Don’t Text or Talk While Exercising, Leave Your Phone at Home

Leave your phone at home, or at least turn it off, if you want to benefit from your workout. According to a new study, talking or texting on a smartphone while exercising and working up a sweat reduces the intensity of a workout and in fact affects your balance.

Michael Rebold, Assistant Professor at Hiram College in the US found that texting and talking can have a negative effect on one’s balance during everyday activities. This is the first known study to examine the effects of cell phone use on postural stability.

“If you are talking or texting on your cell phone while you are putting in your daily steps, your attention is divided by the two tasks and that can disrupt your postural stability, and therefore, possibly predispose individuals to other greater inherent risks such as falls and musculoskeletal injuries,” said Michael Rebold.
The study, which examined 45 college students, showed that cell phone texting while exercising significantly impacts postural stability – by 45 per cent – in comparison to no cell phone use. The investigation also showed that talking on a cell phone while exercising reduces postural stability by 19 per cent. Listening to music on a cell phone, on the other hand, has no notable impact on postural stability during exercise, the study showed.

The study appears in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.

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