Professor quoted on The Cut about distractions during exercise

Patrick O’Connor, professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s kinesiology department, was recently quoted in a story on The Cut about distractions while exercising.

According to the article, it may seem like distractions like listening to a podcast makes things easier, but they might actually be making things more complicated.

O’Connor studies how exercise intersects with mental health as well as cognition and mentioned that studies show that distracted workouts hamper the good mental-health side effects.

“The anxiety-reducing benefits of 20 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling were blocked when the participants did cognitive work while exercising,” O’Connor said.