5 social workout apps to exercise with friends

If you're committed to achieving your workout goals, one of the best approaches is to find a workout buddy or join a group of friends.

 Research indicates that exercising with others can boost motivation, help you maintain consistency, and assist in setting more effective goals.

Here are some of the top social workout apps that simplify group exercise and competition, helping you achieve fitness goals together:

1. Activity insights with Stridekick

Stridekick is an intuitive activity tracking app.

You can easily monitor your progress, connect with like-minded fitness enthusiasts, and optimize your workouts. To get started, you'll need to create an account and link to a data source.

The app uses GPS data from your phone, wearable devices (such as Fitbit or Garmin), or other apps to track your distance and duration.

With Stridekick, you can stay fit and motivated within a social workout community. You'll meet friends who are equally dedicated to their fitness journey.

You can share workouts, ask questions, and post motivational photos.

When you're ready for a new routine or want to elevate your fitness goals, Stridekick is there to support you.

You can create or join challenges in the Challenges tab and earn badges for your milestones or personal bests. The Dashboard helps you track steps, distance, and time.

Ensure location permissions are enabled for proper data synchronization. The app is free to use.

2. StepBet: Step-counting fitness game

Group step counting is a popular form of competitive exercise.

While many apps offer this feature, StepBet aims to provide a balanced step-counting competition.

StepBet allows you to connect your preferred activity tracker—whether it’s Fitbit, Apple Health, Google Fit, Samsung Health, or Garmin—to receive personalized weekly fitness goals based on your historical step data.

The app calculates two personalized goals: an Active Goal (moderately challenging) and a Power Goal (more challenging).

Each participant's step goals will differ, but this levels the playing field. Weekly competitions require you to meet a certain number of active and power days.

Adding a bet element (as research shows putting something at stake can motivate people) makes the challenge more engaging.

Bets range from $10 to $60, with the pot divided among those who achieve their targets. Groups enable participants to communicate and celebrate milestones, fostering a supportive community.

3. Strava: Route mapping for activities

Strava is one of the best apps for tracking various workouts like cycling, hiking, running, and other outdoor activities.

It features group challenges that allow collective goal completion, making it ideal for social workouts.

Strava offers numerous features for fitness enthusiasts. You can explore popular spots via Segments and Routes, and detailed maps help you find and navigate optimal workout paths.

Strava uses GPS to track your location, uploading this data to the cloud to create the Global Heatmap feature, which aids in discovering new trails and popular routes worldwide.

Strava also boasts an extensive library of challenges, ranging from simple activities to complex tasks like marathons and climbing events.

It syncs seamlessly with apps like Google Fit and lets you share your progress with friends.

By leveraging these apps, you can enhance your fitness journey through social engagement, competition, and well-rounded tracking features.

4. Squaddy: Group workouts

Squaddy offers a dedicated platform for large groups of participants. If you're looking to start training with friends or colleagues, this app is ideal for you.

With Squaddy, you can create a personalized journal or training diary to set fitness goals, record training sessions, and track your movement history.

You can form "Squads" by adding friends, colleagues, clients, and teammates to share workouts. The best part is that it comes with templates for various workouts, which you can find in the Templates tab and customize to suit your needs.

To get started, sign up for an account and create a team (or squad). Choose a profile image, and hit the "+" button to start a session. You can communicate with fellow squad members or training buddies using the chat features.

The free plan allows you to record workouts and session content from a list of movements. The pro version lets you add circuits, complexes, supersets, and more.

In the Fitness Library, the group administrator (or anyone) can add a new workout. When you finish training, you mark it as complete, and the session will show which members of your group have marked it complete for the day.

The app supports various workout styles, including strength training, weightlifting, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, HIIT, and others.

Whether you're looking for something quick and easy or more advanced, Squaddy offers a wide variety of workouts that will keep you coming back for more.

5. Love HIIT: Timer-Based Workouts

Love HIIT is designed for interval training exercises, asking you to add exercises sequentially.

It's as simple as setting a timer for each exercise, the duration of rest between workouts, and the total rounds you want to complete.

When you start the workout, Love HIIT functions like the best countdown timer apps for interval training, calling out the exercise name, rest period, and finish times.

With a user-friendly interface, Love HIIT makes it easy to set up a workout and share it, perfect for a workout group that's not too tech-savvy.

Anyone with the link can use it through a web browser (desktop or mobile) and apps.

6. ASICS Runkeeper: Training for runners

Runkeeper is a leading social workout app that offers a range of features designed to enhance your fitness journey and keep you connected with a supportive community. It accurately tracks your workouts, whether running, walking, cycling, or any other physical activity.

The app offers various challenges and goals to keep you motivated and engaged. You can compete against yourself or join community challenges to push your limits and achieve new milestones.

You can add friends, create or join groups, and participate in challenges together.

This community aspect of Runkeeper fosters support, accountability, and healthy competition, making your fitness journey more enjoyable.

To get started with community workouts, head over to the Community section in the bottom panel and tap on Create a Running Group. Set the goals, duration, and frequency for the group.

Runkeeper provides customizable training plans tailored to your fitness level and goals.

Whether you're training for a marathon or aiming to improve your overall fitness, you can follow expert-designed and guided workouts to stay on track and make progress at your own pace.

Get Fit, Get Healthy, Lift, and Uplift

Leveraging these social fitness apps can help you make fitness a more social and enjoyable part of your life.

This means hitting your group targets while avoiding getting caught up in competition and comparisons.

Whether you want to engage in virtual competitions with friends or simply share your progress and old workout videos to stay accountable and motivated, there are plenty of options available these days to help you stay on top of your health.

Social fitness is all about motivating and helping your workout buddies achieve more together.

Source: msn

The opinions shared in the GymNation blog articles are solely those of the respective authors and may not represent the perspectives of GymNation or any member of the GymNation team.