When it comes to performing your workouts, there are always to two sides of the coin….
Some would say it’s a good motivator; others feel that it would interfere with your own pacing. Let’s examine the factors involved in working out with a partner and decide for yourself if you need one or not:
Advantages of having a partner:
- Having someone run with you on chilly mornings or go through the circuits is always welcome, especially if it takes a lot to make you leave the house.
- Researchers found that a whopping 50% of people
who start exercising drop out of
their programs
within 3-6 months. When you’re exercising with someone, you’re less likely to drop out of a regimen.
- You and your partner, especially if you’re working almost the same programs, would benefit from healthy competition. One’s progress would hopefully inspire the other to exert a little more effort to catch up.
- If your partner happens to be your significant other, exercising together is a great time for bonding and spending time in each other’s company, especially if you’re both leading hectic lives.
- Partners can assist you in selecting the proper weights, suggesting workout variations, and providing motivation while you’re on your last few legs.
- Couples working out at the same time find being fit especially sexy and can thus give their sex lives a workout, too. Exercise allows you to experience physical as well as emotional intimacy and when you feel good about your bodies, you’ll be surprised at how your passion can get fired up.
- If you’re working out with someone you’re living with, you’ll also have more harmony in the kitchen in terms of what to eat because of an increased health awareness in each one.
Disadvantages of having a partner:
- Healthy competition can turn into a “fitness feud”. This happens when one tries so hard to out-run, out-ride, or out-lift her partner. What should be a relaxing activity, then, becomes a highly stressful preoccupation.
- You’re sometimes forced to extend sessions to another hour or so of chatting or snacking. This isn’t really a bad thing, but it might create an awkwardness in the future, especially if one of you really doesn’t have that much time to spend.
- As much as having an exercise mate can be motivating, it can also drag you down if your partner isn’t as focused as you are. It can be quite exhausting to always be the one to give the push!
- Exercise schedules could sometimes go awry when one or the other isn’t available.
Whether you decide on exercising with a partner or going solo, make sure you enjoy the experience. Workouts can do wonders for your physical, emotional, social, and mental well-being, so give it as much importance as you would any worthwhile endeavor.
M. Jamal
P.S. What’s your view on this… would you rather have a workout partner or you’re better focused and motivated on your own? (You can click ‘comment’ at top of this post and let us know)
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I think to have a fitness partner isn’t as good as training yourself, because there’s a tendency, especially if both people are already tired from work, to drag their feet to exercise. My experience with a colleague was that we both signed up for a tennis course together, in the hope of ‘forcing’ ourselves to exercise. In the end, while my colleague could not make it for half the sessions due to other commitments, I had to still fall back on myself to encourage myself to exercise. Towards the end of the course, I realised that what affected me and my attitude was largely due to an exercise partner that was not focused. In a way, I kind of regretted that move. The next time round, I think it would be better to exercise on my own and seek out inspirations and healthy discussions through online fitness journals.
Thanks for sharing your experience Rebecca.
I tend to agree with you especially on the “after work drag to the gym”. Every now and then I see someone at the gym sitting idle… just waiting for their partner to arrive! That can certainly drive your motivation down.
On the other extreme, I know 2 guys who are always checking on each others food choices. It kind’a looks funny at times, but I guess it helps steer them towards healthy nutrition on some occasions.