The Pros and Cons of
Having a Workout Partner

  When it comes to performing your workouts, there are always to two sides of the coin...

  Some would say it's a good motivator; others feel that it would interfere with your own pacing. Let's examine the factors involved in working out with a partner and decide for yourself if you need one or not:

• Having someone run with you on chilly mornings or go through the circuits is always welcome, especially if it takes a lot to make you leave the house.
  
  
• Researchers found that a whopping 50% of people who start exercising drop out of their programs within 3-6 months. When you're exercising with someone, you're less likely to drop out of a regimen.
  
  
• You and your partner, especially if you're working almost the same programs, would benefit from healthy competition. One's progress would hopefully inspire the other to exert a little more effort to catch up.
  
  
• If your partner happens to be your significant other, exercising together is a great time for bonding and spending time in each other's company, especially if you're both leading hectic lives.
  
  
• Partners can assist you in selecting the proper weights, suggesting workout variations, and providing motivation while you're on your last few legs.
  
  
• Couples working out at the same time find being fit especially sexy and can
  

  thus give their sex lives a workout, too. Exercise allows you to experience physical as well as emotional intimacy and when you feel good about your bodies, you'll be surprised at how your passion can get fired up.

  
  
• If you're working out with someone you're living with, you'll also have more harmony in the kitchen in terms of what to eat because of an increased health awareness in each one.
  

• Healthy competition can turn into a "fitness feud". This happens when one tries so hard to out-run, out-ride, or out-lift her partner. What should be a relaxing activity, then, becomes a highly stressful preoccupation.
  
  
• You're sometimes forced to extend sessions to another hour or so of chatting or snacking. This isn't really a bad thing, but it might create an awkwardness in the future, especially if one of you really doesn't have that much time to spend.
• As much as having an exercise mate can be motivating, it can also drag you down if your partner isn't as focused as you are. It can be quite exhausting to always be the one to give the push!
  
  
• Exercise schedules could sometimes go awry when one or the other isn't available.
  

  Whether you decide on exercising with a partner or going solo, make sure you enjoy the experience. Workouts can do wonders for your physical, emotional, social, and mental well-being, so give it as much importance as you would any  worthwhile endeavor.