I have never been a runner who listens to music. I barely ever run on treadmills, and I got into the routine of not wearing headphones since high school. My coach banned headphones because he believed you need to be aware of your surroundings when running so you can hear if you’re about to get hit by a car. I agree that it is a good reason not to wear headphones, especially now that I’m running around the streets of Boston. You can trust yourself, but you can’t trust others on the roads to keep you safe. 

I started to really understand how impactful music is for running and keeping yourself motivated to run longer or faster. The Midnight runners, an international running club sponsored by Mizuno, uses Party bags on their runs. This light weight, but MASSIVE, speakers are carried by the captains for their 5 mile runs around the Charles river so its always a party. If you're interested in a party bag, click here to check out one similar. 

For the days not running with the Midnight runners, running with headphones by yourself seems to be the next best option. Recently I came across bone cond​​uction headphones, sometimes known as bone phones. Specifically, Shokz open run pro. These headphones are the best for running because of their bone conduction feature. The method of bone conduction audio technology occurs because a transducer converts the audio data into vibrations which go through the bones in your face and your cochlea. The cochlea is a structure in your ear that is responsible for transferring information along the auditory nerve to send the message, or music, to the brain. Because it doesn’t go through the ear canal and it is based on vibrations, it is also a great option for those with auditory impairments. They can listen to music with vibrations and don’t even need to take their hearing aids out.
Sound can also travel through solids and liquids, like bones and flesh.
Usually you hear a muffled sound when sound travels through 2 mediums. Like the air and a wall or when you’re underwater, air and water. But when it travels through one medium, Bone and not air, then there is no muffled or change in sound quality.
Because they skip the middle and outer ear and go right to the inner ear, you’re still able to hear other things in your surroundings. So even when you're listening to music loudly in private, you can still hear what is going on around you because the bone phones are partially attuned.
They also limit the risk of hearing damage from listening to music too loudly.

Some of the newer versions of the bonephones, like this one here, allows you to save songs onto it so you don’t even need to bring a phone with you on your run. 

These bone phones are a game changer for the road runner, or any active person, to be safe and aware of their surroundings but still be able to stay motivated with music. 

On the other hand, users have reported that the sound is quieter and that the bass is not as high as it is with other headphones. Some users say that playing the volume really loud on their phones causes a vibration strong enough for them to feel in their face.