Gym Motivation Tips: Workout Buddy

Experts claim your fitness goals can be better achieved if you have someone to accompany you on your gym visits. And they’re right. Whether they get you to the gym when you were thinking about skipping, or they motivate you to work out harder, a gym buddy is an absolute asset. A study from Kansas State and Michigan State University found your ideal exercise partner is 40 per cent more fit than yourself, thus motivating you to exercise harder, for a longer period of time. This study also found that those whose partners remained quiet were found more effective, as encouragement actually delivered an opposite effect and was taken as condescending. In terms of purely aerobic exercise, a study in the Society of Behavioral Medicine found that working out with a partner increases your performance by over 50 per cent. The reason for this, again, was the unrelenting drive to keep up with their workout partner -- who, in this case, was digital.

If you can’t seem to recruit a workout buddy within your social circle, don’t discount your wife. Men’s Health found that nearly half of men who workout solo quit within a year, but two-thirds who worked out with their wives stuck with it.