Is It a Bad Idea to Multitask at the Gym?
I like to read books on the stationary bike. Here’s what experts have to say about that.
A few years ago, I found myself reading more books than at any point in my adult life, usually on deadline to review them as part of my job at a magazine. Between the regular nine-to-six at the office and a rather full social life, there hardly seemed to be enough time in the day to finish all my reading and get in a workout, too. The mild stress caused by the reading load would have been relieved by a little exercise, it seemed to me. But taking time for a workout would have only increased the urgency to squeeze even more reading into my remaining waking hours. So I began to read on the stationary bike.
Did this produce the most cardio-intensive workouts of my life? No. Did people look at me funny in the gym? Yes. But I was getting my heart rate up and moving the page count forward. Soon I found myself reading on the stationary bike even when I wasn’t on deadline simply to squeeze in as much as possible on a Saturday afternoon or to spend a little more time with a good book without neglecting my physical well-being.
This worked better with fiction than nonfiction, with slim paperbacks than thick hardcovers, and, best of all, with my Kindle — easy to increase the font size to…
