The Real Benefits of Exercising With a Friend
It turns out that training with a partner has real benefits. But beyond motivation in the form of moral support and distraction from pain, these improvements can also come from another interesting source: insecurity.
Studies examining both cardiovascular exercise and strength training (for example, these twopublished in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine andthis one in the Journal of Exercise Psychology ) consistently show that exercising with a partner tends to make you work harder and for longer. especially if you are friends with someone a little better than you.
This phenomenon is attributed to what psychologists call the Kohler effect : when people work harder in a group (consciously or subconsciously) so as not to be the weakest link. If you’ve ever accidentally got yourself into a group fitness class filled with people who are much better than you, you will definitely understand.
However, the training buddy has its drawbacks that do not appear in the laboratory. So before you go looking for a gym buddy on Craigslist (which is perfectly legal ), ask yourself if you are willing to stick to the other person’s schedule, and if they are not free, you would use their unavailability as an excuse for being lazy.
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