I've been teaching indoor cycling/Spinning for eleven years and have always been pretty careful about my music volume, mainly because I was raised with a deaf family member (my dad). Because of this, I've always been very aware of decibel levels and even when I can't actually measure them, I tend to error on the side of caution.

Ironically enough, during this last year I started teaching classes at a new facility. One girl, on at least three different occasions yelled, "turn up the music!!!". Rather than answer that kind of obnoxiousnous in class, (there are 34 other members that were fine with the level), I just smiled and continued the class. One time she asked me after class why I couldn't crank it up since she got, "more motivated by louder music"? I explained that it was within the decibels approved by management and that if the only way she could self-motivate was with loud music, she needed to dig a little deeper into what she really wanted out of a class. Recently, she's gotten hired as an instructor, even though she's still uncertified. I wonder how loud she plans on playing her music??

But I digress. Protect your hearing and if you already are experiencing difficulties, a hearing aid will really improve your life. They're much smaller and now can be adjusted to filter out background noise etc.

I still remember my dad telling me how isolated one can be without the ability to hear.