Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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The Jabra Elite 8 Active bundle truly impressive durability with a secure fit, good sound, and an excellent app. Read More
A secure fit, long battery life, great sound, and a splash of noise canceling make for great all-around headphones—especially for the price point. Read More
The Beats Fit Pro are a sporty, high-performance alternative to the AirPods Pro, offering tons of features, great sound, and a stable fit. Read More
Jabra’s Elite 4 Active serve up good battery life, great features like active noise canceling, and a rugged design at a refreshing price point. Read More
These bass-forward true wireless earphones by Beats (an Apple-owned company) are more resilient than Apple's Airpods and are hard to knock out of your ears, thanks to their ear-hook design. They're a great choice for taking to the gym or wearing around town. Read More
Between work, hobbies, and your social life, it's tough to stay committed to a regular workout. But a great pair of workout headphones can help transform your exercise routine into an opportunity to catch up on podcasts or dig into some new music.
If you’re looking for the perfect pair, you can’t go wrong with our favorite workout earbuds, the Jabra Elite 8 Active (available at Jabra) . They have it all: a rugged and water-resistant form factor, tons of features (including transparency mode and active noise canceling) and easy-press controls so you can keep that heart rate humming.
These are the best workout headphones that we've tested.
Looking for a wider selection of in-ear headphones? Check out this collection of great earbuds.
The Jabra Elite 8 Active are fantastic workout earbuds, and much more.
The JLab Epic Air Sport ANC are an exceptional value and perfect workout companions for those on a budget.
The Beats Fit Pro are our pick for the best true wireless buds for iPhone
Snug, weatherproof design
Active noise canceling
Great features and battery
No auto-pause
Sluggish app connection
Water-resistant
Available in a number of colors
Long battery life
Bass-forward sound not for everyone
Ear hooks can be uncomfortable
Natural audio awareness
Good sound and features
Slick, micro design
Mediocre battery life
Narrow use cases
Face-tap controls are limiting
Fully wireless earbuds make up the majority of our favorite workout headphones.
We test every set of headphones extensively, but for this workout-specific list, we focused our priorities on the issues most pressing for workouts. Fit, comfort, water and dust resistance are key. So too are battery life, ease of use, wireless range, and accessible controls. Sound quality and sound isolation are eternal concerns, but for once the sound profile wasn’t our most pressing issue.
We test as many features as possible in real-life scenarios, including workouts in and out of the gym. We want to see how sweat proofing, short-and long-term comfort, battery life, microphone quality, and connectivity over distances and through obstacles hold up under real-world stress. We also want to make sure they stay put and remain easy to control while your body is moving.
We test sound quality both in daily life and in our laboratory, collecting data and A/B factors like max volume, noise cancellation, and how well each earbud blocked outside and background noise. We use each pair extensively, and our test tracks range from classical to hip-hop, rock, jazz, and more.
The one thing we can’t test is durability over the long term. To account for that, we check online reviews from customers. We don’t factor secondhand issues into our scoring, but if a consistent issue comes up, we make sure to communicate it.
We also keep using these headphones over time, keeping the reviews and our rankings updated as we go. Not only does that help us comment on their durability, it also enables us to go update our reviews if a new feature drops in a firmware update.
As in our testing priorities, some of the most important features for workout headphones include durability, a stable fit, and water/sweat resistance. You should also consider how easy the controls are to access. Headphones with push-button controls, such as Jabra models or certain Beats sets, are particularly easy to use mid-workout. That’s great if you need to change songs or adjust volume without slowing down.
Most new wireless earbuds offer at least one type of ambient sound mode. We most often see noise canceling to block out external noise, and transparency mode to keep you aware of your environment.
Transparency mode, or some other form of aural awareness features like open-ear design, is particularly important if your workout takes you outdoors and into high-traffic areas. Meanwhile, noise canceling is great for those who work out in noisy gyms, though it's more of a luxury than a safety measure. Our favorite picks offer both options.
All of our workout earbud recommendations feature a minimum IP certification of at least IPX4 or higher. An IP number is a two-digit code that indicates each pair’s ability to withstand dust (the first number) and water (the second number). IPX4 means the earbuds are not protected against dust, but are protected against splashes and moderate sweat.
The higher each number is, the better protection they offer.Top pairs may offer IP57 (or higher), resisting moderate dust ingress and even a dunk in shallow freshwater. You can learn more about IP ratings in our water resistance guide.
A stable fit is a crucial for any pair of workout buds. Our favorite picks offer either a specialized grip and tight fit, or ear hooks/fins to keep them in place under duress. Comfort is also meaningful—you don’t want to have ear discomfort while you’re exerting yourself at the gym.
Our top picks feature good fit all around, but if you have particular trouble with your earbuds falling out, consider buds with an ear hook or ear fin design.
Every pair of wireless earbuds connects over Bluetooth connection for at least 33 feet of distance from your device, depending on barriers. Some have increased antenna capacity, which may improve the connection quality and reduce cutouts. In general, the newer the Bluetooth version (Bluetooth 5.0 or better) the more stable the connection.
Hailing originally from Montana, Ryan parlayed his time working as a musician and audio engineer into a career in digital media in 2012. Since then he's had extensive experience as a writer and editor, including everything from op-eds and features to reviews on TVs, audio gear, smart home devices, and more.
Lee was Reviewed's point person for most television and home theater products from 2012 until early 2022. Lee received Level II certification in TV calibration from the Imaging Science Foundation in 2013. As Editor of the Home Theater vertical, Lee oversaw reviews of TVs, monitors, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers. He also reviewed headphones, and has a background in music performance.
Michael Garrett Steele has been writing and editing professionally since 2013, and has been a part of Reviewed since 2020. An MFA in music composition, Garrett has lent audio expertise to everyone from Independence Community College to Bethesda Softworks, informing reviews of audio equipment and services. Garrett also covers tech, drawing on experience working everywhere from IT helpdesks to enterprise architecture sales. Steele has also become a go-to reviewer for minor plumbing fixtures since covering bidets for Reviewed in early 2020.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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