Back at University our coach used to pair up the athletes for weights workouts. Back then I considered it a good idea - it provided motivation and improved what the psychobabble-ists call adherence.
These days I do the majority of my sessions alone and regard training partners as a distinctly negative influence. Sports people in general can be frighteningly competitive animals. In my case this would often result in ‘ego’ wars in the gym. I lacked the discipline to keep to my program and would always have to show ‘What I could do’. This had an additional detrimental effect - I was always working with maximum arousal so the CNS stress was enormous. I came to depend on this stimulus and my training loads would fluctuate widely. Predictably I left my best lifting in the training room.
I’ve found that experienced weight trainers develop a precise internal clock for inter set recovery. However, seldom do two lifters’ clocks synchronise so when training with a partner someone’s recovery is always compromised. I know top lifters who chat away between sets but for someone as sensitive as myself this is disastrous. My advice? Leave the update on your new bird, your review of the recent Terminator film and of your new car for the pub – we’re here to train.
Two lifters rarely have the same strength on any given lift or if they do identical load/rep pyramids. So again one or both’s session is often compromised – too heavy or too light. Of course loads can be changed after each set but I consider this a further unnecessary distraction…
In my track club we are all very close and everyone knows how to spot well so the two times a week we lift in the same gyn when we’re all together anyone spots anyone in any particular lift, but the rests get really screwed up for everyone.
Then 3 times a week I go to the gym with only a girl from my club and sometimes a kid, I think this pairing is optimal from what I’ve seen, placing a person with experience with people without experience. It really helps me keep a dead focus on form and technique as I’m taking care of the kids and their form as they learn. With so few people rest periods don’t get messed up either, so this is really the way I like to lift as of late. Lifting alone is too hard if you’re trying to make substantial progress, I’ll lift around 20kg. max less alone then with someone spotting me, despite the fact that the people spotting me don’t help me at all (lol they wouldn’t be able to help me much anyway since they are comparably weak to the weights I’m doing). Hmmm. I’m not sure I’m getting to any point, I guess I’m just sharing what I’ve experienced. I would agree that training one on one with a training partner of similar strength is detrimental, it’s very difficult to not get competitive - ie if your partner is ready to go heavier in x exercise there is no way you’re not going to go heavier too and vice versa. Maybe for experienced athletes the ideal paring is male-female, like that there will be no competition. Once in a while paring an experienced athlete with a newbie is also beneficial in my opinion, you’ll always see new things, new mistakes and will come out with a sharper view of everything.
Originally posted by aln
Then 3 times a week I go to the gym with only a girl from my club and sometimes a kid, I think this pairing is optimal from what I’ve seen, placing a person with experience with people without experience.
i would agree with this because usually you dont have to lift too much to impress the female training partner. (no offence meant there at all- dont get it twisted)
i think most track athletes in general like to weight tain alone because we usually train alone on the track because of incompetant or lack of coaching/program.
So i lift alone as well.
I think it depends on the athlete. Many athletes train too hard or are too competitive when training with others.
But there are also very good (or perhaps talented is more accurate) athletes who need to be pushed to some extent to learn their limits and get better. Sometimes undertraining will cause plateaus just as overtraining can hurt a program.
Athletes need to be educated as to how to train. But many need supervision or motivation.
I lift better when others are around. I’m the say way when sprinting. An audience always brings the best out of me. A training partner in the weight room helps me push for more. plus gives a spot. While running though I’d rather work on my own. Competition in practice is not a great thing. atleast that’s the way i feel.
What do you think about training with the finish lynxx system alone, also where’s the link of you doing starts with this thing on finishlyxx homepage. Anyways decided not to come back home till august. When are you running Ill be there to hold blocks? I heard smyrldog needs a lifting partner?
training with the finishlynx alone was fine. i actually liked it a lot more. I was able to alter my hand position on the starting line, block placement from the line, foot angles and distance to determine the proper settings. By doing so i was able to determine the best possible setting. When training with my team the system was used more as a toy to see who got the best results. Some kids could reac in .15 but where 12.2 100m runners, so what was the point. It looks like my article on the subject is no longer on the finish lynx site. I’ll have to find it.
I LOVE training alone. Other people always distract me and screw up rests, etc. (as already mentioned, I know). I love being out there and just flying alone because I go into every race thinking I am the only one out there (metaphorically speaking) and I want to practice the same way.
A lot of times, I notice that people will see you training alone and be envious that they don’t have the willpower or determination to do it themselves and then try to distract you from your A game and that pisses me off.
I just like being alone because I feel like I’m getting MY workout, not someone elses.
I train with my girlfriend! Both of us are track atheletes and I agree with the guy above, there is no competition involved!
We motivate each other well and the spot is also a benefit. Ok ok, a little competition is involved. We are both relatively close in leg strength and today we maxed out on leg press, well needless to say I won by 90lbs and she was pretty upset and didnt talk to me for a second. So word of advice fellas, sometimes you need to let the female win :O) But seriously, it helps to have someone around that will push you to that next level.
with a partener my rest periods always get shortened.
i love to lift by myself.
since i work at th gym i train at it’s hard to stay 100% in the zone someone always asks me a question about something.
i find having good looking girls in the gym is always a bonus on days i go heavy! however i have to hold myself back from throwing in some arm work on those days, also to leave to get my post work out shake in rather than flirting.
on days i have to hold back and big guys are in the gym that takes a lot of self control to ‘stick to the plan’ i always want to out lift them.
Originally posted by 400Stud
[b]I LOVE training alone. Other people always distract me and screw up rests, etc. (as already mentioned, I know). I love being out there and just flying alone because I go into every race thinking I am the only one out there (metaphorically speaking) and I want to practice the same way.
A lot of times, I notice that people will see you training alone and be envious that they don’t have the willpower or determination to do it themselves and then try to distract you from your A game and that pisses me off.
I just like being alone because I feel like I’m getting MY workout, not someone elses. [/b]
I agree with you totally there. It’s hard to run at a disciplined pace when some idiot wants to race, even when you’re trying to do an 800m warm-up.
I also agree that people do get jealous of your will power and determination. But for me, they know better than to try to distract me… I’m not the type of brotha they wanna bang with…
I’m too nice to people. I am very friendly and outgoing when someone talks to me, so it makes it even harder. My thing is that when I talk to someone, my breaks actually get longer. I have taken 10min rest btw 40s because of people.
I don’t go around looking for fights, but if people keep “blowing my buzz” in a sense (no I don’t do that), than someone is bound to get hurt.
People always complained about Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis being too aloof. But when you’re too nice and amicable, some people WILL take advantage of that -call it human nature.