Why My Phone Stays Locked Away At The Gym

My phone hasn’t accompanied me to the gym or most other physical activity since I moved to the coast just over two years ago.

Before the move, I would always have my phone with me to play music and record my training sessions in realtime. However, I would often get distracted by incoming messages and notifications, which would lead to rest intervals blowing out and a lack of training intensity, as my phone guided my mind elsewhere for most of the session.

Now I record my training sessions with a pen and notebook and I am happy for my messages to wait for 60-minutes for a reply. If someone really needs to get through to me, any repeat callers will come through to my Fitbit.

I have found the change to be beneficial to my training sessions. When I am strength training, I feel myself more perceptive of my recovery in between sets. If I feel ready to go 30-seconds into a 60-second recovery, I know it’s time to up the weight and make it harder.

When I am really tired in between sets, I almost switch off and my mind is empty for 60-seconds before my watch buzzes to alert me of the next set.

This makes it much easier to build up a rhythm in my training sessions and I feel they are more so a part of the day that is separate to everything else, whereas it previously took one work…