Lots of people love their alone time, which includes training. Some people see it as a great time to relax the mind from the fuzz that can come with their day-to-day tasks. The endorphin release of training is generally met with a great feeling afterwards. Many people are turned off training with friends as they assume they will not receive the same experience if they do. You’re doing it for yourself right? Why do you need someone there along the ride with you?
The Benefits of Training With Friends
There are certain benefits to training with someone and most of them actually apply when you don’t want them to. For example, the accountability that comes with a regular training partner. They know if you’ve been training or not and you don’t want to let them down right?
Socialising
Some people use this time to socialise with friends and without it, training can feel unenjoyable or mundane. Even the most introverted people eventually want someone to talk to. The gym can be a great place for this to happen. Needing a spot (or to be saved) when you can’t hit the reps or weight you set out to do is also an added benefit. Not only will you be pushed to complete your desired reps/ sets, but you will also have the confidence to push through the harder reps and sets as you know someone is there in case.
Longevity
Aside from the safety and accountability benefits, longevity is another massive benefit to training with someone. Your training isn’t always going to feel great. There will be times when progress has slowed or you feel demotivated. This can potentially have a negative impact on training commitment. It might just take a few words of encouragement from that training partner for you to continue with your efforts and push through until you are inevitably in a better training headspace.
Drive
Conversations with friends and training partners usually involve training, which then sparks new ideas about goals and achievements. Being surrounded by this type of talk will assist with your drive and desire to improve. This isn’t to say your desire to progress drops when you are by yourself. It might not be brought up in conversation as frequently when training solo.
Performance
You miss out on a lot of the human element in training when you go at it alone. You will generally find that people naturally find training partners when training at the same time as other people in the gym and experience the benefits. Even if the idea of it was initially confronting or seemed like it would get in the way of results. Relationships, especially positive ones, can impact your performance over a long period of time.
It might be uncomfortable or different to training by yourself and you might miss out on the quiet time. But if you measure training over a long period of time and feel as if the pros outweigh the cons of training with someone, then why not?
Remember to do what works for you.
Bring A Friend To Your Personal Training Session
Over the next month, we are encouraging our clients to bring a friend to their personal training sessions. Click here if you would like to bring a friend along. Your friend can either watch you train, train alongside you or train solo – whatever they prefer!
