We all know that iPods are used by people who work out at the gym quite a lot. You’ll often see runners on the treadmill, or on the rowing machine using their iPods to create the pace for their workout. There’s long been a synergy between exercise and music.

However, it could soon be the case the iPod is used to plug into the gym equipment and the two can control each other, if a new patent from Apple is to be believed. It’s thought that the gym equipment could come with an iPod dock and a screen for playback of the iPods’s music and video.

Recently Apple launched a big money partnership with Nike when they created the Nike + iPod system. The Nike + iPod was an accessory for your iPod that allowed you to place a sensor in your Nike trainer, and a dongle in your iPod, which allowed your iPod to monitor how far you had run. You could then sync your iPod with your PC or Mac, which then uploaded your progress to a website so you could see how well you were doing against your own preset goals, or competition,

The system proved very popular, and now it looks as though Apple wants a bigger slice of the workout market.

Two gym equipment manufacturers, TechnoGym and LifeFitness, are apparently in on the deal to allow people to control their iPods using touch screen controls on the exercise equipment.

The patent filed by Apple shows that the iPhone could also be included in the plans, with the iPhone controlling how many reps you perform on machines, such as bicep curls.