We all know the importance of regular physical activity, but sometimes our motivation can get the better of us. From boredom to a lack of variety in your workout, there are many reasons why people give up on exercising early on. These reasons can make sticking to a regular regime tricky, but there is a great solution – workout with a buddy! There are many benefits to workouts with a friend, from motivation to burning more calories. For starters, you see faster progression as you’re working out more regularly, as well as an increased experimentation and knowledge about your fitness. It’s also more fun and you’ll build friendships in the process. Many people struggle to keep up with a fitness regime and it can be hard to fit exercise into a busy schedule. Doing it with someone else helps you feel responsible for your workouts as you have someone else relying on you to attend. Working out with someone helps you see results more quickly, because you’re exercising with someone who will push you to work that little bit harder.
Workout buddies help and encourage each other to try out new regimes and forms of exercise, and the collective knowledge you both have about exercise can be utilised to create an even more effective workout. Trying new things means you’re increasing your chance of achieving results and meeting your targets, helping to work different areas of your body. The friendships you’ll build in exercising with someone will be great as well. The biggest benefit of a workout buddy though is that it makes exercise more fun. If you’re planning on working out for a long time with someone, then it makes sense to formulate a plan that suits you both and works to your strengths. These include your goals, fitness level, exercise commitment and the time you can devote to it, your age and even your gender. If you have similar levels of fitness to your workout buddy, this will work out for the best in the long run. Likewise, enjoying the same types of exercise certainly helps – no-one wants to spend week after week taking part in exercises that they can’t stand. In order for workout buddies to be compatible, they need to be committed to the exercise programme in equal footing.
So how do you find a workout buddy? If you don’t fancy working out with a friend or family member, you may be able to find someone at your local fitness centre who may be interested in working out with you. People attending fitness classes of the gym are naturally going to be interested in improving their fitness, and as such may be interested in working together with you to format an effective workout strategy. But you may also find that your workout partner is right under your nose – how about asking around at work to see if anyone in your team fancies partnering up to workout with you? It doesn’t need to be a person, either. If you have a dog, why not play fetch or going for a jog with the dog of an evening? You can be as creative as your want with your workout, and exercising with someone else means you have twice the energy and ideas for creating fantastic regimes that really work. If you usually struggle to maintain regular exercise or simply find that you get too bored when exercising solo, this can be a brilliant way to combat the problem.