Put down the phone and nobody gets hurt

I have a problem.  I spend way too much time with my phone.  So, nothing I write here is a judgment of anyone.  My house is made of glass.

What I want to talk about is the problem of distraction and why phones specifically impair training. I discovered this while lifting.  My practice had generally been to take my phone with me to lift weights.  I justified it because I could enter my workout into Strava as I was lifting to keep a record of what I was doing.  I would also listen to music or maybe a podcast.  Of course, I would have to check messages and the latest Breaking News!!! between sets. 

One day I left my phone in the car.  Bang, I crushed the lifts.  What had been hard was easy.  Instead of distractions I used the 3-5 minutes between sets focused on the next set.  Now when I show up at the gym, I am a man on a mission.  I don’t talk to anyone, I focus on what I am going to do, and then move the weight.  If I must record my workout, I bring a small notebook and a pencil.  Get in, blast it, then get out. The same approach works great for intense endurance workouts like track repeats, hill sprints, and fast tempo runs.

Why does leaving the phone at home help?

Phone use leads to poor posture which leads to poor performance.  A 2016 study looked at the effects of talking and texting during exercise on postural stability. It concluded that talking and texting impaired posture, negatively affected performance by dividing the brain’s attention between tasks, and predisposed individuals to injuries.  There is also some evidence that “power posing” – standing like an alpha gorilla – increases short term testosterone and decreases cortisol.  A 2012 TED talk discussed the importance of posture and summarized research indicating that even two minutes of good posture can increase risk taking and confidence.  To run and lift like Superman, stand like Superman, not like a 95-year old grandmother over a phone.

Phone use also hurts mental focus.  This key point goes beyond texting, talking, and browsing the internet and includes listening to music.  The main reason we listen to music (or podcasts or audio books) is to distract ourselves from the work at hand.  The problem is, we cannot produce max-effort intensity with a distracted brain.  Example: Say we are doing 800 repeats.  We have a goal interval time for each 800.  600 meters in, with burning lungs and heavy legs, our mind needs to focus on hitting the goal time, not on a Bon Jovi song or discussion by Joe Rogan about whether UFOs really exist.  Embrace the pain.  Own it.  Teach your body that your mind is in charge.

Phones also cause distraction which negates the zen of long endurance.  This is something that I really did not appreciate until I started running without a phone or music.  Without distractions running can become almost like a type of meditation.  I have never had the patience for meditation, but on some long runs I am mentally almost able to observe what I am doing from the outside.  Its hard to explain, something that happens on long runs with just you and your mind.

Finally, leaving the phone makes your workout simpler.  As with life, simplicity in training is usually better.  We live in a society that constantly pushes us toward unnecessary complexity and teases us with the prospect that buying something can make up for dedicated training.  Thus, we see 4-hour marathoners running in $300 Nike 4% shoes, guys with bellies on $7,000 bikes, and people who have never been under a bar pulling 30 pounds on the cable crossover machine.  The answer is not technology, its doing the work. Anything that distracts from the work should be left at home.

Exceptions As with all rules, there are exceptions and situations where it may be smart to bring a phone. My exceptions include:

• Where it is only used as a GPS;
• Long, easy runs where intensity is not important;
• Races (in a pocket) for coordinating with friends and family at the finish line;
• Bike rides (in a pocket);
• Ultramarathons, with the Gia GPS app and the race route saved to aid in routefinding; and
• Ultramarathons, where I have saved audio on my phone specifically for motivation during the inevitable depression times. There is nothing like Goggins or Jocko’s “Good” to help you move.

Give it a shot. If you, like most of us, are inseparable from your phone, I encourage you to take a month and do all of your workouts sans phone. I doubt you will miss it.