If you're like us, you love the fact that your smartphone doubles as the perfect music player, helping you stay pumped up during a workout. When wireless earbuds went mainstream a few years ago, they improved this function while also ushering in new ways to use our phones to amplify workouts. Using your smartphone while you workout might sound counterintuitive, but hear us out – there are plenty of other ways to use your phone to take any workout to the next level. Don’t worry, we promise texting while you’re on a machine isn’t one of them!
Use your phone case to improve your form
Maintaining proper form is critical to completing any exercise safely and effectively. While the wall mirrors that cover the gym walls are extremely helpful, your smartphone can provide additional support. This is especially true right now if your local gym is still closed and you’re using an at-home set up to keep your fitness up. If you’re unsure whether you’ve got the right form or just want the footage to review later on, consider recording your workouts.
Rokform smartphone cases are made with super strong (and completely safe) magnets built into each case, so it’s easy to mount your phone onto most machine surfaces, switch the camera to selfie mode, and record your workout. Now you can playback your workout and correct your form.
Rokform ambassador Breena Martinez, 6x IFBB Pro Champion and 6x Olympian, shared how she uses her Rokform case to improve her form:
It is imperative that I have solid form in everything I do to prevent injury and to ensure proper symmetry. I use my magnetic phone case from @rokform to critique myself. I record myself when I train and when I am working on my posing routine. It is extremely helpful because many times we don’t realize we are doing things incorrectly until you record and play it back. If you are looking for a durable, magnetic phone case that won’t damage your phone, look no further!
Are you using proper form?
There are several aspects to think about when it comes to proper form at the gym, including spinal alignment, joint alignment, range of motion, and tension. Jeremy Likness, Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Performance Nutrition, wrote a helpful article highlighting some of the important aspects of form and why you should care about them.
Proper form is essential for success when training for anything from general fitness to sports events and/or competitions. It is the quality of training that influences your progress, more than the quantity. Time under tension, angle of movement, range of motion, and many other factors all contribute to a particular resistance training session. It is important to understand the proper mechanics of training to get the most benefit from your time.
Focus on getting your timing right with your smartphone
Timing is everything when it comes to getting the most out of your workout. Whether you are resting between sets, doing a HIIT workout, or timing your circuit, your workout will be more effective if you're mindful of your workout length, and rest between intervals.
How long should you rest between exercises?
This is a great question. The answer – it depends. Everyone has their own strength and body goals, and knowing those goals is critical to setting an appropriate rest period. According to ISSA, the International Sports Sciences Association, it takes between two and three minutes for the phosphagen stores to fully recover from a set of intense exercise. For athletes whose goals are related to absolute strength, the optimal rest period between sets is 3 to 5 minutes. For endurance athletes, the optimal rest period between sets is 30 to 60 seconds.
With any of Rokform’s magnetic cases, your smartphone is protected, mounted, and visible during workouts. Using your smartphone as a countdown timer, stopwatch, or both, will help you time your intervals and rest periods perfectly to achieve your fitness goals.
Use your smartphone to find workout inspiration
If you’re getting tired of your current workout routine, don’t worry. Get some much needed workout inspiration by using your phone as a visual aid to guide you through new workouts. With a Rokform-mounted smartphone, it’s easy to try some new exercises out at the gym. Pre-save key exercises prior to your workout so they are easy to access during your workout. Simply pull up your favorite fitness app or video, stick your phone on a magnetic piece of equipment, and get to it.
Use fitness apps for ideas, tracking and more
There are thousands of fitness apps available for download. Some focus on providing comprehensive exercise routines depending on your fitness goals, while others give you just the nudge you need to get off the couch. Perhaps it’s the idea of adding a competition to win daily step challenges against friends, the feeling of joining a new community through app discussion boards, or maybe just the visualization of your fitness progress that keeps you going back to the app (and the gym). Regardless of what it is, it’s working! In fact, a recent study on fitness apps found that people with fitness apps were more active than non-users.
We weren’t able to try them all, but we did find some of the most highly recommended apps. Our favorites: Couch to 5K, Nike+ Training Club, Sworkit, Lift Log, and CycleCast. If you’re old school and prefer browsing some high quality workout articles, check out the comprehensive workouts provided on bodybuilding.com. Since the coronavirus pandemic started, thousands of gyms and fitness trainers have shifted workout programs online, which is another option.
Keep your phone hands-free so you can focus on your workout
After all the great tips we just mentioned, there’s one thing you definitely don’t want your phone to do while working out – get in your way. Save yourself the hassle of deciding where to put your phone during workouts with a Rokform case. And with your phone safely protected from the machines and heavy weights at the gym, you'll be able to focus on getting the best workout in.
CrossFit Forest saw a client using his Rokform case to stay hands-free at the gym and loved it so much, they bought Rokform cases to protect all of the tablets at the gym. Pete Jones, Owner and Trainer at the CrossFit gym in Lake Forest, California, found the Rokform cases immediately solve a gym-wide issue:
“We needed a way to protect [the iPads] and be able to station them throughout the gym without them being on the ground or susceptible to having a weight dropped on them. We attach [iPads] all over the place and feel like we’re able to keep them safe and protected from the ground, from having weight dropped on them.”
Start your next level workout now
Use your phone to improve your timing, check your fitness form, get motivated, and focus on your workout. Rokform cases are built to protect your phone, with most featuring the magnetic mounting capability we’ve mentioned throughout this article. The Rugged Series and Crystal Series are constructed with dual-layer protection and drop tested to exceed military standards, so you can rest assured your phone can handle any workout at the gym. Not sure whether you should choose a Rugged case or a Crystal case? We've got you – find our opinion on the best phone case by workout.
Mounting cases are available for the most popular smartphone models, including the iPhone 12 lineup, iPhone 11 lineup, Samsung Galaxy S21 lineup, and Samsung Note lineup. If you don’t find a Rokform case for your smartphone model, you can still enjoy all the benefits of a magnetic Rokform case by simply adding a Rokform universal adapter to your existing smartphone case. Shop the Rokform collection online and take your workout to the next level!
Originally written on 7/27/2017. Updated 3/10/2021.
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