When it comes to exercising, we all understand and realize the importance yet we constantly find an obstacle blocking our way from achieving our goals. Whether it’s dropping off kids at extracurriculars, work, friends, or other life goals, taking the time out of our days to work on our fitness always remains elusive. This isn’t surprising as a study based in the U.S by Bodybuilding.com discovered that 73% of people surveyed who set fitness goals as part of their New Year’s resolution gave up on their aspirations before achieving them. But why?
Why you Aren’t Achieving Your Fitness Goals and How to Improve
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Not Prepared/Organized in Advance: While it’s good to be flexible in your schedule, it’s also important to stick to a certain regime to help your body and brain adapt to the new conditions. Having a complete schedule detailing the type of workouts you plan to do and their duration is crucial to prevent you from skipping one, two and eventually all your workouts.
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Diets and Hydration: Part of people’s fitness regimes often involve going on a diet but it’s important to recognize that food doesn’t merely increase your weight but gives you energy for the day. Have an energy-rich diet that helps you pull through those tough workouts, kale and celery shakes just won’t cut it. Similarly, try to regularly drink water to keep yourself hydrated so you stay at your most productive and energized self.
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Overexertion: As with all things, there will always be such a thing as ‘too much’. The process of building muscle involves breaking down your muscle tissues before resting and allowing them to repair themselves. Overexerting yourself will only lead to a further breakdown of your muscle tissues which will simply take them longer to recover. If your goal is losing fat then overexertion becomes an issue by making you feel starved for energy and having your body crave more fatty foods.
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Lack of Motivation: When embarking on a new regime, it’s important to have a source of motivation from which you can pull energy from when you need it most. This might be building muscle, losing weight, or simply living a healthier life, whatever it is it’s an uphill battle that you have to fight to win. However, motivation is far easier to find when you know you aren’t alone.
The Benefits of Exercising With A Partner
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Never Giving Up: We all know the trait that spouses have of nagging each other yet when it comes to working out, this can work out as a positive. The data shows that people perform better when working out with a spouse. A study from Kansas State University discovered that participant’s workout time and intensity increased by 200% percent!
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Keeping You in Line: When you work out for yourself, you need to draw the motivation to keep going from within yourself. With a spouse however, both of you support each other equally. That’s why couples working out together were twice as likely to experience weight loss compared to their single counterparts.
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Trying Out Something New: You and your spouse are similar in many ways but in other ways, quite different. That’s why working out with a partner can bring a different flavour to your workout. Assume your wife or husband enjoys lower body workouts while you prefer upper body. You both can push each other to excel in other fields to give you a more well rounded physique.
A Look at The Best Exercises to Do Together
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Wall Sits: A great exercise that doesn’t require any equipment is the wall sit. A gruelling contest between your back and legs versus gravity. What could be more fun than that? The answer, anything. However, with a partner, the exercise becomes mutual. Start by sitting down with your backs against each other, arms wrapped with each other and legs bent. Then push into each other's backs at the same time to raise yourselves into a squat position. This is to ensure neither one gives up on the other since as soon as you loosen your weight, you both fall down.
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Tricep Dips Included Wall Sit: Maybe you want something new with your wall sitting routine. In that case, perform a wall sit and have your partner use your knees as support from tricep dips. For tricep dips, put your palms flat onto the person’s knees facing forward. Hold your back and legs straight to ensure you maximize your tricep workout.
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Plank and Reach: Holding plank isn’t the most exciting activity so why not spice it up? Hold plank opposite from each other, then lift your opposite arms off the ground and give each other a high five before putting the arm back down and alternating. You can add in a count to go all the way to 10, 100, 1000 or even more!
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The Wheelbarrow: For an exercise that you can’t do alone, try out the wheelbarrow. Have one partner standing upright while the other one bends down to go into plank position. Then have the standing partner grab the legs of the other and hold them against their hips while in a squatting position while the other partner either holds a plank position or performs pushups.
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Boxing: Maybe you’re tired of conventional workouts and just want to vent. Boxing is the perfect way to ease up and relax. Have one person do the punching and the other hold out the targets. If you have pads, then you can practice any number of punches and kicks to improve your martial arts.
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Passing Sit-up: If plain old sit ups don’t have you interested, try this! Have one partner in an upright or squat position holding the other partner’s legs against their hips. The other partner will then hang down and try to pull themselves up. If this is too difficult, you may hold your partner’s legs while sitting down, just make sure to keep your back straight!
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Lying Leg Throw Down: Have one partner stand upright while the other lies stomach up with their arms grabbing into the other partner’s calves. Then proceed to do a leg raise to try and reach your partner. Your partner’s objective is to push your legs back down towards the floor.
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Band Jump: If you want to concentrate on your core, this is a workout you can’t miss. You’ll need a piece of exercise equipment known as a resistance band. Have one partner put it around their waist and have the other hold it and you from behind. Then proceed to try and jump out as far forward as possible while landing in a squat position.
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Squat and Throw: If you have a medicine ball laying around, great news! Both you and your partner can simultaneously do squats while facing each other and pass each other the medicine ball. The partner throws the ball when standing up and the other catches it as they are sitting back down.
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Plank and Jump: For the perfect varied exercise, try out the plank and jump. Have one partner lay down in a plank position. The other partner meanwhile will stand adjacent to their partner’s legs and proceed to jump over them laterally (i.e. facing forward but jumping sideways) and landing in a squatting position.
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