If your exercise routine has become more of an exercise rut, try flexing your social skills and inviting friends and family members to workout with you. Here’s why it works:

Accountability:

By scheduling and committing to a workout with someone, you inadvertently become accountability partners. Therefore, you are less likely to let things like a cloudy sky, a binge-worthy show or low motivation derail you from actually beginning and completing your workout.

Social Interaction:

Activities like a group walk or an informal tennis match enable you to be social. Psychologically, you go from thinking “you have to workout” to thinking “you get to see people you like.” NOTE: Make this a standing weekly activity and you avoid scheduling conflicts and you establish something to look forward to on a regular basis.

Excitement:

Our friends and family members can open our eyes to new fitness modalities, as well as help us re-imagine exercise options that may have become mundane. For example, if you run the same loop every week, let your exercise buddy introduce you to a new loop.

Goal Setting:

This is my favorite part of enlisting a fitness sidekick because you can set wellness goals and accomplish these goals simultaneously with your friend or family member. This can be something as simple as vowing to hold plank and side plank for a longer period of time or training for a sprint triathlon or half marathon.

—Becca Edwards, founder of Female IQ