Disclaimer:  Check with your doctor to make sure you are in good enough health for exercise! 

Getting motivated when you don’t feel like working out is so much easier when you have a workout partner!!
If you have ever had a partner to workout with, you know what I mean! Your workout buddy just makes keeping your fitness goals actually happen.

What is a workout partner?
A workout partner, or a workout buddy, is someone you meet and exercise with. You could be meeting at the same gym, or at a park, at your house at a home gym, or on a trail.

You have similar fitness levels so you can keep up with each other, and you hold each other accountable to your fitness goals.

As a workout partner, you are a motivator, an accountability holder & a voice of reason. You are NOT your partner’s personal trainer or coach. You are equals, pushing each other to reach a similar goal together.

Why Do I Need A Workout Partner?
You don’t NEED a workout partner, but having a person to meet and exercise with can help in many ways. It’s mutually helpful, and keeps you honest and focused.

Many people exercise alone.

If you are doubting your discipline or feel like your motivation ebbs and flows, then a workout partner can make all the difference!! For both of you! Why?

What are the top 9 benefits of having a workout partner?

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1. With A Workout Partner, You Show Up

Your set time to meet and exercise it about an hour away, and you are getting a snack, getting dressed and planning to head out soon. When you are alone, so many things can get in the way and seem more important: the laundry, the kid’s needs, fixing dinner, petting the dog, getting gas…. Just about anything looks more important. Before you know it, your allotted exercise time is gone.

With a workout partner, the time is set and it becomes about them, their time, and honoring your commitment to them.

When you are running a little late, expect a text asking where you are and how far away you are! Expect to text them if they are late.

It only takes a few times of meeting on time where the power of a PARTNER becomes clear.

2. You’ll Work Harder With A Partner

Working out alone is fine. Many people do it. But, sometimes, you get to the gym and just don’t feel like it. So, the ride on the bike becomes a slow crawl, and the “workout” becomes a “stretching session” until you leave with barely breaking a sweat.

You and your workout partner will have a set plan, and you’ll know what is expected for the day. They will push and motivate you because they want you to motivate them! It’s great how it works to motivate both people! Especially when, by themselves, they may not have worked out as hard. 

3. A Workout Partner Is A Reminder Of Your “Why”

Your partner will remind you of the reason you are there, of the goals you are trying to achieve. This isn’t in lectures or naming lists.

You just remember why you are even there when you see them. And, you are the same reminder for them.

It’s in the moments of really hurting and wanting to stop on the last set, or holding a plank or wall sit for just a bit longer, when your workout partner makes a huge difference.

Their words to you, and you to them make or break your workout intensity. You can give them permission in the first few meetings to push you to a certain level. When you are tired and done, it’s this pushing that can get you to the next level of fitness you are wanting!

4. Circuits Work Better With A Partner

Circuits work WAY better with a partner! Either, you are swapping sets with rest, or going from one exercise to another & back again, it’s better with a buddy.

Some of the exercises are good with two people, like throwing a medicine ball, or needing a spot.

Circuits make the workouts less boring and bring variety and better concentration. When you do a circuit alone in the gym, you can loose a machine to someone else, which is frustrating and messes with your rest timing.

5. A Workout Buddy Makes It Way More Fun

With a partner, you can laugh and have fun, while when you are alone, it’s more serious and quiet.

The quiet focus has it’s place. And, you can be quiet with a partner also, you just also have the option of messing with them, or joking around now and then.

You also get to share with them while you are working out, which can make the exercises go much faster.

Once you have your routines down, you can have intense conversations and get through your sets and set schedule quickly.

This one on one talking time is rare in our society anymore, and is a precious time together.

6. It’s Safer With A Workout Partner

Having a partner with you, especially if you are meeting on trails, running on the road, or even in a gym, is safer not alone.

For obvious reasons, where two people, especially women, are together, you are less likely to be approached by trouble makers.

In the gym, you are less approachable if you have a partner. Someone may say hello, but your routine with your partner will take over and they will leave you alone.

It’s also safer with a buddy because they can watch you, and you watch them. You can watch each other’s form, how your body is handling a particular amount of weight, or if you are out of breath or struggling. In time, you get to know what your partner needs, what their “look” is, or how much is too much, or when they need to stop.

7. We Learn Best When We Teach

As a workout partner and motivator, you show and tell with the exercise you choose each time you meet.

With this in mind, you learn the best way to move your body to create the desired results.

By watching your partner, and correcting them during the exercises, you learn how to do them better yourself. Then, your partner corrects your form and breathing, and other issues.

If you were alone, there are many little things you won’t be able to see that a partner can. They can walk around you and see your form from many angles, and catch the raised heel, the winging shoulder blade, the rounded back.

When you realized that the back isn’t straight on your partner, you are more aware of your own form and can adjust your back, heel, etc, without even thinking too much about it.

This type of learning is the best about having a workout partner! You start to learn from each other in seconds if not milli-seconds.

8. A Workout Partner Keeps You Focused

Your focus on the prize, the exercise at hand and your reason for starting in the first place is multiplied when you have a workout partner.

There is purpose for your meeting, and it becomes clear how to make the goal a reality with consistent work.

The hard work, the pushing, grit, pain in the last reps all seems worth it when you have a partner who is working towards the same goal.

This makes is easier to focus in the times when you are exhausted, distracted or unmotivated. When you know this time together is limited and is over soon, with a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s easier to focus with a workout partner!

9. Victories Are Shared With A Workout Partner

When you finally reach an intense goal, no matter how small, with a workout partner, you reached it together, and that’s special.

No one else needs to know or witness the small achievements. They may seem insignificant to the outside observer, but when you have been working out with the same person for a while, those small victories are as big as winning the Super Bowl.

And, they are celebrated together. These small wins make the next level attainable and possible, and exciting to keep trying.

When you are working out alone, it’s just not the same. You can quietly celebrate, or tell some people around you, but it’s short lived and lonely. On the other hand, when you have been working hard with a specific workout partner towards a goal for some time, and making sacrifices to get there, it’s a great feeling to share.

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Conclusion On Having A Workout Partner

Having a workout partner makes it easier to keep your exercise goals!  Here are 9 benefits of having one:

1.  With A Workout Partner, You Show Up
2. You’ll Work Harder With A Partner
3. A Reminder of the “Why”
4. Circuits Work Better With A Partner
5. A Workout Buddy Makes It Way More Fun
6. It’s Safer With A Workout Partner
7. We Learn Best When We Teach
8. A Workout Partner Keeps You Focused
9. Victories Are Shared Together

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Do you have a workout partner?   Please share your favorite experience working out with him/her.  ?