For many fitness fans, smartphones are an essential item to not only take to the gym but to use during a workout, whether it be to track progress or for workout inspiration. However, fitness expert Bree-Anna Burick from BarBend reveals the four ways your phone is ruining your gym session. IMPAIRED BALANCE & STABILITY — running on the treadmill or performing Olympic lifts require a fair amount of balance and stability. Without it, you can risk a failed lift or an embarrassing tumble off the treadmill. Using your smartphone a lot can slow down your overall reaction time. If you’re spending your rest time on your phone, you might be less coordinated when you go for a heavy clean and jerk. In that case, keeping your smartphone close may be doing more harm than good. This is especially the case if you’re texting while exercising. If you find yourself texting or talking on the phone while exercising, studies suggest that your posture may become more unstable, which can worsen your balance and stability by up to 45 percent. Whether you’re walking on the treadmill or walking outside, you can increase your risk of falling while talking or texting on your phone. LOWER INTENSITY WORKOUTS — there’s nothing wrong with a low-intensity workout, but if all of your training sessions are starting to feel a bit easy, there may be a problem. Texting your friend about the latest friend-group gossip can make it tough to maintain your focus through an intense workout. Yes, you want to take some rest even during high-intensity interval training (HIIT) – but taking too long can transform your HIIT workout into a regular session. Using your smartphone during your workout can increase the time spent at a low intensity, whereas not using your smartphone can increase the time you spend at a high intensity. This is especially important to keep in mind if your time in the gym is limited. One of the advantages of HIIT is that it’s supposed to let you do more work in less time. But if more of that time is spent on your phone than on the gym floor, it can affect your progress. REDUCED CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS — if you’re a lifter, you may struggle to program adequate conditioning work into your strength training. To keep the intensity of their cardio work low but effective, strength athletes may choose to maintain cardiovascular health through taking walks. If that’s been your goal, smartphones might get in your way. Frequent smartphone users are more likely to choose sedentary activities related to their phone – scrolling through social media, perhaps – than performing physical activity, which can negatively affect cardiorespiratory fitness. Seemingly related, excessive cell phone use has been linked to higher blood pressure. So shutting off your phone might be helpful for locking in your cardio health. IMPACTED MOVEMENT — even if your smartphone isn’t directly in your hand, you may be hearing the ping of a text message or seeing a notification light up your screen. Therefore, your screen lighting up can be just as distracting as actually checking your phone. These seemingly harmless interruptions might actually reduce your movement and range of motion in your elbow and shoulder flexion and extension. This can lead to a less efficient workout overall, which isn’t optimal for maximising your gains.