How to work out with friends remotely
Pick one workout everyone can do, start one clock that everyone can see, and put the scores somewhere shared. The hard part is the clock: if each person runs their own timer, the workouts drift apart within a minute and the scores stop being comparable.
What actually breaks
Almost everyone tries the same thing first: a group chat, a video call, and everyone hitting start on their own phone at the same time. It falls apart in three predictable ways.
- The clocks drift. Timers started by hand are seconds apart at best, and video adds its own lag. By minute fifteen the person who started two seconds early has had two extra seconds of work.
- Scores arrive late and unverifiable. People message a number after the fact. Nobody saw the workout, so nobody can compare anything except on trust.
- The suffering is private. The thing that makes training with people work is knowing someone else is mid-round right now. A number posted twenty minutes later does not do that.
What to do instead
- Pick a bodyweight AMRAP. No equipment means no excuses about who has what at home, and an AMRAP means everyone finishes together. Any of the150 workouts in our library qualifies.
- Run one clock, not several. One countdown that every phone reads from, reconciled as it runs, so nobody is ahead or behind.
- Log rounds live. A leaderboard that updates during the workout is doing the job the group chat cannot: it tells you where you are while you can still do something about it.
- Repeat the same workout later. Comparing to other people is motivating; comparing to your own previous score is the part that tells you whether the training worked.Campaigns schedule that automatically.
Different time zones
A live shared clock needs everyone present at the same moment, which is not always possible. The fallback that still works is the same workout on the same day, scored the same way, with the results on one board — you lose the live element but keep the comparison and the accountability. Agreeing a window rather than a minute is usually enough.
Set one up
AMRAP With Friends is built for exactly this: pick a workout, share a rally link, and everyone who opens it lands on the same countdown with a live leaderboard. No app install, and the people you invite do not need an account.
Related questions
Can you do a workout with friends over video call?
You can, and it is better than training alone, but the call is not a timer. Video lag is one to three seconds and varies per person, so everyone sees "go" at a slightly different moment. Use the call for company and something synced for the clock.
What is the best workout format for a group?
An AMRAP, by a wide margin. Everyone starts and finishes together regardless of fitness, nobody is left doing burpees alone while the rest watch, and it produces one comparable number per person. Formats scored by completion time do the opposite.
How do you keep it competitive without it being discouraging?
Compare against each person's own previous score as well as against each other. A newer athlete who added two rounds since last month has done something a fitter athlete who added none has not, and a leaderboard that shows only raw scores hides that entirely.
Run an AMRAP with your friends
One shared countdown, one leaderboard, everyone on the same clock — wherever they are training.