Buddy Workout by Onica Sinclair
My gym is my place. I like to go in, put my Beats on, wave at a few people, then get to business, but sometimes, a change is welcome. This change for me comes when my amazing friend Brittany, affectionately known as a my “gym bae”, and I get the chance to work out together. For the most part, our schedules are backwards. I work out during the day and she works out in the evening, but on those lucky Saturday morning when we get to go in, take the Beats off, and challenge each other to a hard workout, it’s literally friendship and support at its best.
When you have a someone to do buddy workouts with, you are less likely to decide not to head into the gym at the last minute. You have someone waiting there for you. You have someone who is just as passionate (or in need of motivation) as you are that needs you. These buddy workouts have proven to be extremely successful when it comes to motivation and challenge. Somedays we’ll do cardio, others we’ll do weights. Core is the best though!
For our cardio, we do alternating sled pushes or race each other. We pile some weight on each sled and head to the turf. Some days we go side by side, challenging each other. Other days, we alternate pushes and take advantage of the rest time while the other is pushing. Sledding not your thing, how about rowing and skiing? Brittany and I have a good time pushing each other doing 500m reps on the rower, then 500m on the skier. Two rowers next to two skiers in front of two determined women, that sounds like a great workout to me!
Lifting together can also be fun. “How much weight are you putting on?” “Well, how much are you putting on?” We know each other’s limits, but we also know each other’s capabilities and our main goal is support to each other safely to get the maximum muscle growth. We set up our squat racks right next to each other and just go! It’s nice to have someone going toe to toe with you or encouraging you when it comes to that last rep.
We also are both active on Instagram so we borrow a lot of moves from people we follow or people that send me specific challenges or workouts. We’ll compare the different moves and determine which work best for our session or which one we’d like to try. It’s always nice to try something new with someone you know and trust. This is actually how we find many of our core moves. There is an endless number of things you and a buddy can do with a heavy medicine ball or stability ball. Tosses, passes, rotations…you name it, you and a buddy can get a great core workout in doing it.
Great people lift each other up and encourage one another. That should be part of your “lifting” while at the gym. The other day I was telling Brittany that my sister will be moving from Texas to West Virginia this summer and Brittany had the best piece of advice (as she usually does!), “Tell her to join a gym as soon as she gets there and try to sign up for personal training individual sessions or buddy sessions.” You want to surround yourself with people that share the same passion so why not make your first new friend a personal trainer or a buddy on your training team?
All in all, buddy workouts can a be extremely beneficial. You challenge yourself and each other. You hold each other accountable. You motivate one another. Be careful though, because if one woman alone can make a difference, two motivated ones together can rock the world!
