Working Out With Your Partner
So, you want to work out with your partner (or a friend)?
Before we go there, I want to start at the beginning. My beginning. With Teddy.
Before Teddy and I started dating, he was a die-hard P90X-er. It was his gateway into becoming a workout aficionado. After a couple months of pestering by yours truly, I finally got Teddy to come to his first group fitness class.
Many moons ago, I taught a Friday evening group class. For years. It was super high energy and so much fun. I just knew Teddy was going to love it.
Teddy didn’t love it.
In fact, he didn’t even like it.
Several weeks later, he tried again (because #younglove), but he was so overwhelmed and felt super out of place.
I wanted it so badly for him, so much so that I forgot to really hold space for him and trust his ability to find the type of movement that he needed (not what I thought he needed or would want if he just tried hard enough or went for long enough).
And he really did try. He came to my classes almost every week and started becoming a regular at the gyms I was training at.
A couple years ago, we stopped going to classes and started working out together. Everything I was learning, he wanted to tag along with me! For the last two years, we’ve been doing the TL Method side by side, and now we have been training via my strength programs in Intro to Barbells.
He's getting stronger (and I’m getting stronger) and we go to the gym together on average four times every week. We both look forward to it and will hardly ever go independently of one another. We push each other!
Now, that guy (Teddy) who hated working out now loves the process.
The moral of the story is that it wasn’t about what I thought he wanted. It’s about what he wanted, which took some discovery of what he didn’t want.
It’s also about the fact that when we found a pattern together that really felt good for both of us, it has had so many other positive effects on our relationship.
We are together. A lot. Especially because both of us work from home. But going to the gym together is the one part of our day where we can let go of the outside world for a bit. We both push each other, and that translates into other areas of our life.
If you’re feeling a tinge of “meh” because you love working out and your partner does not, I want you to remember Teddy. And my challenge is to encourage your partner to vocalize what kind of movement or fitness does feel good to them. If the answer is nothing, then maybe you can be an encourager to take daily walks together or go check out some nature walks near you or get a gym membership where you start really small.
If you’re feeling a tinge of “meh” because you are single (and thriving), I want to remind you that you abso-friggen-lutely do not need a romantic partner to have a workout partner. In fact, before Teddy, I’ve had some amazing non-platonic workout buddies.
Here's some reasons to workout with someone else:
They hold you accountable. (Teddy and I have the workouts on our calendars and we rarely let anything take up that pocket of our time; sometimes we’ll adjust the time, but we’ll rarely take it off our calendars entirely)
Motivation. (I’ve proven to myself many a time that it’s way easier to push myself to lift heavier when someone is watching)
It’s just more fun! (Don’t forget to laugh)
f you’re feeling the partner workout love, here's a quick 16-minute partner workout (bodyweight outside!)
Partner leg drop
Pushup hand clap
Split hop hand tap
Forerarm plank push pull
Do 4 x :40 and rest for :20 in between each set.
Let me know how it goes!
If you are loving these outfits, they are from Beyond Yoga (one of my favorite brands!) and you can use my code TARALAFERRARA15 for a discount!