Plan workouts with a friend: ways to increase motivation and accountability to reach fitness goals together

There are a lot of excuses and reasons that people come up with as to why they cannot seem to stick with a routine of physical activity. One way to stay on track, focused and creative is to work out with a partner—someone who shares similar fitness goals and someone that you actually like to hang out with and have things in common with socially. Working out with a partner is super beneficial to a consistent workout schedule because of the accountability factor. You are much more likely to get up and go workout if you know that someone is waiting at the gym, park, track, stairs, or trail for you.

Life can get really busy, but, because of how essential a workout is, it should definitely be a priority. Workout out with a friend is a great way to give your body some love as well as catch up with your friend when time doesn’t always permit both. Perhaps you really like to run, but your friend likes to hike or bike. What a great way to explore new activities and challenge yourself in a new way. This is good for the body and the mind, don’t want to get bored of a workout program.

Pick out two songs each that are roughly 4-6 minutes in length. Choose these songs wisely and make them highly motivational in order to complete these exercises. Use an interval timer to make the timing easier and feel free to wear your heart rate monitor to monitor how many calories you are torching away.

Song1 Steve Aoki/Wynter Gordon- Ladi Dadi: 30 seconds jumping jacks, 30 seconds hops squats, 30 second plank, rest 30 seconds

Song2 Pretty Lights- Kanye West All Of The Lights Remix: 30 seconds mountain climbers, 30 seconds push-ups, 30 seconds high knees, rest 30 seconds

Song3 B.o.B. ft. Lil Wayne- Strange Clouds : 20 jump lunges (each leg), 20 burpees, rest 15 seconds

Song4 Usher- Lemme See (feat. Rick Ross): 20 seconds of bicycle crunches, 10 seconds rest (aka Tabata interval)

Here are a few exercises to do with a partner:

1. Plank with hand slap

*You can even have a thumb war with your partner in a plank and the loser has to do push-ups!

2. Resistance band running pull

3. Wheel barrow

A workout partner that is closer to your fitness level and shares similar fitness goals can be of benefit especially if you have a competitive edge. My really good friend, who I run, swim and workout with a couple times a week, and I always have different competitions and contests in order to test our own improvement and, of course, see who actually wins between the two of us. Faster mile, push-up contest, plank contest, stair race and sand sprint races are something that we do extremely often. If things get busy, and one of us is unable to make it to work out, we can record our runs, count our pushups and time our planks and send them to each other to compare, compete and congratulate.

Lack of motivation, lack of creativity and lack of accountability can hinder a workout program, and having a workout partner can eliminate all three of those excuses.  Find a friend that wants to get fit together and start making a plan of action so that being active can be a part of who you are.

Need more motivation? Find out more about the best ways to make fitness fun!

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