Exercising with friends or alone? Which is best for you?
Have you ever wondered why you might be unmotivated to exercise sometimes or make excuses about doing that workout your trainer wrote for you? Many people simply stop at “I’m unmotivated” and never really look further as to why.
But for a percentage of the population the reason can be as simple as the wrong type of social training environment – in other words, it’s just bloody depressing training alone.
You are a person are you not? And as a person, you have a personality, values, beliefs and a particular way you like to live your life. Some people are at home being a lone wolf, while others just love to run with a pack. And by the way – that does NOT mean being a sheep.
So what are the benefit’s of training with other people. Before we launch into this, remember not everyone loves training with others, this article is specially for you – the man or woman who is looking for a more fulfilling way to exercise.
ACCOUNTABILITY
There’s nothing like the thought of leaving your best mate standing out while you make excuses to get you up and moving. Having a training buddy becomes a shared partnership – This is kinda like a marriage! Each one of you assists the other in support and hopefully calling each other out if you begin breaking health promises to yourself.
FUN
I don’t know about you, but every time I see a group of people exercising on facebook they just look like they’re having so much fun! The fun thing about exercising with buddies is you can try new things together; you can have a laugh about things that are going on in your life at the same time as getting a sweat on. It also makes for great stories later on like: “Remember when Sally dropped that weight on that guys foot”. Just kidding – but you get the idea.
COMPETITION
Some of us social exercisers simply love the social aspect but another subset of the population love friendly competition. You can compete with yourself of course, but if you love being with other people you’re going to find it more fulfilling competing with others. There are a lot of ways to get fit and some of them include social team sports like beach volleyball, indoor netball, rugby and heaps more! No one says that the gym or running track is the only place to get a sweat dripping calorie burn!
IT’S LESS SCARY
Forget the idiots telling you to harden up, it’s nice to have some support. Exercising with a buddy or two makes walking into a gym less scary and if you’re not sure where a piece of equipment is, you feel more comfortable scanning the gym floor for it when in a small group of people. It even gives you the chance to have an extra person to ask an instructor for help if you’re a bit shy. Safety in numbers for some of us!
YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE YOUR FRIENDS!
If you’re like most of us you probably wake up, go to work and go home. And some of us drop the gym in there somewhere. Some people find that there just isn’t the space or energy to see friends, but when you train WITH your friends you can kill two birds with one stone! Make sure you still socialize though – isolating your social life to the gym is somewhat limiting!
How do you feel about exercising alone? Would you prefer to exercise with a supportive group?
I’d love to give you (and a buddy if you want) a free 7 day trial at our super friendly, private studio gym – click here to take me up on this offer.