It ’s no enigma that a good beguilement , like listen to euphony on a treadwheel or reading on a stationary bicycle , can make example more supportable . But , it turns out that multitasking also has the power to boost your carrying out .
In a study from the University of Florida , adults who were ask to make out mental tasks while pedaling on stationary bikes were present to move quicker with no negative wallop on their cognitive performance . Tasks ranged in difficulty from saying “ go ” when a racy star seem on a screenland to reciting increasingly long lists of numbers in the the reverse order of how they were presented . Cycling speed increased by 25 pct when participant were given the simplest tasks , and became gradually slower as the trouble became more difficult . But even when face with the hard task , wheeler were just as fast as they had been with no beguilement at all .
These finding may come as no surprise to experienced fitness junkies , but for the researchers it was a Book of Revelation . Past study on the burden of multitasking almost always showed that it take to a reduction in performance all around , and it now it front like exercise is the major exception to that pattern .
The study was originally conducted to show the negative impact of multitasking in patients with Parkinson ’s disease . researcher looked at 28 participants with the neurodegenerative disorder and 20 healthy honest-to-god adults . While the Parkison ’s patients did n’t speed up to the same degree as the mastery group and were dim overall , scientists did n’t see the diminution in carrying into action that they had been bear .
Researchers mistrust that one gene behind the results is the commingle arousal the participant experience from drill and anticipating a unmanageable cognitive job . stimulation boosts the brain ’s speed and efficiency , improving both motor and cognitive performance . The scientists behind the cogitation program to take care into this topic further and extend their research to other types of exercising , but for now it looks like there ’s no harm in playing games on your smartphone at the gymnasium .
[ h / t : EurekAlert ]
