2020 is a year of broken routines (among many other things!). Work routines, family routines and certainly exercise routines got destroyed back in mid March.

And you adapted, right? Rolled with the punches, by working out at home or outside, switching your usual form of exercise into anything that was a challenge and got you a sweat.

But how many of you were able to sustain this modified exercise routine through the entire lock down period? I certainly wasn’t able to. I persisted and experimented with some unusual (for me) workouts for about 4-5 weeks. High repetition body weight routines, isometric workouts challenging my mental toughness, explosive power-oriented sessions and some web based yoga were among some of attempts to get into a rhythm. But gradually the workouts became less intense and less frequent. The shine on the solo at home workouts faded.

Our collective average fitness levels declined over the last couple months, for many reasons, but in part because many of us were forced to EXERCISE ALONE. Some timely research from a Brazilian group published in the International Journal of Physiology and Performance gives some insight into how we perform and how we feel exercising alone vs with others.

This particular study tested 14 male runners on a 10km individual time trial versus a group race with all other study participants. The tests between the individual run and the group run were done a week apart. Not surprisingly times were faster in the competitive racing against others environment. In fact, times were about a minute faster on average (39:32 vs 40:28). If you are a runner you know these are some solid 10km times and taking a minute off times at this level is not easy, so the performance improvement is significant.

This finding aligns with previous research that a competitive environment helps bring out the best in us. The combination of other athletes (and potentially other spectators) seems to drive us to push harder and dig deeper. Any competitive athlete intuitively knows this to be true.

But potentially of more value in this study was how these athletes felt during and after each race. RPE or rate of perceived exertion is a commonly used scale in exercise psychology from 6 (no effort) to 20 (maximum effort) that helps measure effort. The runners in this study were asked to rate their perceived exertion each lap and you can see from the image below that despite running faster, their RPE were essentially identical. The RPE is almost perfectly linear heading towards max effort at the finish line. So essentially you can get a better result without an increase in perceived effort just by racing with a group.

Researchers also collected information each lap on affective feelings, on a scale of -5 (for negative/displeasure) to +5 (positive/pleasure) and the results show a dramatic separation between the groups. The individual time trial runs demonstrated a slow decline, becoming more negative as the run progressed. When these same runners were participating in the the head to head run, on average their affective feeling ratings, stayed relatively stable.

These findings aren’t revolutionary.  A meta-analysis of group training versus individual training back in 2006 highlighted a similar outcome that results and feelings about the exercise itself are much better in a group, versus at home exercise alone.

We are motivated by other people working hard. Especially when those other people are doing the same movements or exercise in synchronicity. Cycling, running or rowing in rhythm has been shown to feel easier for the same output, compared to doing it alone. And don’t dismiss the accountability factor. We simply don’t like disappointing other people.

So now more than ever if you are looking to get back into a healthy routine, give priority to your training and exercising environment. Find yourself a tribe, a group, a team, a training partner, a personal trainer or healthcare professional. Find anyone you can to join you in your fitness pursuit, you will get more out of yourself and at the same time have more fun doing it!