Let's be honest.
Swimming is boring.
It's not you. It's the silence. Here's what finally got me back in the pool — and kept me there.
I'll admit it. For years, I was the person who skipped swim days. Every other workout had a soundtrack. Runs had playlists. Rides had podcasts. The gym had whatever was playing through the speakers. But the pool? The pool had nothing but the sound of my own breathing, the smell of chlorine, and the black line on the bottom.
I tried waterproof earbuds. They fell out after the first flip turn. I tried a waterproof phone pouch. It fogged up and I couldn't see the screen. I tried just accepting the silence. That lasted about two sessions before I started making excuses to skip.
But here's the thing that made me feel guilty about it — because swimming isn't just any workout.
Swimming is low-impact enough to do most days, and it works everything — arms, core, back, legs — all at once. It's about as close to a perfect workout as exercise science has found.
So why does almost everyone quit within a few weeks?
“I wasn't skipping swim days because I was lazy. I was skipping because forty laps of silence is a special kind of torture when every other workout in your life has a soundtrack.”
Every workout lets you bring your music. Swimming takes it away.
On a run
- Your favourite playlist
- Podcasts & audiobooks
- Music carries you further
- Time flies
- You look forward to it
In the pool
- Complete silence
- Your own breathing on repeat
- Chlorine smell, black line
- Every lap feels twice as long
- You make excuses to skip
Music isn't just nice to have during exercise. Research shows it genuinely improves performance, reduces perceived effort, and — most importantly — makes you want to come back. It's the invisible engine behind most people's fitness habits.
Swimming is the only major workout that physically takes all of that away. The moment you go under, you're alone with the silence. That's not a motivation problem. That's a design problem. And design problems have solutions.
What if you could bring your entire playlist into the water?
Bone conduction headphones transmit sound through your cheekbones, completely bypassing your ear canal — so there's nothing sitting in your ears to work loose on a flip turn.
Glyde E8 Pro has 32GB of onboard storage. Load your playlists before you get in the water. Leave your phone in your bag. Push off the wall. And swim with your music for the first time.
Swimming with music feels exactly like running with your playlist.
The first session I loaded Glyde with three albums and pushed off the wall. Fifty-five minutes later I climbed out. I hadn't counted a single lap.
Each song marked another set. The energy carried me through turns I normally would've used as an excuse to rest. The workout that used to feel like something to survive started feeling like something I wanted to do. And that — not a new gym membership, not a stricter plan — is the entire difference between a goal and a habit.
I now do four sessions a week. Not because I'm more disciplined. Because it stopped being boring.
“I'd quit swimming twice before. Now I've been going four times a week for six weeks straight. When you're not dreading the silence, you actually show up.”Emma T., Melbourne · Individual experience, results vary
