In one's endeavors to lose weight, there is nothing like the support of friends and family to help you make that life change.   When you  know that you  have people that have your back, it helps you stay on track, especially when it comes to working out.   A friend of mine has expressed her interest in joining me for bellydancing and hula hoop classes that I attend through my meetup.com groups.  For me, having a buddy is a great way to inject variety into my workouts.

 However, in talking with my brother, he expressed his extreme disdain for working out with other people.  He recently joined NYSC in Westchester County, and during is Early Bird workouts (at 5:30am), he ran into a school buddy of his that he knew since Kindergarten (my brother is now 31).

His friend decided to take treadmill next to my brother, and commenced conversing with him.  For the first couple of minutes my brother said he did not mind chit chatting and shooting the breeze, but after 10 minutes, he felt distracted and did not get the most of his cardio exercise.  Since that encounter, he does his best to avoid people as much as possible because his time is tight, he wants his workout to be as focused as possible.

This had me thinking; do work out buddies help or hinder your workout?  Are they a source of motivation or the cause of a half-assed workout?

What has your personal experience been?