The Buddy System: Exercise Partners

We all have special friends ... our pals, our buddies. Buddies are especially important when it comes to starting or maintaining a physical activity program.

Did you know that the people who do the most physical activity are those who do some activities alone and other activities with partners? The next most active group is people who share their physical activity time with partners. People who only do activities alone are the least active. The message here is, to help you get active and stay active, get yourself a partner.

This Active Living article gives you some tips on how to work the buddy system.

• It lists the benefits of having a buddy and ideas for who can be your buddy.
• It tells you how to be a good buddy.

Buddy Benefits

The first six months can make or break your activity plan. Getting through that crucial period greatly increases the chances that you’ll continue on your healthful program. An exercise buddy will help you stay with it. In fact, having a partner helps you and your partner stay on the physical activity track.

Here is a list of the benefits from having an activity buddy:

• A buddy keeps you motivated. You’re less likely to skip a session if you know somebody else is counting on you to show up.
• A buddy puts more fun in doing physical activity. Chatting or silent camaraderie during warm-up, exercise, and cool-down makes the time whiz by!
• A buddy gives you encouragement. “One more block and we’ll be done.”
• A buddy may give you tips. “Walking shoes are on sale at the mall!”

Grab a Buddy

Studies show that when men exercise with a buddy, it’s often a family member. Women more often choose a friend as a partner. Aside from friends and family, you can choose from among a whole list of buddies ... a few aren’t even human!

• A herd of buddies: Join a class at your local gymnasium, community center, or church.
• Buddy-for-hire: Hiring a personal trainer or other coach, at least to get you started on a new activity, might be a good idea — not only for support, but to learn correct technique.
• Four-legged buddies: Dogs make good partners. Just make sure you have water for you and your dog.
• Inanimate buddies: Pedometers are great motivators. The talking ones and those that play music are especially fun. They give you feedback and keep you informed about your progress.

Rules of the Road

Finally, here’s a little bit about buddy etiquette:

• If you agree to meet for a workout, walk, run, or other activity, show up!
• Find a partner you can keep up with but who’ll challenge you a little, too.
• Sometimes you and your partner will need to compromise on pace, intensity, and how long you walk when one of you is having an “off day.”
• Don’t feel like you have to talk all the time.
• Encourage each other.
• Share tips.
• Let your partner know ahead of time if you want to work out alone sometime, or you just need to take a day off.

Remember, people with the most successful physical activity programs do some activities alone and some with others. Keeping that in mind, think about the activities you like to do and list them and partners (if any) on the following Partner Planner grid.

PARTNER PLANNER

Summary

• You don’t need a partner for every activity, but it’s likely that you’ll increase your total activity time if you have a buddy sometimes.
• You can choose from a variety of buddy options — friends, family, group classes, personal trainers and other coaches, pets, and even pedometers.
• The most important thing a buddy can do is motivate you to start or help you maintain your program. And you can motivate your buddy, too.
• The key etiquette point when working with a partner is to show up when you say you will.