The Impact of Cell Phone Functions on the Intensity and Liking of Bike Exercise

This study assessed the effect of cell phone use (e.g., texting, talking, and listening to music) during 30-minute bouts of bike exercise and its affects on intensity (e.g., heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion) and liking (e.g., enjoyment). Thirty college-age students participated in four, separate, 30-minute exercise conditions (texting, talking, music, and control) on a bike in a randomized order. Heart rate was significantly (t  4.54, p  0.004) higher when comparing the music (147.58  4.19 beatsmin-1 ) to the texting (117.79  3.42 beatsmin-1 ) and talking (122.89  3.89 beatsmin-1 ) conditions. Ratings of perceived exertion was significantly (t = 2.1, p = 0.05) higher when comparing the texting (11.4  0.45) to the control (10.06  0.52) condition. Liking was significantly (t = 3.85, p = 0.01) higher when comparing the talking (7.64  0.63) to the control (6.2  0.71) condition. Liking was also significantly (t = 3.09, p = 0.01) higher when comparing the music (8.27  0.38) to the control condition. In conclusion, using your cell phone for texting and talking instead of listening to music can interfere with bike exercise, resulting in reduced exercise intensity and enjoyment, and perceiving exercise to be more difficult than what it really is.