Commit to about four weeks of exercise. According to research, this can help you build a new routine. One 2020 randomized controlled trial, for example, found that people who were paid to exercise for 28 days were likely to continue exercising 10 months later.
“The key to habits is repetition,” says Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School of Business who worked on the study. “If you can get that repetition going while you have high motivation, you’re much more likely to have a behavior change that lasts.”
There’s a reason many Olympic athletes train with partners or on larger teams. Teammates help you “hold yourself accountable,” says Dr. Mitesh Patel, a behavioral scientist. You’ll be less likely to break from your training plan if a gym buddy is counting on you to show up and put in the work with them.
Patel has found this teammate benefit in his own research. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2019, he and other researchers challenged 602 overweight and obese employees from a single company to participate in a daily step challenge. The employees on teams ended up walking further each day than employees doing the challenge solo. They didn’t want to let their teammates down.