Social vs. Solo Workouts

I occasionally coach individuals or groups for cycling-related events, and one of the workout issues that always comes up is social vs. solo workouts.

Many people, especially individuals new to a sport, seem to prefer social group workouts.

This may be a residual philosophy from high school and collegiate sports or from military training where most workouts were group-based team activities.

Whatever the reason, individuals who want to excel in sports such as cycling, running or triathlon should do some of their workouts solo unless they have training partners who match up perfectly in terms of ability, goals, time availability and similar factors.

Note that I said “want to excel” is one of the reasons for doing some workouts solo. This may not apply to everyone because — for may people — excelling in competition isn’t the reason for working out.

Some people view workouts as simply social activities where the primary objective is to enjoy other people’s company with the quality of the workout being secondary.

Conversely, individuals who do compete seriously tend to be goal-oriented and thus their workouts are planned strategies (tasks) designed to achieve specific fitness and competition goals. Social interactions during workouts are usually secondary to completing the planned workout for these individuals.

Research such as that done by Hardy, Eys and Carron (2005) reinforces this concept. Their study suggested that “an overemphasis on social interaction (i.e., non-task related) may detract from the goals of many exercisers and, in the end, lower their attraction to the group.”

So why is solo vs. social important?

The biggest problem with social group workouts is that the group will usually dictate the duration and intensity of a workout.

A long ride planned by one individual may get shortened because some members of the group have time constraints, or the pace of a workout may be dictated by the slowest person in the group.

There is also the important issue of being able to ‘push yourself’ during difficult workouts since you’ll have to do that during races. Doing hard solo efforts helps you develop mental toughness to ride hard when you are hurting.

Although the camaraderie of a group exercise session is healthy in a mental sense, the above-mentioned issues may result in less-than-stellar physical outcomes for people pursuing specific race-training goals.

The good news is that with a little planning you can have the best of both worlds.

An effective way to approach the social vs. solo workout issue is to categorize workouts based on if they are best done solo, with a group, or if it doesn’t matter.

Using as an example a typical week from a training plan that I’m currently developing for a group, you can see how solo vs. social applies to different workouts during the week.

 - Endurance ride in heart rate (HR) zone 2: This workout can be done solo or with a group as long as the group’s pace and ride duration don’t deviate a lot from what your planned endurance workout is.  The only caveat is 'don't let the group pace make you ride faster than planned.'

 - Recovery day with an easy walk or yoga: Prefect for socializing so hook up with other people and enjoy.

 - Bike strength workout: Although it could be done in a group environment, this is a good solo workout that both stresses the muscles and helps you practice mental toughness skills as you do ‘big gear’ intervals on the stationary bike trainer.

 - 30-minute trail run at a conversational pace: Solo or with a group, as long as the group members run at about the same pace.

 - Fast-tempo ride in HR zone 3 with several hard two-minute accelerations during the workout: This workout is best done solo to ensure that you stay in the planned HR zone during the ride. It could be done with a group, but you’ll often find that the group is going too easy or two hard for you to do the HR-specific workout as planned.

Remember — you don't always have to be social since some workouts are best done solo.


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