30 Jan 2018
There’s reason one; train on your own and it’s too easy to let any old excuse rain on your exercise parade.
You can’t just call your training buddy at 5 am and say you want to stay in bed and listen to the rain. A training buddy is a pact. And while we hate using words like ‘obliged’ and ‘selfish’, with a training buddy you’re obliged to turn up and you’re selfish if you don’t.
When someone else is relying on you, all the feeble excuses go by the wayside; you can’t be weak or lazy; you can’t throw a sickie; you’re letting someone down if you do.
So that’s the emotional blackmail out of the way. How else does a training buddy enhance your exercise?
Let’s not beat about the barbells, training on your own can get a bit dull; trudging from exercise to exercise, counting out the reps, a slow, silent zigzag of exertion without a word to anybody.
With a buddy, you can chat about life, laugh about your respective efforts and lighten the whole process of working yourselves into the ground.
Particularly if you’re both working to the same exercise program; your workout gets a friendly competitive edge as you try to outdo each other. After all, the whole point of the exercise is to push yourself and it’s hard to do that on your own. You’re far more likely to give it that extra grunt with someone egging you on.
You’re on rep 9 of a supposed set of 12 and it’s getting a bit hard. On your own, you’ll probably quit; with a buddy cheering you on, chances are you’ll find what it takes to do 3 more.
Do you honestly know if your form is good? Not when your eyes are closed, your face scrunched in a grimace, the bar teetering in your trembling arms. “Back straight,” “Keep it level,” or “Don’t rock,” might not be what you want to hear at that moment, but it’ll help you maintain form and avoid injury.
Are you going to try pushing out that last rep on the bench press on your own? Not if there’s a good chance you’ll end up with a barbell necklace. Knowing your buddy is there to rescue you at failure lets you push exercises to the edge.
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