Texting on a treadmill may lower health benefits

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Using a smartphone to talk or text while exercising on a treadmill could reduce the intensity of the exercise, thus lowering its benefits to a person’s cardiovascular and overall health, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
In the study, Dr. Jacob Barkley and Dr. Andrew Lepp of Kent State University in Ohio and their colleagues assessed the impact of smartphone uses on exercise, recruiting 44 students to take part in four separate 30-minute workout sessions on a treadmill.
Three of those sessions measured the affects of common smartphone uses such as talking, texting, and listening to music, and the fourth served as a control where participants did not have access to their mobile devices. During each workout, the researchers recorded the average speed of the treadmill, the student’s heart rate, and their overall enjoyment of the experience.
Leave the phone in the locker room
The Kent State team found that, when compared to the no-smartphone condition, the other three behaviors each had a different affect on the exercise behavior of the students. Listening to music had the most positive impact, increasing the average treadmill speed of the participants as well as their heart rates and their degree of enjoyment of the workout experience.
Talking was found to increase the overall enjoyment of the experience and maintained heart rate in comparison to the control, but reduced the overall speed of the individuals. Texting, on the other hand, reduced both speed and heart rate and had no impact on enjoyment. According to the authors, the findings help explain previous research at Kent State that uncovered a negative link between smartphone use and cardiorespiratory fitness.
“It appears as if listening to music and, to a lesser extent, talking may have benefits on the duration and/or frequency of exercise due to their ability to increase enjoyment,” explained Dr. Lepp said. “However, if an individual’s opportunity for exercise is constrained by time, then it appears best to avoid talking on a smartphone during planned exercise.”
“Most people indicate that their lack of exercise is due to time constraints,” added Dr. Barkley. “When this is the case, this study suggests that a smartphone should not be used for talking or texting as both may potentially reduce fitness. If one is looking to get the most benefits and improvements out of their workout, leave the smartphone in the locker room and enjoy your music with another type of device.”
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