Do you have a workout buddy?

[PennyK]

.

[ChelePA]

Prior to Covid, my daughter did cycling classes with me. She will also go for long walks or a hike with me. But she prefers to exercise alone when it comes to DVDs or YouTube workouts. I miss our special time at the gym.

[Leonana]

No, unfortunately.

My daughter doesn't want to exercise, she works at Starbucks part time and feels she gets enough exercise being on her feet. I've told her that isn't enough, she should at least do some yoga, but so far, she isn't too interested.

My husband has an active job. Which is a positive in that he is extremely healthy. However, he is always too tired to do anything physical. I wish we could hike or go for walks sometimes.

[jusca]

Nope. I prefer not to. A buddy feels like baggage to me as I'm very self-motivated in a lot of my hobbies/interests. The one time I gave some friends a chance to workout together was when we all went to a gym to sign up for a membership. I was mostly doing it for the social aspect but surely enough the sign up day was the last time they went to the gym (no surprise to me. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt). I went to the gym alone a few times after that but I much prefer being at home and canceled the membership shortly afterwards.

[schoolgirl-01]

i have 2 buddies that live in other states. we have a private facebook group just for the 3 of us. we post our workouts and chat about everything that pops into our heads. we've been together online for 15 years.

[yogapam]

I teach Essentrics to a few local friends, alternate with another local friend. Right now we are on zoom but hope to get back to in person classes ASAP. I also teach a few of my oldest & dearest friends across the country on zoom and will continue to do so. I have a few local walking buddies, we live in a hiking and walking paradise in a small rural community here on the west coast. So my friends keep me active!

[Leonana]

Originally Posted by Leonana

No, unfortunately.

My daughter doesn't want to exercise, she works at Starbucks part time and feels she gets enough exercise being on her feet. I've told her that isn't enough, she should at least do some yoga, but so far, she isn't too interested.

My husband has an active job. Which is a positive in that he is extremely healthy. However, he is always too tired to do anything physical. I wish we could hike or go for walks sometimes.

I forgot, my cats join me sometimes. One of them will jump on my back when I’m on all fours!

I have to admit, I don’t really want a workout partner. But I would like to go on walks with my family.

[hch]

I've never had what I'd call one; I haven't "exercised with other people" since team sports in school.

I'm not opposed in principle to having one, but my schedule tends to be irregular enough and prone enough to disruption that I wouldn't want to subject anyone else to having to accommodate it.

Even before this thread, I'd realized anyway that I've missed having one only for practical reasons--most often, having a spotter or having someone around for safety.

Other reasons for exercising with others don't appeal to me or even repel me. For example:

- I don't find the idea of exercising with others inherently encouraging or motivating in itself. I'd have to find the right people and interactions.
- I'm disclined to use exercise as a setting for socializing. I'm not completely opposed to the idea, but I'd want to find the right people and interactions.
- I wouldn't want to exercise with someone who tends to be "competitive."
- In a recent newscast, I heard from someone who said that she likes exercising with other people because she's not tempted to slack; I'm not that kind of exerciser at all.
- Introducing "accountability" into exercise demotivates me for a number of reasons. I could write an entire separate post about what I find unappealing about "accountability."

I wouldn't reject the right person if I ever found that match, but I'm also glad that my exercise life doesn't rely on one.

[PennyK]

.

[hch]

Originally Posted by hch

- Introducing "accountability" into exercise demotivates me for a number of reasons. I could write an entire separate post about what I find unappealing about "accountability." )

Originally Posted by PennyK

I would be interested in reading this post and hearing what others think!

A short answer: in multiple ways, the idea of "exercise accountability" meshes poorly with how I think and act.

A summary of some specific points:

- My motivations are strongly intrinsic. I don't know why they are, but I'm happy with this state. I happily exercise without being monitored to see that I do, and I'm probably happier and more consistent without being so monitored. I don't think that trying to add extrinsic motivations related to a sort of accountability would be "balancing" or "reinforcing" for me, either.

- The idea of accountability usually introduces certain moralizing and quasi-moralizing elements that I'd like to keep separate from exercise, such as judgment, disappointment, disapproval (and even a corresponding approval), guilt, shame, and embarrassment. For example, I wouldn't want to be expected to make (or hear) confessions of faux-sins related to exercise.

(I don't object to all instances of accountability in the world, such as "the head of the department will be accountable to the finance committee," but those contexts are different in a number of ways. I also don't think that exercise is completely separate from ethics and morality, but their relationship is not something like "four workouts good, two workouts bad.")

- In particular for the idea of a buddy for "exercise accountability":

I already wouldn't want a "neutral" compliance monitor watching me, and I'm even more averse to the idea of having an alleged friend or buddy who's there to monitor my behavior.

Of course, I'm not saying that a friend of mine must blithely accept or approve of whatever I do, but I don't know how much enjoyment, companionship, and comfort I'd have with a nominal friend whose relationship with me included a large bit of checking that I was doing something "right" and not doing something "wrong."