Want to work harder in the gym? Make it competitive

The summer term has ended, and playing fields across the country have been playing host to sports days. And, alongside the cheers for the winner, there undoubtedly will have been a chorus of consolations: “It doesn’t matter who won, you tried your hardest, that’s what counts”; “Who cares if you came fourth? You beat your own personal best”; “The only person you need to compete against is yourself”.

But when it comes to adult fitness, that’s increasingly untrue.

The tandem rise of technology and social media means not only is it easier than ever to log and share workouts, but it’s also easier than ever to make even solo pursuits competitive. Take apps such as Strava, Nike+ and Runkeeper. They not only track your run, cycle or swim, but also let you track the mileage of friends and strangers.

Eager to tap into this trend, gyms and fitness studios are incorporating elements of competition into their training, too. UN1T in London has a circuits class called Trooper, where the length of time you spend on each station is determined by how long it takes the pair on one of the stations to complete a certain number of reps. At the same time, your class is competing with all the previous classes to do as many rounds as possible in a set time.

This sort of collective responsibility is known by social psychologists as the Köhler effect – the idea that nobody wants to be the weakest link, so if you’re working out with people who are fitter than you, you tend to up your game. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology found that when individuals were paired up with a more capable partner, how long they were able to hold a plank increased by 24 per cent.

It’s not that much of a surprise that a bit of healthy competition should spur us into working harder. A friend who shares a personal trainer with a colleague tells me that whenever their trainer challenges them to “do the most burpees or sit ups in a minute, it really ups the ante. I’ve never done so many so quickly in my life.”

Now gyms around the country are pitting members against each other. Gym group DW Fitness First’s new app Core challenges users to complete as many workouts in a week as possible with a live leaderboard showing who’s winning. Spin classes, such as those at One 10 in Marylebone and Equinox gym’s The Pursuit see riders’ ­performance stats projected on to a leaderboard at the front of the class, while Meta-Row, a group rowing class at Metabolic London, is competitive.

“There’s nothing like a little healthy competition to help you unleash your greatest potential in the gym,” says Michelle Morrey, group fitness manager at Equinox Kensington. “Competition is really about coming together to bring out the best in one another. It can inspire you and help you set a goal.”

A company called MyZone, which works with a number of national gym chains, including Bannatyne Health Clubs and Speedflex, tracks user heart rate and can show how much effort each person is putting in, meaning any class – from aerobics to Zumba – can become competitive. It all sounds very positive, and while there’s no doubt an element of competition can be useful, if you’re only looking at yourself in relation to others, problems can arise.

“The focus on not being the worst can be a powerful motivator in the short term, but it’s possible from a long-term perspective it could be demotivating,” says Dr Laura Healy, a lecturer in sport coaching at Nottingham Trent University. “There’s a lot of research to support the idea that in order to keep exercising in the long term, exercise has to be enjoyable and focus on your own personal improvement.”

She points out that while on a one-off basis, competition might inspire you to work harder, constantly ending up as the whipping boy of a class is more likely to lead to you dropping out.

“People don’t like doing things where they perceive themselves as not being successful,” she says. “It’s fine if you’re always at the top, or jostling for position at the top, but if you’re trying your hardest and still not climbing up the rankings, that’s not going to make you feel very good about yourself.”

Even those who regularly come out as “winners” should be wary.

“You don’t want to get hooked on the competition aspect,” says Dr Healy. “If you go to a different class where you’re not being compared to other people, will you be less engaged? Or feel less positive about the experience?”

Ultimately it’s horses for courses. If you feel you work harder in a competitive class, go for it. But if it gets you down, stop looking at what everyone else is doing, and concentrate on you – if your time this month is quicker than last month, you know you’re heading in the right direction.