Thinking about texting or chatting with your friends during your power walk or treadmill run? Doing so may lower the workout’s intensity and affect one’s balance, according to recent studies.

“If you’re talking or texting on your cell phone while you’re 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,” says Michael Rebold, PhD, assistant professor of integrative exercise science at Hiram College, in a media release from Hiram College.

The studies, performed by Rebold and researchers from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, were published recently in Computers in Human Behavior and Performance Enhancement & Health

The latest of these studies, published recently in Performance Enhancement & Health, included 45 college students and showed that texting on one’s cell phone during exercise significantly impacts postural stability—by 45%—when compared to no cell phone use, and talking on a cell phone while exercising reduces postural stability by 19%, according to the release.

However, listening to music on one’s cell phone while exercising has no notable impact on postural stability during exercise, the study notes.

[Source(s): Hiram College, Science Daily]