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Working out with friends is still effective during shelter in place orders

Multiple studies show working out with a partner increases performance across the board. You do not need to be at a gym to get this done.

SAN ANTONIO — I do not know about you, but finding motivation to workout during 'shelter in place' orders has been tough.

I will occasionally scroll through Instagram or Twitter for the next workout, but there is a great resource in Austin who has helped me out immensely.

I am sure he can help you out, too.

Jake Garcia, a fellow sports reporter at our sister station KVUE, is producing a series called Shelter in Shape. Every workout requires zero weights, and if it does -- there is a workaround. 

All of his workouts are sprinkled in this article:

Ab Ripper Flex

Golden Date

Burpee Burnout

Beat the Clock

Lamar-athon

Wolverine

Gladiator

Longest Mile

Deck of Cards:

UFO:

When talking to Jake about this workout plan, he admitted that it has been a fun journey, but he missed that element of competition. 

And that makes sense.

In a study by Kansas State back in 2012, researchers found 'that those who exercised with a teammate whom they perceived to be better increased their workout time and intensity by as much as 200 percent.'

In another study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, participants were more inclined to push their bodies to tougher limits with a 'more-capable' partner. In this case, people were able to hold the plank position 24 percent longer than when doing the exercise alone.

More studies and results on the subject can be found here.

Sheltering in place inherently ostracizes us from the world and our routine, but utilizing similar practices allows everyone to maintain the goals they have always desired.

Back to Jake and his program, when the motivational juices were losing steam doing this all by himself, he called up his brother and asked to workout with him over Zoom. With no sports going on right now, this was a matchup they can rally around.

I saw this on Twitter and wanted a piece of the action. Jake and I squared off in the Name Game challenge using KENS AT KVUE as our letters.

The competition is featured at the top of this article, but I edged Jake by less than 10 seconds logging a final time of 10 minutes and 16 seconds. I have tried this before and could never complete the three-minute wall sit when working out alone. I pulled it off in this challenge.

There is no way I am logging that kind of time without the Zoom call and competition in place.

So next time you plan a workout, maybe call a friend? And if that's not possible, you can use us and try and beat our times.

With a pandemic forcing seclusion, we are all here to help each other as we need solidarity in numbers.

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