Let’s be honest, phones are everywhere. We use it for just about everything you can think of. Including the gym. Tracking sets, listening to music, answer a text, or scrolling through social media in between sets – it all feels pretty harmless.
But how much is that truly impacting our workout? Surely it can’t be that much because it’s only a few minutes, right? Unfortunately, it’s actually more than you think. The latest research is beginning to show that frequent phone use during workouts can reduce the overall effectiveness of the training session – in more ways than just one.
In order to grow muscle, you must load it appropriately and increase intensity over time. This is called progressive overload and is necessary for growth. When you introduce a phone into your workout, you can actually reduce overall productivity and intensity of that session. Your brain puts forth mental energy to process all the information coming at you when you begin scrolling.
That takes energy. Energy that could/should be spent on your workout.
One study looked at two different parameters during a resistance training session
- Full smartphone access (text, apps, etc.)
- Limited smartphone access (limited to music only)
Full smartphone use reduced perceived productivity and enjoyment of the workout. There were trends toward lower volume load and intensity under full phone use than when phones were limited to music use. This suggests that the more phone distractions one encounters, the less productive to workout can feel and become.
We already have a lot of competing events that increase our mental fatigue and load throughout the day. And mental fatigue can make sets “feel” harder, drop motivation, and reduce workload. None of which we ideally want.
“But surely using my phone while doing cardio is fine!”
Another study looked at texting while using the treadmill and what effect that might have on cardiovascular performance.
Texting while exercising on the treadmill actually lowered the average speed of the workout as well as reduced heart rate during the workout. So, even in cardio sessions, your workout can be affected by greater phone use and reduce the intensity of your program.
Depending on your goals, this may or may not be a good thing.
The last thing I’ll put out is this concept of “lost time”. We have a finite amount of time in the gym. Not many of us can spend hours in the gym. In fact, most of us can’t because of responsibilities we have to ourselves, our family, and our jobs.
Rest is important – but unmonitored rest can sabotage training. Many people intend to rest for 60-90 seconds, then they look up, and it’s been 3-4 minutes. This reduces training density (the amount of work performed over time), and makes workouts feel longer without being any more effective. Essentially, we’ve lost that time for training.
I bring these things up not to say that phones are bad – more so that timing of use matters. The goal isn’t “no phones”, it’s better phone habits. Try this:
- No phones during the first 30-45 minutes of your training session. What you prioritize first is what you prioritize most. Focus your attention on the things that matter first.
- Replace scrolling with recovery / mobility behaviors. In between sets, work on breathing mechanics or introduce some specific mobility drills to improve movement quality. You and your body will thank you, and you’ll have a more productive workout.
- Use your phone intentionally and with purpose. Music can help to enhance your workouts, tracking volume and load is important in understanding your recovery, and use timers to stay on track and enhance your workout density.
At the end of the day, phones don’t ruin workouts – unstructured and unfocused workouts do. If you feel like your progress has slowed, that your workouts seem to drag on, or motivation is inconsistent and low, begin by looking at your habits during your workouts to see if you have an opportunity to improve your structure, intention, and focus.
If you want help creating better structure, connect with one of the personal trainers at your club and they can help you audit your program and lifting behaviors to train smarter, stay focused, and get the most out of every session you have!
