How to Work Out With a Partner Online (No Video Calls, No Gym)
Most people who quit home workouts don't quit because the workouts are too hard. They quit somewhere around week 3, quietly, because nobody's watching. We've written about why that happens — the short version is that novelty carries week 1, momentum carries week 2, and then nothing is holding the habit in place. No one notices if you skip. So you skip.
The fix is old and boring and it works: work out with a partner. Someone moving at the same time as you, who notices if you don't show up. The problem is that arranging it is a pain — schedules don't line up, gyms are a commute, and "we should work out together sometime" never survives contact with a calendar.
This post is about the thing we built to remove that friction: live workout sessions on 150Minutes. I want to explain what actually happens in one, how scheduling works, and why we built it the way we did — including the part that surprises everyone, which is that there's no video.
More posts like this on the 150Minutes blog.
What a Live Session Actually Looks Like
You're in a room with up to two other people — three total, on purpose. Not a class of forty where you're anonymous, not a video call where you're self-conscious about your living room. Three people is small enough that your absence would be noticed, which is the entire point.
Here's the part that's different from everything else: you don't see video of each other. You see stick figures.
Your camera watches you — on your device, in your browser — and turns your movement into a simple set of joint coordinates: shoulders, elbows, hips, knees. Those coordinates are the only thing that leaves your device. The other people in your session see a stick-figure avatar of you, moving exactly as you move, live. When you drop into a squat, your stick figure squats. When you're resting, they can see you're resting.
No video is ever transmitted or stored. This isn't a privacy setting you have to find and switch on — the video never leaves your device in the first place, so there's nothing to leak, store, or awkwardly appear in. You can work out in your pajamas, in a messy room, at whatever hour, and what your partners see is a clean little figure doing push-ups.
It sounds like it shouldn't work. It does. You can tell when someone's pushing through their last few reps. You can see someone hold a plank next to you and decide not to be the one who drops first. The presence is real; only the pixels are gone. And because joint coordinates are tiny compared to video, it runs fine on a mediocre connection.
Rep counting works the same way: the pose detection running on your device measures your joint angles and counts your reps as you do them — they show up on your card in real time. It's geometry, not judgment. Nobody's grading your form, and there's no leaderboard. Which brings up a deliberate choice:
There is no performance ranking. Nobody wins a session. The app never tells you that you did fewer squats than the person next to you. The thing that keeps people consistent is showing up next to someone, not competing with them — competition is fun for two weeks and then it's one more reason to quit. Attendance is the metric that matters, so attendance is what gets celebrated.
Scheduling: How You Actually Line Up a Session With Someone
Spontaneous workouts are great when they happen. But accountability mostly comes from the appointment — "Tuesday, 7am" is a commitment in a way that "sometime this week" never is. So sessions can be scheduled ahead of time:
- Pick a workout. You choose from the same set of workout templates live rooms use — beginner to advanced, different focuses (full body, core, upper body, legs, cardio). You pick 1 or 2 sets, and the app derives the exercise list and time estimate from that. No building a routine exercise-by-exercise at 11pm.
- Pick a date and time. Anywhere from a few minutes ahead to two weeks out.
- Others RSVP. Your scheduled session shows up on The Floor — the app's feed of who's training right now and what's coming up. Anyone can RSVP to join you, up to the room cap.
The Floor is worth dwelling on for a second, because it's the ambient version of accountability. It shows people training now — live, as stick figures, doing actual exercises — and sessions starting soon. Seeing "3 people training now" at 7am does something that a push notification saying "Don't forget your workout!" does not.
When your session's start time arrives, there's a 15-minute window to get it going, and anyone who RSVP'd can start it — not just the person who scheduled it. That's deliberate too: once a scheduled session goes live, there's no host. Nobody owns the room, nobody has special controls, nobody's waiting on an organizer who's running late. Whoever shows up first hits start, and everyone who committed is just a participant, equal to every other. If nobody starts it within the window, it quietly expires — no zombie sessions, no guilt-trip.
Why This Beats the Alternatives
Versus solo workout apps: a streak counter is accountability to a number. It works until the first time you break the streak, at which point it flips from motivator to evidence against you. A person expecting you at 7am is accountability to a human — and humans are much harder to swipe away. The research on this is consistent: people exercise dramatically longer with a partner present, even a virtual one. (The why-you-keep-quitting post covers the Köhler effect and the Michigan State findings if you want the details.)
Versus texting a workout buddy: honestly, this works — if you have the right friend and you both keep it up. But it's asynchronous. "Done ✅" at 9pm confirms the workout happened; it doesn't get you through the workout. Moving at the same time as someone does. The live session is the difference between telling someone you exercised and exercising with someone.
Versus a gym partner: the gold standard, minus the logistics that kill it. You need matching schedules, a shared gym, a commute, and a membership. Every one of those is a failure point. A live online session needs floor space and a browser. Your partner can be in another city, another country, another time zone that happens to overlap with yours at 6am.
Versus workout video calls: some people genuinely do Zoom workouts with friends, and good for them. Most people try it once and stop, because being on camera doing burpees in your living room is a specific kind of uncomfortable that doesn't fade. Stick figures keep the presence and delete the self-consciousness.
And because it's bodyweight-only, there's no equipment gate. If you can do our no-equipment workout plan alone, you can do it live with two other people — same movements, different odds of still doing it in week 4.
FAQ
Do I need my webcam on? Your camera is what animates your avatar and counts your reps, so a live session uses it — but the video stays on your device. It's processed in your browser and only joint coordinates (a handful of numbers per frame) are sent to your session. Nobody can see your video — not the other participants, not us. It's not transmitted, so it can't be.
Is it just me and one other person? Up to three people total — you plus two others. You can also run a session with just two of you. We capped it at three because small groups keep the accountability personal: in a group of three, your absence is obvious. In a group of thirty, it isn't.
Can I schedule a session with a specific friend? Yes. Schedule the session and have your friend RSVP to it — once they've RSVP'd, they're in, and either of you can start it when the time comes. For an on-the-spot workout, you can create a live room and share the room code directly instead.
What happens if nobody joins my scheduled session? You can still start it and train solo — you're RSVP'd to your own session, and any RSVP'd member can start it during the 15-minute start window. If nobody starts it in that window, it expires on its own.
Do I have to be good at the exercises? No, and nobody's checking. Templates run from beginner (shorter holds, longer rests) to advanced, there's no ranking, and rep counts live on your own card. If you're starting from zero, something like the 30 push-ups a day challenge is a fine on-ramp — and it's a lot easier to finish with someone showing up next to you.
Is my video or camera data stored anywhere? No. Pose detection runs entirely on your device. What leaves your browser is stick-figure joint coordinates, used live to render your avatar for your session, and your rep counts and minutes for your own stats. There is no video to store.
The Point
Every workout app promises to keep you motivated. Motivation was never the problem — week 1 proves you have plenty. The problem is week 3, alone, when there's no reason today is different from yesterday and no one would know either way.
A live session makes someone know. That's the whole feature. Three people, stick figures, a scheduled time, and the mild but remarkably effective pressure of not wanting to be the one who didn't show.