I have been working out for almost three decades now, and there have been two occasions when I have experienced great gains:
- When I trained under a personal trainer, namely Kodin
- When I trained hard to be a coach for boot camp
Now I have discovered a third – buddy training!
An acquaintance of mine asked if I could work out with him. He would help pay for the gym membership (to ease logistics and scheduling, since I already have membership with another gym), and I would work out with him and hopefully he would get some fat loss and muscle gains.
Due to the pandemic, I was needing a change in schedule and ‘scenery’, so I agreed to the arrangement. He has seen some muscle gain, and I have definitely experienced continued growth as well!
Upon reflection, the reasons for this is:
- Motivation – fitness is one of my passions, and when I see him slacking (the mind always gives up before the body does), I have to work even harder to show him it can be done. So I sometimes have to work out harder than I usually would do when workout out alone.
- Change of schedule – after a period of time (which depends on your own body), the body thirsts for change, even a change in schedule. Our arrangement requires me to wake up much earlier on some days and train in a different gym.
- Different bodies – because his weaknesses are not mine, I sometimes end up doing exercises I don’t usually do, which also creates a change that my body requires.
Of course, there may be other factors, as I too have changed my nutrition a bit to accommodate more muscle gain.
So I have found that working out with a buddy has had great benefits. I can imagine buddy training, whether with someone weaker or stronger, is a very positive aspect of exercising. Do you train with someone? Tell me your experiences in the comments!