Workout buddies: a fun five-exercise circuit for you and your partner

Two’s company – especially if you’re trying to get in shape. A workout partner brings many positive effects, research shows, from increasing the quality of your workout to boosting the likelihood you’ll stick to an exercise programme and achieve your fitness or weight-loss goals.

Better yet, pick a partner who’s slightly fitter than you. In a 2012 study, Kansas State University researchers found that people who did so increased their workout time and intensity by as much as 200 per cent, compared to people who exercised alone.

“People like to exercise with others and make it a social activity,” says Brandon Irwin, an assistant professor of kinesiology who was the study’s principal investigator. “We found that when you’re performing with someone who you perceive as a little better than you, you tend to give more effort than you normally would alone.”

There’s even a name for the phenomenon of people, who may not be adept exercisers themselves, performing better with a moderately better partner or team as opposed to working out alone: the Köhler Motivation Effect.

In a 2012 study in the journal Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology that tested the effect in competitive college swimmers and high school track and field athletes, researchers found that the weakest member of the team showed greater motivation gains than their fitter counterparts.

Another study published last year by scientists at University College London showed that people were more successful in swapping bad habits for good ones – such as quitting smoking, getting active or losing weight – if their partner made a change as well.