battery standing indicator. I didn’t get into element concerning the setup course of as a result of, effectively, there isn’t a lot of 1. However I’ll say that, upon unboxing, I used to be shocked how low-cost the charging case feels. Whereas it supplies an additional 21 hours of charging on prime of the buds’ promised six hours of life, the construct high quality appears like an actual step down in comparison with the buds themselves. Apart from that and the contact controls, although, the Beats Match Professional supply an entire package deal for athletes, one which can be utilized all day along with coaching periods. Plus, their normal $200 value isn’t too cost-prohibitive, they usually can usually be discovered on sale for much less.
- Snug IPX4 design
- Nice sound high quality with Adaptive EQ
- Efficient ANC and helpful transparency mode
- Multipoint connectivity
- Strong battery life
- Onboard controls are straightforward to by accident press
- Charging case feels low-cost
JLab
Connectivity: Wi-fi | Model: In-ear with hook | Assistant assist: None
When you have lower than $50 to spend, the $30 JLab Go Air Sport+ are an ideal possibility. These are the most recent model of our earlier decide right here, the Go Air Sport. Once I examined these, I didn’t have excessive expectations going into testing these buds, however I used to be shortly impressed by their consolation and sound high quality. A lot of headphones designed for exercises have this hook that wraps across the prime of your ear, and it does assist the Go Air Sport keep securely hooked up to your head.
The Sport+ maintains that design. The hooks are fairly versatile and have a soft-touch end, which provides to their consolation. Admittedly, this design will take some getting used to when you’re new to it, nevertheless it’s a surefire solution to get a little bit additional stability throughout excessive depth exercises.
Sound high quality is fairly good on these buds as effectively, though not practically as balanced as that of our prime decide. I additionally respect that you would be able to cycle by way of three completely different EQ modes — Signature, Balanced and Bass Increase — utilizing the buds’ onboard controls. There’s no app to fuss with, and that was a pleasant change of tempo after principally testing buds with some type of app connectivity.
You possibly can anticipate over 9 hours of playtime on the Go Air Sport+, plus one other 26 hours of battery life with its charging case. JLab additionally mounted a significant pain-point concerning the earlier variations right here: as a substitute of the previous, built-in USB-A cable for charging, it is now a extra fashionable USB-C cable. Nonetheless, the case is on the cumbersome aspect; you possibly can nonetheless throw it right into a backpack or purse simply, nevertheless it’s not as svelte as circumstances you’ll see on dearer buds.
- Inexpensive
- Spectacular sound high quality for the worth
- IP55-rated design
- Good battery life
- Massive case
- Hook design gained’t be for everybody
SHOKZ
Connectivity: Wi-fi | Model: Open-ear | Assistant assist: None
The Shokz OpenFit 2 are the most recent iteration of those open-ear headphones, with our earlier prime decide right here being the unique OpenFit. Earbuds with open designs like this enable for extra situational consciousness, with the purpose being to let noise in relatively than block it out. In my expertise, the OpenFits do an ideal job of this with out skimping on sound high quality or consolation.
The buds themselves virtually float over your ear cavern and Shokz’s soft-finish “dolphin arc” hook is versatile sufficient to securely wrap across the prime of your ear with out placing an excessive amount of strain on it. There’s a bud-like portion on the different finish of the hook that acts as counterbalance, leading to a dependable match that by no means faltered throughout all types of actions together with working, power coaching and indoor biking. Granted, none of these workouts contain shaking your head an excessive amount of; possibly don’t put on the OpenFit to hearken to head-banging loss of life steel (when you can’t management your self).
Sound high quality is stable contemplating the design, and the OpenFit will get fairly loud as effectively. These buds have Shokz’s Direct Pitch expertise, which makes use of reverse sound waves to optimize the space and angle to your ear canal. The corporate claims this helps cut back sound leakage. In my testing, I discovered that true to a sure extent. The OpenFit had the most effective sound high quality and total quantity out of the entire open-ear gadgets I attempted, however when you crank the quantity as much as the max (or shut), the particular person subsequent to you’ll positively hear what you’re listening to. General, these are an ideal possibility for anybody who doesn’t discover in-ear buds significantly snug, or those that simply favor to have extra consciousness of their environment whereas understanding.
- Snug open-ear design
- Design permits for extra situational consciousness
- Good sound high quality and quantity
- No ANC
- Not as safe when in comparison with in-ear or hook-toting buds
H2O Audio
Connectivity: Wi-fi | Model: Over-ear | Assistant assist: None
Some favor to put on over-ear headphones all day, on daily basis, and if that sounds such as you, there’s a great probability you already use your daily-driver headphones on the health club. However when you’re noticing elevated wear-and-tear on these cans attributable to sweat or prolonged intervals of use, you could need to take into account a pair of over-ear headphones particularly for understanding.
In that case, take into account the H2O Audio Ript Extremely. Whereas these wi-fi headphones don’t have a selected IP score (they’re not designed for the pool, to be clear), they do declare to be “one hundred pc sweatproof” thanks partly to their detachable and washable earcups. They survived a few of my hardest runs and strength-training periods with out difficulty, and the earcups are fairly straightforward to take away whenever you need to give them a wipe-down. There’s additionally a second pair of earcups included within the field so you possibly can swap them in when the originals finally hand over the ghost.
Sound high quality is first rate, nevertheless it ought to be higher on a pair of $250 headphones. The Ript Extremely has customized 45mm drivers and lively noise cancellation as much as 30 dB. Whereas the general sound high quality isn’t higher than our prime decide, it’s greater than sufficient to get your blood pumping throughout a exercise. However extra importantly, you’ll doubtless get higher sound high quality on a pair of Bose or Beats headphones on the identical value vary; you’re actually paying for the improved sturdiness with the Ript Extremely. Finally, in order for you a pair of headphones for the health club that may deal with sweat and (doubtlessly) last more than different cans in the identical value vary, the Ript Extremely is an efficient selection.
- Sweatproof
- Removeable, washable earcups
- Second pair of earcups included within the field
- Snug match
- Costly
- Sound high quality could possibly be higher
Others wi-fi exercise headphones we examined
Apple AirPods Professional
The Apple AirPods Professional have an IP54 score, which protects them from temporary encounters with mud and splashes. Whereas that’s extra mud safety than many different earbuds we examined, it’s the identical stage of water resistance that the majority exercise-specific rivals have. We typically just like the AirPods Professional, however the Beats Match Professional supply lots of the identical options and conveniences (particularly good transparency mode and the H1 chip), with a design that’s extra acceptable for understanding.
Beats Powerbeats Professional
The Powerbeats Professional are a great different to the Beats Match Professional when you’re a stickler for a hook design. Nevertheless, they value $50 greater than the Match Professional (though they usually hover round $180) and don’t supply any vital upgrades or extra options other than their design. They’re additionally fairly previous at this level (launched in 2019) and it seems Beats is placing extra effort into upgrading and updating its newer fashions relatively than this mannequin.
Anker Soundcore AeroFit Professional
The Soundcore AeroFit Professional is Anker’s model of the Shokz OpenFit, however I discovered it to be much less safe and never as snug because the latter. The precise earbuds on the AeroFit Professional are noticeably bulkier than these on the OpenFit, which brought about them to shift and transfer far more after I was carrying them throughout train. They by no means fell off my ears fully, however I spent extra time adjusting them than I did having fun with them.
JBL Endurance Peak 3
Probably the most noteworthy factor concerning the Endurance Peak 3 is that they’ve the identical IP68-rating that the (now discontinued) Jabra Elite 8 Lively do, however they solely value $100. However, whilst you get the identical safety right here, you’ll should sacrifice in different areas. The Endurance Peak 3 didn’t blow me away when it got here to sound high quality or consolation (the hook is extra inflexible than these on my favourite buds of an analogous model) and their charging case is very large in comparison with most rivals.
What to search for in exercise headphones
Design
Earlier than diving in, it’s value mentioning that this information focuses on wi-fi earbuds. Whilst you might put on over-ear or on-ear headphones throughout a exercise, a lot of the greatest headphones obtainable now don’t have the identical stage of sturdiness. Water and dirt resistance, significantly the previous, is vital for any audio gear you propose on sweating with or taking open air, and that’s extra prevalent within the wi-fi earbuds world.
Most earbuds have one in all three designs: in-ear, in-ear with hook or open-ear. The primary two are the most well-liked. In-ears are arguably the most typical, whereas these with hooks promise higher safety and match since they’ve an appendage that curls across the prime of your ear. Open-ear designs don’t stick into your ear canal, however relatively sit simply exterior of it. This makes it simpler to listen to the world round you whereas additionally listening to audio, and could possibly be extra snug for individuals who don’t just like the intrusiveness of in-ear buds.
Water resistance and dirt safety
Even when a pair of headphones for understanding aren’t marketed particularly as train headphones, a sturdy, waterproof design will, by default, make them appropriate for train. To keep away from repetition, right here’s a fast primer on sturdiness, or ingression safety (IP) scores. The primary digit you’ll see after the “IP” refers to safety from mud and different potential intrusions, measured on a scale from 1 to six. The second refers to water resistance and even waterproofing, in the most effective circumstances. The scores for water resistance are ranked on a scale of 1 to 9; greater numbers imply extra safety, whereas the letter “X” means the system isn’t rated for defense in that regard.
The entire earbuds we examined for this information have no less than an IPX4 score, which suggests there’s no mud safety, however the buds can face up to splashes from any path and are sweat resistant, however in all probability should not be submerged. For an in depth breakdown of all of the doable permutations, try this information revealed by a provider known as The Enclosure Firm.
Lively noise cancellation and transparency mode
Lively noise cancellation (ANC) is turning into normal on wi-fi earbuds, no less than these above a sure value level. In case you’re on the lookout for a pair of buds that may be your exercise companion and serve you exterior of the health club, too, noise cancelation is an efficient characteristic to have. It makes the buds extra versatile, permitting you to dam out the uninteresting roar of your house or workplace so you possibly can focus, or offer you some solitude throughout a busy commute.
However an earbud’s capability to dam out the world goes hand-in-hand with its capability to open issues again up must you want it. Many ANC earbuds additionally assist some kind of “transparency mode,” or varied ranges of noise discount. That is vital for working headphones as a result of exercising open air, alongside busy streets, may be harmful. You in all probability don’t need to be completely oblivious to what’s occurring round you whenever you’re working exterior; adjusting noise cancelation ranges to extend your consciousness will assist with that. Stronger noise cancelation may be extra interesting to these doing extra indoor coaching in the event that they need to block out the uninteresting roar of a health club or the man exaggeratingly lifting weights subsequent to you.
Battery life
The entire Bluetooth earbuds we examined have a battery lifetime of six to eight hours. On the whole, that’s what you possibly can anticipate from this area, with a couple of outliers that may rise up to fifteen hours of life on a cost. Even the low finish of the spectrum ought to be adequate for many athletes and health club junkies, nevertheless it’ll be useful to maintain the buds’ charging case on you when you suppose you’ll get near utilizing up all their juice throughout a single session.
You’ll get a mean of 20 to twenty-eight additional hours of battery out of most charging circumstances and the entire earbuds we examined had holders that offered no less than an additional 15 hours. This can dictate how usually you really should cost the system — as in bodily join the case with earbuds inside to a charging cable, or set it on a wi-fi charger to energy up.
How we take a look at exercise headphones
In testing wi-fi exercise headphones, I put on them throughout each little bit of train I do — be it an off-the-cuff stroll across the block, a brisk morning run or a difficult weight-lifting session. I’m on the lookout for consolation arguably most of all, since you ought to by no means be fussing together with your earbuds when you have to be specializing in understanding. In the identical vein, I’m cognizant of in the event that they get free throughout quick actions or slippery after I’m sweating. I additionally use the earbuds when not exercising to take calls and hearken to music all through the day. Many individuals will need only one pair of earbuds that they’ll use whereas exercising and simply doing on a regular basis issues, so I consider every pair on their capability to be snug and supply a great listening expertise in a number of completely different actions.
Whereas I’m additionally evaluating sound high quality, I’m admittedly not an audio skilled. My colleague Billy Steele holds that title at Engadget, and also you’ll discover far more detailed details about audio high quality for a few of our prime picks in his evaluations and shopping for guides. With these headphones for understanding, nevertheless, I’ll make be aware of associated points in the event that they stood out (i.e. if a pair of earbuds had noticeably robust bass out of the field, weak highs, and so on). A lot of the wi-fi exercise headphones we examined work with companion apps which have adjustable EQ settings, so that you’ll be capable of tweak sound profiles to your liking usually.