I've started an amazing new spin class that's absolutely kicking my bike-loving butt. Case in point: I've used many phrases to describe my butt before, but "bike-loving" was never one of them--until this class. The instructor really pushes us to give our all... by having us compete against each other.
When our instructor wants us to pedal our absolute fastest, or get to the top of an especially rough hill, she tells us to look around the room and find someone who's going more quickly than we are... and then beat her. For me, it's extremely effective--it makes me notice how hard other people are working and take an honest look at how hard I am. And it always--always!--makes me work harder.
Other people can be great workout motivation--in fact, a recent study shows that even exercising with a group of people who aren't really there can persuade you to work out for a longer period of time. The research from Michigan State University (printed in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine) found that women participants who biked alone experienced a big dip in motivation, while those who had a "virtual friend" going just slightly faster than they were going didn't experience a similar dip.
I'm not an ultra-competitive person, but when it comes to exercising, it helps me keep going (and work harder) when I try to match or surpass what someone else is doing. In fact, I was once half-assing a body-sculpting class--you know, just going through the motions and, knowing me, probably fantasizing about getting a piece of pumpkin bread from Starbucks on the way home--until I realized that the very tall, very lovely woman next to me was none other than Brooke Shields. She was hitting every rep and paying close attention to her positioning--that lady clearly wasn't half-assing anything, and it snapped me into focus. I started matching my posture to hers and lifting higher than I had been, pushing myself to complete every set and not give up early. It ended up being one of the best classes ever, all thanks to Brooke--the workout buddy who had absolutely no idea she was my workout buddy.
