Effects of smartphone use before resistance exercise on inhibitory control, heart rate variability, and countermovement jump.

Background: The effect of MF induced by exposure time to social media smartphone apps on inhibitory control, heart rate variability (HRV), and high-intensity physical effort following a resistance exercise session might indicate whether strength and conditioning professionals should suggest avoiding smartphone usage before a resistance exercise session.

Aim: The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of mental fatigue on inhibitory control, HRV, and countermovement jump (CMJ) in trained adults after resistance exercise.

Methods: A total of 16 trained males (21.4 ± 3.3 years) volunteered in this study. The participants performed resistance exercises with and without mental fatigue. The Stroop Task, countermovement jump, and heart rate variability were evaluated before and after the resistance exercise. The participants used smartphones in the mental fatigue condition, whereas the participants watched TV in the control condition.

Results: No condition × time interaction was found for the Stroop accuracy ( = 0.87), CMJ ( = 0.68), SDNN ( = 0.15), or pNN50 ( = 0.15) in the heart rate variability. An interaction was found for Stroop response time ( = 0.01) with a higher response time for the mental fatigue condition ( = 0.01).

Conclusions: Mental fatigue impaired the inhibitory control performance after a resistance exercise session in trained adults.