Everything's Better with a Partner

January has always been a cliche in health circles. Following a month of traditional overeating and overdrinking, people swear that they will turn a new leaf in the New Year, setting off on a new path towards a better version of themselves. Just like every year, gyms will see a massive spike in registrations, the health food sections at grocery stores will have their shelves emptied, aspirin will take a month off from curing hangovers, and your local hill will sink a few centimeters into the mud under the weight of all the newfound hiking enthusiasts climbing its slopes. And, again like every year, 90% of those fresh New Year’s resolutions will already be a distant memory by 1 February.  

What’s the one, single thing you can do to make sure your resolutions have a fighting chance of lasting into the spring and beyond? Simple: make sure a friend joins you for the ride.

Accountability buddies 

A joint study between UC Berkley, the University of Washington, and the University of Pennsylvania focused specifically on gym attendance. Their initial hypothesis was that the difficulty of coordinating schedules between 2 people would lead to a decrease in gym attendance. Indeed, in initial discussions with their subjects, 80% of people reported that they would much prefer not needing to rely on another person to plan their gym attendance. Despite that initial reluctance to coordinate routines, the study’s findings flipped the starting assumption upside down. In fact, their program showed that having an accountability buddy convinced the experimental group to attend the gym 35% more than the control group. The reasons cited were nuanced; part of the reason for increased attendance was one of personal pride, as people went to the gym just so their accountability buddy wouldn’t think less of them. Much more importantly, though, responders regularly mentioned their increased enjoyment in making a social experience out of what used to be a chore (Source: Friends with Health Benefits: A Field Experiment).

Plenty of other research has confirmed these findings again and again: your chances of achieving fitness goals are drastically improved when you commit to the process with a close friend. 

What is accountability?  

Accountability is a big word that can have intimidating connotations at first, making people think that there might be some sort of consequence for failing. There are a lot of ways to interpret the concept of accountability when it comes to fitness goals, depending on how you personally experience motivation. Some people indeed find motivation in true literal accountability, reporting dutifully on their progress and waiting for the approval of a superior. Others are repelled by such a formal relationship and hierarchy, thriving more in peer relationships of shared, mutual status. For them, accountability will feel different. The only thing that an accountability buddy really needs to do is care: about you, about your progress, and about your well-being. You need to care back, and you both need to show honest enthusiasm when the other describes their latest either victory or setback. Check in with your partner regularly, be present and attentive when they describe their experience, warmly hype up their successes, and remind them they’ll come back stronger than ever when they falter – of course don’t forget about the occasional joke or roast, especially if you’re willing to poke fun at yourself, as well. Remember, this is supposed to be FUN!  

How to pick an accountability buddy?

It’s not always easy even to find an accountability buddy, let alone pick one. Perhaps you have very few friends, acquaintances, or family members with similarly aligned fitness or dietary goals. Perhaps you are just starting out on your journey towards longevity or improved physical shape. Incentives can come in handy at the start, for instance with Junai’s referral program. Just as dangling a carrot can get the turtle to move, a €10 discount on a formula designed to support your goals can be a great motivator to convince even an unmotivated acquaintance to get started on a new routine.  

The equal 

This is your best choice for enjoyment and consistency. A friend at the same or similar level is the most likely to keep you interested and motivated in the long-term. The 2 of you will be certain to share and bond over similar milestones, for instance increasing your running distances or paces at comparable rates, losing weight together, and feeling your mood and relationship to food and exercise improve. Working with someone who is at the same level really hammers home the point that you are both on a shared experience and journey. 

The mentor 

If you have truly ambitious goals, find yourself someone a league above you if they are willing to take on a project. There is a profound psychosomatic effect that comes from working alongside someone decidedly better than you. Research led by Brandon C. Irwin of the University of Kansas found staggeringly significant results when testing the Köhler effect in controlled exercise settings. Participants in the control group were told to ride a stationary bike for as long and as hard as they could, averaging around 10 minutes of high-intensity work. The experimental group was told the same, just with the addition that they were riding alongside a slightly better partner. Somehow, those riders were able to maintain their intensity for a whopping 9 minutes longer than the control group, making a total increase of nearly 200% (Source: Aerobic exercise is promoted when individual performance affects the group: a test of the Kohler motivation gain effect).  

The mentee 

Depending on your personality, you might also be intrigued by taking on someone a bit behind you on their fitness journey. It can be truly satisfying to share your own knowledge and experience, and provide a person you care about with support as they go through a process you have already passed. That’s the whole essence of Junai’s new referral program, pure recognition of the fact that giving is part of feeling good. And giving well-being feels even better than giving things, as you know you’re investing in a friend or loved one’s future, instead of in a consumer good that could soon break, get lost, or be discarded. 

Furthermore, just the act of sharing our experience can be enough to provide us with a strong psychological reminder of our own progress: after all, it’s  impossible to offer guidance to someone else without having gained an appreciable amount of experience on our own. Passing that knowledge onto others proves vividly that we have come a long way from where we started, a welcome reassurance if we are struggling with motivation.  

But what if you’re concerned that your own performance will drop if you partner with someone worse than you? Not to worry! Followup research to the KSU study cited above has shown that the Köhler effect is a two-way street: in social exercise settings with strong ties to accountability, both partners are motivated to work harder regardless of their individual levels (Source: Is My Exercise Partner Similar Enough? Partner Characteristics as a Moderator of the Köhler Effect in Exergames). 

Connection as well-being 

Fitness and well-being form an inherently quantifiable area; total kilometers run, kilograms lifted, repetitions completed, calories consumed, grams of protein measured, VO maxes, stride counts, heartrate zones... Some people don’t ever remove their smart watches, having them measure their REM cycles while they sleep in order to quantify even regeneration! A lot of this is understandable psychologically: so much of our modern lives and decision-making is affected by data that it’s logical for us to apply the same sort of matrices to our personal endeavors.  

But, in our obsessive attempts to document each indivisible increment of progress, it’s often easy to forget that mental health is a part of health, too. If tracking progress ends up as a chore, or if it discourages you because you see yourself failing to match the same personal best that you set 2 weeks ago, it’s perhaps time to abandon strict quantification and choose another KPI: the single most important metric is consistently showing up. That alone will ensure your progress is steady. Keep in mind that sustainable change feels calm, not dramatic.  

The Romans liked to say: mens sana in corpore sano, or that humans need a healthy mind in a healthy body. As social animals, interactions with our fellow humans form an integral part of what makes for a healthy mind. Especially as adults with children and busy schedules, opportunities for socialization can be hard to find or schedule. It is truly transformative once you realize that you can kill two birds with one stone by socializing meaningfully with a friend during a run or workout. That’s right, workouts can – and SHOULD – be FUN and filled with laughs.  

Well-being isn’t all about just squeezing more and more output from your body while meticulously controlling the inputs; it’s about feeling present, connected, and supported. 

HELP YOUR FRIENDS HELP YOU

Why all this talk about accountability buddies and the joys of working out with someone you enjoy? Because Junai has launched a new referral program! More than anything, we want to provide a product and an environment that helps people reach their goals, helps them go the extra step, helps them achieve just a little bit more. And we know, both from personal experience and scientific evidence, that the best way to achieve health and fitness goals is alongside someone we love.  

So how does the new program work? 

Simple: just recommend Junai to a friend or family member and we’ll give you both €10! First click here, then make a My Junai account if you haven’t done so already. Then you can either enter your friends’ email addresses and we’ll send them an invitation and a unique voucher for €10, or you can copy the link provided and send it to them yourself. Either way, they’ll save on their first purchase and, when they do, you will be given a reward for your referral as well. You can then use that reward for a discount on any future transaction, either one-time buy or monthly subscription installment. There is no limit to the number of friends or family members that you invite and you’ll be given a €10 reward for each and every one of them. Invite your whole contact list as far as we’re concerned and make for yourselves an accountability army.  

We’ll keep track of all the invitations you sent and all the rewards you have coming your way. They will automatically be applied to your upcoming transactions (one reward per transaction) and you will always have oversight over how many rewards you’ve received in total and how many you’ve already redeemed. 

So what are you waiting for? Go find your accountability buddy and get to work together. And if you're having trouble finding one, just remember, sharing a discount is a great way to get things started!