Just realized my gym buddy was making me weaker not stronger

Been lifting at Planet Fitness for 3 years with the same guy and last week I went solo for the first time. I added 25 pounds to my bench press without him talking my ear off between sets. Has anyone else seen better progress ditching their workout partner?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_roberts20h ago

Man, I feel this so hard. My old gym partner was basically my hype man but in the worst way. He'd spend five minutes telling me how "crazy" my form looked before every set, which just made me nervous and jittery. I finally went solo and realized I could actually focus on my lifts instead of worrying about what he thought. It was like I had been lifting with a friendly ghost that kept messing with my weights. Now I just nod at people and do my reps, and my bench went up 30 pounds in a month. Guess I was the problem all along, or at least he was the distraction.

juliahall1d ago

My old gym buddy used to insist on this elaborate warmup routine that took like 20 minutes... turns out he just wanted to chat about his fantasy football team the whole time. Switched to just doing some light sets and a few stretches, cut my workout time by almost half. Funny how you don't realize someone is holding you back until they're gone.

derek_ramirez17h ago

Honestly though @juliahall, I think having a chatty gym buddy actually helped me. I used to rush through everything and skip warmups, but my old partner forced me to slow down and I ended up way less injured. Different strokes I guess. And @joseph_roberts, maybe your guy just didn't know how to hype you up the right way, some people need that pushback to stay focused.