"The Right Workout Partner"

Having a hard time sticking with your fitness routine? Find a friend to help you out and you may experience more fitness success.  Partnering up will make you accountable to someone other than yourself. Which means you’re more likely to make the effort even when you really don’t feel like it. Knowing someone else is counting on you might just give you to boost you need to get yourself in gear. Just make sure if you're going to take on a workout partner you choose wisely because if you pick a close friend who has never worked out or hates exercise you could have some problems. You want to pick someone who is motivated enough to push past their comfort zone and not give in to the temptation of just leaving you messages at the last minuet that they will be missing today's workout. This could hinder your own progress and motivation and then you could skip your workout as well.

Picking a workout partner is not personal so if you choose not to pick your close friend to be your workout partner don't feel bad and they shouldn't either.  Now if your close friend or family member has the same goals and motivations as you, but your not sure about them committing and keeping to a schedule with you then give them a probation period. If they cancel, change or miss more than 1-2 workouts within a months time then it might be better to separate and find a new partner. You can still be close friends, but when it comes to your fitness, health and motivation you need to count on yourself most of all and if your partner doesn't have those same wishes, goals or wants as you do it will not work. You and your partner need and have to be in sync with each other to make a workout partnership work for both of you!

I only had one real workout partner and that was my brother Dana who taught me all about working  out with weights. As I fell in love with weight training my brother and I became more than trainer and trainee, we became true workout partners and relied on each others motivation and drive to keep us both accountable each workout and our set workout schedule. In the beginning I would have to be at my brothers house by 5am in the morning and it was brutal. He picked that time purposely to see how dedicated and serious I was by choosing such a grueling time. I had to leave my house by 4:30 am to be there on time and my bother was always ready at 4:50am so I had to be there and be ready to train at 5am. To my bothers surprise day after day, week after week and so on I kept coming back to train and continued to get my butt kicked at 5am 3-4 days on to one day off then back again.

I didn't love the early mornings, but I loved the feel of it when I was there pumping the iron before sunrise and the great high after we kicked our butts for 90 minuets working out. So I continued to be there and my brother always knew I would be there to train with him so he was too pushed to be up early and ready on those occasional days he wasn't feeling so motivated. When I had those occasional days I knew he would be waiting for me so I could NEVER let him down and most of all I couldn't let myself down. The feeling of not going and missing a training workout was a far greater disappointment to me and I could never stand that feeling so coupled with that strong desire to not let myself down and then not letting my brother down it gave me exactly what I needed to keep pushing myself past any barriers that came my way.

So if you feel a workout partner will help and it's exactly what you need to push and motivate you past your own barriers then start searching. If you don't have a close friend or family that holds the same desires and goals in fitness and you do or want to have then try the gym and see who trains at the same time as you do.  Ask around the place you train, run or take workout classes at and see if their is anyone like yourself who wants or needs a partner. I am sure most gym's have bulletin boards that you could also place an ad and see if you can find someone that way too. Sometimes the best workout partner is someone you don't know so well at first as it can make it that much harder to let them down and you also may feel that wonderful competitiveness come out inside of you to prove yourself to your new found workout partner.  Man or women will do as long as it's a workout fit and the motivation keeps coming as you become in sync with each other as training partners. #TrainHard   

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