Making the most of your training partner

Staying positive and staying motivated is vital whether your training is based around running or the gym, whether it is for health and fitness or for an event such as a 5K, marathon or triathlon.

People who share their experiences with an online training partner are more likely to succeed, enjoy their training and be dedicated. This is because if you have a training partner exercise programs are easier to stick to, someone encourages you to do your training and you benefit from their support each step of the way.

The key to the Sports fitness e-partner scheme is to find someone who shares the same kind of attitude to training as you. This may be a common goal or motivation for training whether that is a 5K, weight loss, a marathon or to de-stress. It may be that your personalities just hit it off. You could even decide to target the same race and run it together.

But if you are sharing experiences by email you do not have to be exercising at the same level, at the same time and in the same place. With an online exercise partner you have the full flexibility to train when you want, at the level you want, doing the exercise you want but you still enjoy many of the benefits of having a training partner.

This means a beginner can choose to get encouragement from someone with more experience or to choose someone else taking their first steps.

If you can find an exercise partner in your area you can meet up – whether that is to train or for a coffee to talk face-to-face about how you are getting on.

Feeling you are accountable to someone who will ask you how you are getting on is a great motivator. Being able to help someone else and encourage them towards their goal also boosts your confidence. And if you do go through a tough time an online training partner will encourage you to pick yourself up and carry on rather than feeling low and possibly quitting.

Many women’s weight loss groups work on a similar principle – sharing the experience and giving support leads to a far higher success rate and increases the enjoyment of the women who join a group rather than battling it out on their own.

But it is certainly not just women who benefit. Male or female having someone to help you on your way and knowing that you are doing the same for them is a great benefit. That’s why people with training partners enjoy exercise more, are fitter, healthier and more consistent in their training.

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