Is the mobile phone reducing our fitness along with our attention spans? Credit: Getty Images I see them all the time at my gym: the phone drones. Mr Grey Crew-Cut on the leg press, pushing out a desultory set of reps before reaching for his phone and descending into yet another YouTube or Insta black hole. Ms Purple Headphones, cranking out the odd biceps curl between chatting to friends and scrolling through her playlist.
Mr Walkabout, pacing up and down as he reads his messages between sets on the lat-pulldown, his towel and water bottle acting as an “I don’t want to share” forcefield around the equipment. Much has been said about the mobile phone’s superpower to distract. But what about at gyms? Exercise is, after all, an attention-based activity.
Is the mobile phone reducing our fitness along with our attention spans? Especially since we’re checking our phone, on average, once every eight minutes, according to a 2022 Australian survey by reviews.org . A 2017 US study found texting during exercise reduces your balance by nearly 50 per cent , echoing an earlier study confirming smartphone use in the gym decreases exercise intensity.
In his 10 years in the fitness industry, Mandra Taulu, a manager with Vision Personal Training in Sydney, has noticed a marked increase in gym bunnies being distracted by their phones. It’s more a problem, he says, in “big box facilities” than in smaller studios because of fewer structured programs, less supervision and more oppo.
