Minimize Screen Time to Maximize Health Gains
October 26, 2022 | Words by Gabe Yanez
Your Screen Time is Killing Your Gains
When it comes to healthy habits, we often focus on exercise and nutrition. However, there are other areas that also have a profound impact on our health and the progress we can make toward our goals.
This brings us to the topic we’re talking about today: How does the supercomputer in your pocket impact your health? And more specifically, how does it impact your progress toward your nutrition and fitness goals?
Fewer Thumb Workouts, More Actual Workouts
Blue Light and Sleep. If you spend significant time staring at your phone in the PM hours, the blue light emitted by the screen will inevitably impact your sleep. The blue light signals to your body that it’s daytime, stimulating hormones that will make it difficult for you to get into a deep, restful sleep. Less deep sleep makes it harder to put on lean muscle and burn off excess fat.
Chronic Stress and Recovery. Aside from the impact the screen has on your sleep, there’s something to be said about the chronic stress caused by the overload of information we now get from our phones. Social media and news app headlines contribute to a low level of chronic stress that negatively impacts your body’s ability to recover.
Comparison is the Thief of Joy. This is a big one. When you are working towards a fitness or body composition goal, it can feel demoralizing to scroll through social media and compare your progress with others. Someone will always be stronger, leaner, more muscular, and fitter than you. The more you scroll through social media, the more likely you will get an unrealistic perception of yourself and how you stack up against your peers.
Scrolling and Eating. If you aren’t putting your phone down while you eat, you are not setting up your body for proper digestion. Ideally, our bodies are in a parasympathetic state when we eat. Scrolling through your phone isn’t going to allow for that, which means you won’t be able to properly digest your food and make the most of the nutrients in your meal.
One Thing to Try This Week: Look at Your Screen Time
It may not seem as though your relationship with your phone is impacting your progress toward your fitness and health goals, but it is. So this week, look at your current screen time on your phone and set a goal to cut that number down.
The nice thing about phones is that they measure screen time for you and make it easy to track your progress with this goal.
Leave your phone in your gym bag while you work out, charge your phone in a different room overnight, or even delete a few of the apps that are draining most of your time.
