Social pressure gets a bad rep, and so it should! It pushes us into doing things that are bad for us, forces us to hide our feelings and makes us feel down about ourselves. It's a real force of nature – how else does it make us do all that bad stuff?
But it can also be a powerful force for good. For too long, fitness has been all about an individual and their personal journey. It’s high time we realise the important role that social pressure can play in making us more active.
Of course, the action can only come from you, but it’s the people around us that motivate us to keep going. A study by Virgin Active showed that people who worked out with a friend burned 20% more calories and worked out for 17% longer than those exercising alone. Another study found that 95% of those who started a weight-loss program with friends completed the program, compared to just 76% for those who tackled the program alone. Having someone there holding us accountable has a dramatic impact on our ability to stick to our guns and keep going.
Social media is applying social pressure on us like never before. Studies have linked it to lower self-esteem and heightened anxiety. But why does it have to be a negative force? Why can’t we bend the powerful forces of social pressure to encourage us to develop habits that help us stay mentally and physically healthy?
This was our motivation for creating nuumi, a social fitness app designed to motivate us all to get fitter, healthier and happier – together. By sharing what we’re doing to keep fit, we can inspire and push each other to do more. And not only that, we can learn new ways of working out to help achieve our goals more effectively.
You don’t have to do this alone, and you don’t need someone to go to the gym with you. You just need to share your goals and your progress so that your friends can give you the push you need to keep going.
So when it gets around to New Years and you're dreaming up that resolution to go the gym five times a week for the next century, why not reach out to a friend and make a New Years pact with them? The stats say that you are far more likely to stick to that pact than a resolution.
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