Finding the best buddy

A lot of us need help with accountability.  We are more than happy to flake on ourselves when we don’t feel like getting up in the morning to work out or when we’re tired on the way home from work and we skip the gym to go to the couch instead.  One way to short-circuit that tendency is to buddy up.  We don’t like to flake on our friends.  However, it is important to choose the right friend to be a workout buddy.  Here are some things to consider:

 

Is my friend a morning person or an evening person?  Both kinds of friends are great, but planning a morning workout with an evening person is not likely to be successful.  (Note:  we need to check what time works best for US, too!)

 

Is my friend overbooked?  Often late?  Prone to emergencies?  If so, this friend might not be the best workout partner.  We want someone as committed or slightly more committed to showing up as we are to make this work.

 

Is my friend at about the same fitness level I am?  Working out with a friend who is a lot less fit than we are can be fun and social, but maybe not the most effective workout unless, say, we are on neighboring treadmills going at our own appropriate paces.  Similarly, trying to keep up with a friend who is a lot more fit than we are can be discouraging and in extreme cases dangerous.

 

Is my friend interested in my success (and am I interested in theirs?)?  We probably don’t want to work out with that friend who always has to one-up us or who puts us down.  We may want a bit of (friendly) competition, but only a bit; when it gets to be about winning, we may lose sight of our real goals.  We want to choose the friend who is encouraging and who appreciates our encouragement.

 

Is my friend too chatty?  Of course we want to chat while we work out with our friend, but we need to make sure we’re still doing the workout.

 

Go play.