Training partners

[bluestreak]

When should you try to train with others and when should you be by yourself?

How would you define a good training partner?

I've debated the benefits of training with another person. There are lots of positives, especially if you train with someone more experienced. There are also many negative aspects, such as becoming dependent on having another person there.

I'm curious to hear the opinion and experiences of lifters here.

[LiftingNerd]

I would always rather lift with a training partner. Someone who shows up everyday to train, and they hold you accountable to do the same. These people are hard to come by though, as most people view going to the gym to be more of a social occasion and just become training deterrents.

[muddy]

I prefer a partner as well. In addition to what LN says, I find a partner is helpful to constantly provide feedback on form and give opinions on your training that made be harder to come by otherwise. Also, I find having a partner is extra motivation to push that little bit harder. Should you be able to find that motivation without a partner? *shrug* Maybe. And I usually would. But for off days, I prefer that dependable extra kick in the arse.

I don't understand the dependency assertion about a partner. Given sometimes I train without a partner, that just doesn't seem to hold water to me.

[summerss]

In my experience you have to be picky to find a good training partner. Half the people at my local gym are pulley pushers and bodybuilders rather than weightlifters. Some of these people have tried to get me to train their way and become their training partners, but it simply isn't worth sacrificing any sort of progress over. I'm also not an advocate of doing the same routine week after week and it will be hard to find a training partner who wants to do the same thing I do all the time. For these reasons, I train alone.

[sean]

Working with a training partner who has the same mindset and goals as you do would be pretty cool. At least, I would assume so, since I've yet to find that kind of person.

[Jim Slade]

I've had some great training partners over the years, but people move on or even just stop lifting. I can still remember some workouts from nearly twenty years ago, I trained with a commonwealth shot putter at the time and we were doing 20 ton workouts. We would stagger out of the gym straight to the local chippy and then the pub, but we were both showing a full set of abs no matter what we ate or drank.

[mjh]

I'm working out with one of my best friends. We have a very similar outlook on life and lifting, and we're just competitive enough. I agree with Sean, unless you have someone who is pretty much inline with you as far as goals and stuff goes, you're probably better off not bothering.

It helps that Jason and I are both doing sl5x5, so we can spot each other, and compare notes on the lifts. Even if one of us is doing A and the other B, we can always hit the squats together.

Possibly the best thing is the extra bit of incentive you have to hit the gym. If I want to skip a workout, I have to tell Jason, and it has happened that I have gone for the workout so I don't have to send a cop-out text to Jason. I'll call Jason out if he gives me a lame excuse, and I'm sure he'll return the favour.

Also, Jason is quite a bit stronger than me, so I hope that gives me that little bit more determination to push hard and get an extra pull-up or push-up.

[killerdude494949]

I train alone. Not trying to sound arrogant, but all people that workout that I know are pussies or brainwashed and will never dare do a squat, deadlift, or chin up. No one would dare get a workout done in 30 minutes crammed with heavy squats, deadlifts, cleans, presses, and pulls. Let alone not isolate muscles. While my friends continue with 2 hour workouts and useless isos, im busy fighting the weights and growing out my skin.

[Zendefone]

Sometimes if i go alone(normally i go with my bro) and when i need a spotter for squats or anything and i try to find people sharing with me. And i always tell them not to help me unless i really can't finish the rep. And almost 75% of the time, they will touch the damn bar when the bar move slightly slowly and i'm 100% sure i can finish that rep.

It drives me crazy sometimes especially you're doing a PR lift.

[katarina]

I agree with killerdude and zendefone. I also train alone and am the only one in the gym to squat, deadlift and overhead press. As a woman, for me it is even more difficult to find a training partner, I have a feeling the guys don´t want to interfere with me. They help, though, when asked on bench press and squats, but must always touch the bar, even just with a finger. Then they swear it was me who finished all the reps, LOL! But true, a training partner with the same mindset can be a tremendous help and motivation!

[Mehdi]

Trained with many guys over the year. My first training partner was the best one, apart from him I can remember 2 who also had the mindset of
a) never missing workouts
b) pushing you to lift more although you feel like crap/tired
c) shutting up when they feel like crap, so that you don't get any bad ideas
d) who are stronger than you thus show what's possible
etc

I trained with a guy once. He was 30kg heavier than me + on roids, but I was squatting 2x as much as him. Was introducing him to squats upon his request. Doing heavy sets across, breathing heavy & grunting. Guy says "dude stop". I was like "wtf?". Never trained with him again, I didn't want to and he didn't reach out neither.

If you got the right kind of training partner, go for it. Otherwise alone is better, builds character.

[Dada]

I don't like training with others so much these days. Mainly because I don't know anyone with similar goals or that trains in a similar way. That plus I usually train at home late at night when the kids are asleep, so the less people to make noise the better.

Although sometimes I do train a the gym once in a while. Most of the people are doing their own thing there and a lot are using some machines. Once in a while I'll see someone lifting some serious weight on the bench but then they get up and leave. Almost never see anyone doing squats, deadlifts, or powercleans. There's one guy who I work with that goes to that gym all the time. But all he does is the old bench and curl thing so forget it. But I do run with him a few times a week usually as part of our PT for the army. The PT sessions are the only times I usually train with other people but it's a totally different type of training and mostly running.

When I was in high school and college I had the best training partners. In high school I was on the football team and wrestling team. So I trained with my teamates who all had similar goals. In college I worked at the gym and trained with the football players which was great. It was good because some of the guys were stronger than me but I was stronger than some of them and we all pushed each other.

During my last deployment I had two guys that usually trained with me. Both of them were weaker than me but in a way it was still beneficial to me to train with them. That is because I couldn't miss a day since they were relying on me to train them and also because I had to work hard and train properly to set the example. It was also motivating to see how much they progressed during that year.

[OneTake]

I had always trained alone until about 4 or 5 months ago. My training partner doesn't always have the same schedule and doesn't follow SL5x5 at all as he mainly works up to heavy singles and doubles (he's an amateur powerlifter). He also rarely stays as late as I do. This aside, whenever he's there for my squats I tend to push out more reps on that 5th set than I ever would if I were alone.

Lately, we've had conflicting schedules, so I'm back to lifting alone. I enjoy it especially if I've got some epic music to listen to. It's just me and the iron.

[StevieB]

A good training partner can have a synergistic effect on your training and gains, so if you can find someone that you get on with and brings more to the table than they take away then its a definite advantage.

I train with my dad once a week, and Its always mt heaviest session and the one I make most gains.
He was a powerlifter so its obvious why this is beneficial. But If you can find someone that is like-minded and dedicated, then the competition alone will drive you on.
Also, its easier to miss a session if you only answer to yourself.

[Barry06GT]

My training partner is also my wife, and we do motivate each other.

On the plus side, we can compliment each other and spot each other for form. This is mostly good, even the bad like when I complete a set of squats and she says something nice like "honey, four of your reps were not to parallel." Great!

The only pain in the a** is that I am 5'6 and she is 4'9 so when we do StrongLifts 5x5 workout B in the power cage, I have to unload the bar, drop the bar onto the safety bars, change the height setting, replace the bar on the J-hooks, and add the plates - for EVERY set - 5 for her and 5 for me - X2 for squat and OHP. There is also a discrepency in the weights, so every set we pull the 35s or 45s off and replace them with 10s and 5s...forced rest between reps.

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