Scarlett Johansson’s Trainer Reveals How Smartphones Can Affect Your Workouts

When it comes to working out, a lot of people find reasons just to skip the dreaded gym, but there are also those that practically spend all day at the place.

Once at the gym, it’s almost impossible to leave the place, especially with several interesting scenes beckon your eyes — a dude making a semi-mad, semi-crying during the final rep, a cardio junkie with music blaring through the headphones.

And then there are those who simply sit in the corner or hog a piece of equipment to do nothing but use their phones.

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Gyms can be an overwhelming place, but don’t let it stop you from achieving a healthier you

Using Phones at the Gym

Yes, it seems that this is the common ground among gym-goers and as much as we hate to admit it, a chunk of our time at the gym is dedicated to being glued to cell phones.

Think you’re innocent of this habitual crime? Think about the time when you took ages between your sets to take a perfect selfie for the ultimate #WorkoutWednesday Instagram post? Or the time when you were to busy replying to messages that you forgot that you were in the middle of your set?

We’re guilty of doing it at some point in our lives, and this habit could actually be wrecking your road to fitness, according to two celebrity trainers.

This is what Eric and Ryan Johnson, the brains behind Homage Fitness, are trying to remind us all – and best believe them because they definitely know what they are talking about.

Apart from owning several gyms in key locations in Miami, New York and many other cities, they also have more than a decade of experience in the field under their belt.

If you think that what they’re telling us is complete nonsense, please note that Eric is the trainer of none other than Scarlett Johansson who we can all agree has a fit bod.

The duo is also responsible for the toned and sculpted physique of the actress as seen in the films “Ghost in the Shell,” “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” and “Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1.”

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Photo: Not only are smartphones distracting, but it also makes your rest period longer than it should be

A Big Distraction

So basically if you’ve seen those movies, you can already tell that the brothers know what they’re talking about. Come to think of it, the advice makes sense. Smartphones really do take our time while at the place.

Here’s the logic behind it: People tend to easily get distracted if they know that they have their phone with them, but of course, as much as it serves as a distraction, it is also important for emergency purposes. The solution? Ryan suggests leaving it in the locker room just so you can avoid checking on it from time to time.

What’s more, you tend to take more rest between sets because once you open social media, you get sucked into a never-ending rabbit hole which makes your workout inefficient.

You can, however, use your phone to track rest time, but if it is hard to stick with that sole purpose, you can just opt for fitness watches that not only tell time, but also measures your heart rate and other activity stats. Taking more than enough rests can affect the intensity of your workout, so Ryan and Eric suggest that you monitor closely your rest period.

Recommended Rest Periods

Don’t get us wrong, rest is crucial when performing a high-resistance or high-intensity workout, or else you’ll hurt yourself. But it’s the amount of rest you’re getting between sets that will really affect your fitness progress

If you’re going for maximal strength, you need to take longer breaks in order to recover for another high-intensity set. So if you’re doing compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, rows or presses, it is best to take between two and five minutes of rest before starting the next set.

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The length of your rest varies on your goal

However, if you’re looking for weight loss or want to grow muscles, you should opt for shorter rest time especially with activities that require short rest intervals like leg and tricep extensions and bicep curls. The ideal rest time is just from 15 seconds to a minute between sets.

The fitness trainers said that leaving out any distractions can help you improve your concentration which in turn builds that mind-muscle connection to get better results. Also, this could reduce your chance of getting injured, so basically it’s for your safety. So if you can and you want to achieve the optimum result, leave out your phone in the house or in the locker room.