Workout Group!

Here's a great pic of my workout buddies at ACAC.  I love that we all have matched our shirts to our shoes without even planning on it.  Chad took us through a killer leg workout that was great. It is awesome to have workout partners not only for the accountability, but also for pushing you.  Its great to have someone to have friendly competition with or to cheer each other on.

Tips for finding a great workout buddy:

1. You'll probably want to find a partner who is about the same fitness level as you are. Trying to keep up with someone who is in significantly better condition, or who is significantly stronger can be dangerous unless you pay close attention to your body.  Don't try to keep up with them just because you don't want to look like a wuss or weakling. If they are a good partner, they'll understand, and while you'll want to perform better, you never want to risk injury. So stay at your pace and as you improve, you'll see that gap closing!

2.  Similarly, it helps if you have a similar fitness goal.  That's not to say it won't work if you don't, but you'll have to improvise a bit more and the workouts wont be quite the same for each person.  It can be fun, however, to team up with someone new and learn some new and different exercises you might not currently be doing.  Then you can learn how to do them correctly, what they are for, and consider adding them in to your own workouts.

3. Choose someone who will show up.  Accountability is a huge part of the workout partner benefit so make sure getting a workout in is important to both of you.  You might have slightly separate goals, and thats ok, but make sure getting in the door is a priority.

4.  Find someone you enjoy hanging out with outside the gym too.  Chances are you'll enjoy being around each other and will see each other elsewhere.  This (a) ensures accountability for scheduling gym time and making healthy lifestyle choices when you aren't hitting the weights and (b) allows for chit chat and catching up somewhere other than the gym.  You don't want to undermine your workout because you are chatting about the best ways to clean your baseboards...save it for later.