from Preventive Medicine
Many of us have embarked on exercise programs with the best of intentions, but the motivation and the exercise wane quickly. A University of Pennsylvania study, appearing in the journal Preventive Medicine, appears to have found the key was not pamphlets, coaching, pedometers or even money. Competition was the key. Nearly eight hundred graduate students signed up for an eleven week exercise program. What they didn’t know is that researchers had divided them into groups—two of which involved competition and another involving friendly encouragement and support. Turns out competition pushes people to exercise far better than friendly support. In fact, that friendly support actually made people go to the gym less than simply leaving them alone.