We do better when we do activities together. If you are tired of starting and then quitting a workout program?
Ready for a change? There are a lot of different ways to make fitness training a daily habit but I recommend one of the best … camaraderie. That is because we do better whether it is our nutritional regimen or weight loss when we do it with other people or with the camaraderie of a responsive tool. People need connection with other people, with other things. And, working out is easier when connected to your comrades.
A popular study from the New England Journal of Medicine (volume 357:370-379) reports obesity spreads through social networks. The study reports that the likelihood of becoming obese is affected by your connection with family and friends … they are obese so it affects your chances for likewise being overweight or obese.
The same is true for the effects of social networking on your engaging in invigorating activities. If you surround yourself with like minded people who also work out, your likelihood of getting and staying fit is positively and significantly affected. The reasons and mechanisms involved are for another time and place. Rather, you might find that you do better when you connect with a training buddy to workout. When we train together we often do better than alone. It is more rewarding to follow the lead of someone like your friend, neighbor, workmate, family member than the tug and struggle of going it alone.
Sally Edwards, CEO Heart Zones USA and The ZONING Fitness Company
sally.edwards@heartzones.com
Note: My constant comrade is my heart watch – the Blink. I love it because it is always flashing me with a colored lights. That is the way the Blink tells me if I am in the right zone. Try one and the first step to working out is strapping on the Blink watch. But in this picture, I am hugging my nephew, Fast Lane Edwards, at the finish line of the Color Run 2013 in Sacramento, CA. I love my training partner Lane pictured on the left above.