Many parts of a “health and fitness journey” in a fitness context (i.e., gym-kind of setting) can be seen to be quite isolating – you train on your own, meal prep for yourself, get your steps in whilst listening to a podcast, smash your cardio with your own music blasting through your ears. And then what?
Many people underestimate the importance of having a supportive community around you for the tougher days, no matter the journey you’re on. We all have ups and downs, better days, worse days, days where energy is through the roof, days where motivation is MIA. These are the moments in which having a supportive community can be the difference that makes the difference.
A community that is there for you for the highs and the lows, one that can cheer you along on the best days and pick you up on the worst. A community that acknowledges that although we may all be riding different waves, we’re all riding along the same ocean.
There is a large body of evidence demonstrating that we’re more likely to achieve a goal when we do it with others, and most of us know that “if you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together”.
So, why is it that communities can have such a large impact on our performance when trying to live more meaningful lives, in which health and fitness form a central part of it?
- Greater cohesion with others such as teammates has been shown to improve overall on our performance[i]
- Social group connectedness provides us with positive feedback on our ability to achieve our goals, which in the long term is associated to enhanced wellbeing[ii]
- Importantly, when a team member tells us that we’ll be alright – such as, that we’ll manage a dieting phase, and/or that we’ll be able to cope with the demands of weight gain for health restoration – we are more likely to believe them and as a result, perceive the “stressor” in question to be less stressful[iii]
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it just shows that we can always achieve more together. And you can start creating that community around you by joining a new gym, trying out a new exercise class, and/or working with a fitness coach who also works with a group of people just like you.
[i] Murrell, A. J., & Gaertner, S. L. (1992). Cohesion and sport team effectiveness: The benefit of a common group identity. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 16(1), 1-14.
[ii] Bettencourt, B., & Sheldon, K. (2001). Social roles as mechanism for psychological need satisfaction within social groups. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81(6), 1131.
[iii] Gallagher, S., Meaney, S., & Muldoon, O. T. (2014). Social identity influences stress appraisals and cardiovascular reactions to acute stress exposure. British journal of health psychology, 19(3), 566-579.
