What are your thoughts on training partners? A necessity? A distraction?
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What are your thoughts on training partners? A necessity? A distraction?
When i was at uni, i trained with the same guy every day for 3 years - and it was very productive. We had the same goals, and we became responsible for each other, chasing up about meals etc. In the gym it helps to have a spotter who's always around, brings up the intensity, etc. But I don't think we said a word to each other between sets, both just listening to music, and workouts about 2 hours long.
Since then I've trained with several people, on and off, including my girlfriend for a time, and none of them were 'good' - shows up in a bad mood, bad attitude, wants to chat all the time, late, wants to finish early, the list goes on. I found myself looking forward to training alone, because i felt my workouts were a lot better.
It's not necessarily a reflection on any of the people i trained with -- they're not malicious or whatever - just didn't work well together. I think a good training partner is someone who's goals and style aligns with yours, which is often hard to find. (much like in life in general, i guess)
tldr; a good training partner is gold - a bad one is wasting your time (and theirs).
I dont think they are a necessity but a good training partner can make a lot of difference. It can go either way. I usually train alone (joys of strongman in a small town) but have a friend that I occasionally do event training with. I do find myself more confident in some heavy lifts (like bench) if I have a good spotter there, even though I have safeties in place anyways. And while neither of us are super vocal we do push each other in our training. So I can go either way myself.
Though since I train mostly at the school I teach at I have to be careful who I train with and how many people, for liability reasons.
I sweat I remember a old article somewhere that was written about how to be a good training partner and things to look for in one.
Alone. Haven’t had a partner in a long time. Finding someone with the same goals and work ethic is difficult. Certainly don’t want to spend half my time chit chatting.
LOVE training by myself. I find it much more effective. Focus more and push harder. Not to mention I NEED TO DO WHAT I NEED TO DO in the gym as far as exercise selection.
Thanks gentlemen!
To me the perfect scenario is training in a group of 3. It's funny as Charles Poliquin specifically made the same point, but this is the best way to keep on a perfect tempo in the workouts so you rest the right amount between sets and keep pushing.
I'd rather train by myself than with a crappy training partner though...
Mostly alone. There’s a powerlifting “team” lately at my gym, but they spend most of their time dicking off and worrying more about producing social media content than lifting, so I can’t really stand training with them.
I agree 110%!
Never knew that! Interesting.
Dave Tate calls them "Instalifters" more concerned with getting likes then the weights used. In a video he joked that one day how many white lights each lift gets online depends on number of likes, LOL!
Yea it gets pretty annoying...also takes them like 2 hours to get thru squats and deadlifts because there’s a dozen people fucking off, taking up 2 racks. I’m definitely a “shut the fuck up and train” type.
I hated working out with people but over the last two years, I have been working out with a guy. Don't know his last name, his families name, where he actually works...nothing really about him. But I do know that he will be at the gym at 5 and will hit it hard.
I can´t give a universal answer.
It all depends on who you´re training with.
The perfect training partner for me would be a clone of myself or someone who absolutely obeys to my orders and follows my exact routine.
I´ve had someone exactly like that for a year as well.
All I knew was his name "Markus". He was an absolute lunatic and would endure any pain and suffering in the gym. We met every day at 7:00am and beat each other up until 9:00. That year I put on 30lbs. of stage weight.
Louie Simmons says good training partners need to be motivating or they need to be irritating! And it's true, if you have a training partner that constantly irritates the shit out of you you WILL push harder lol.