 Working out with a workout partner is probably killing your gains. Ooh, hot take. Oh yeah. Hot take. Little controversial. Yeah, I know a lot of people like to work out with workout partners and I definitely think that there's sometimes value, right? Like the motivation aspect and someone to kind of check your form and all that stuff. But I think more often than not, what a workout partner tends to do is you work out either more intensely than you should, use weight that you shouldn't be using, do exercises that might not be ideal for yourself, or on the other side, you waste time, you're not doing much of a workout. You're consistent, yeah. You fall into their patterns, not your own patterns. Yeah, somebody is always losing in the relationship. Yes. Somebody's gaining, somebody's losing in the relationship. Because you're following their workout. Right, there's always, whether the partner that is showing up that's listening right now and going like, that is not true, it's benefit. Okay, well then you're the one benefiting and you're fucking your friend. Yeah. So somebody's getting fucked, like somebody is having to address, You're fired, buddy. Change or do what the other person wants or needs and it's not what's ideal for that person. It's impossible for two people to be following a workout routine and it's perfectly ideal for both of them at that time. Yeah, now I do wanna be, look, I wanna be very clear, okay? If you love working out with a workout partner, you guys match up pretty well. It helps keep you consistent. You share the same protein shakes. You've got a good, you know, kind of vibe going on. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I mean, the social aspect of exercise can be amazing. That's one of the reasons why fitness modalities at CrossFit exploded and introduced people to exercises that a lot of people weren't doing before. It was that social aspect. It's a very powerful part of fitness for a lot of people. But what you don't wanna do, and I think this is the real lesson of what I said, and I know the way I opened it was kind of get people's attention, but the real lesson is don't forget that you need to train yourself. It's your practice. You know, I remember, you know, I've taken a few yoga classes, and that's funny to say, a few. But I remember, you know, there was a really good one where the instructor said, this is your practice. So if this hurts, or if this is too hard, move into this pose or pause. And I thought that was really good because when you're in class, you can kind of get carried away. It's your journey. And I think, like, initially, especially in the beginning, accountability is something that, like, you're really seeking that, and you want to be able to find that. And so having a friend around and, like, doing it together, it sounds like a great idea. And it is, initially, we gotta evolve past that and really, like, take ownership of your own efforts going forward. Well, it does contradict a bit of what we say, right? We say that an inferior workout program done consistently is better than a superior program done inconsistently. So if you are the type of person that won't show up to the gym unless your friend is meeting you there, then continue on. You know, do your thing. Meet with your friend. Get your workout partner. But the truth is that's, you want to want to evolve beyond that. You want to evolve to a place where you don't rely on somebody else to... That's the key, by the way. You don't want to need a workout partner. You want to, it's okay to have one, but you don't want to be in a position where you need a workout partner because now your potential inconsistencies are higher. If they miss, or if something happens to them, and what would happen to me quite often, by the way, this is one of the reasons why we don't work out together. I mean, we work out together, but not together. Like, we're all working out at the same time. Together, but not together. Yes, but we're not doing the same exercises and, you know, doing set-by-set. Holding hands or anything like that. No, and... We don't do that stuff. No, only one time. But mainly, here's why. It inevitably, I compromise my technique. Or inevitably, I train a little more intensely. Or I do an exercise that may be not ideal for me because one of you guys is doing it, so I'm jumping in. And so there's a bit of a compromise there. And I can see some value in that sometimes, but I think if you get to the point where you need a workout partner and you're compromising your technique and your form and you're going harder than you should and using weight you shouldn't lift and all that kind of stuff, then you're hurting your progress. Well, and also, I just think a lot of the... A lot of times I'll see the workout partner is sort of the spotter, right? And so this is like... I used to think that was essential when lifting heavy. Like, I had to have a spotter and I had to make sure that, you know, somebody was there to be able to dig me out of a bad situation when, in fact, I actually got hurt because of my spotter. So, you know, learning the proper technique to bail and be able to, you know, get rid of weight and have the safety attachments now that they have for racks and all these kinds of things. I mean, it does play a lot more into like, you go a little bit more intense than probably, you're not really listening to your own body's signals. You're trying to push through that. Well, I'm glad you went that way because that's the person I think is that needs the drop the workout partner the most I think my younger self who you're alluding to is was your younger self, which is the kid who trains with somebody and the reason they train with somebody is because they need a spotter for every lift because every lift they're taking to failure. And we talk about that all the time about going to failure and that is not ideal for you, especially to be going to failure consistently. Maybe it intermittently makes it into a routine here and there on your workouts and there's some value to that, but training to failure almost every workout, which is what I was doing. So what I was doing always was having a workout partner and at least one or two sets, I needed my spotter. Help me with this lift. It was more weight than I should be doing or could do on my own and having them spot me through the workout and you're just, you're not applying the correct intensity and the dependence on having someone to work out there. It's kind of like a two-pronged issue. Yeah, you know what I used to hate? I used to hate this like when I was a workout and I'd have a workout buddy with me and I know that I'm gonna stop the set here. No, no, you got two more, man. It's like, go away. I don't want to hear, you know what I mean? You got it, you got it. Come on, you're almost there. Like, no, no, no, I'm doing my thing. Did you see that meme the other day that went around? I thought it was hilarious. 90% of... No, it said, you ain't got it, bro. No, what did you say? It said it shouldn't. 90% of the time when your buddy, your spotter says, you got it, you don't got it, you don't got it. You didn't get it. Yeah, I didn't get it, bro. I'm gonna go back to what you said, Justin. And I used to teach my clients this as well when I would train them, because my goal as a trainer was to set them up so that this is something they could continue lifelong. And that require me, just like we're saying right now, you don't want to be in a position where you require a workout. Oh yeah, this applies to, you know, a client and a trainer the same way. Yes, and what I would teach my clients is, how do you get the dumbbells into position? How do you dump the weight when you can't lift it anymore if that ever happens to you? Because although going to failure is too much intensity most of the time, sometimes it could be used appropriately. So you need to know how to fail if you do fail. If you fail on a squat, what does it look like? How do I get rid of the bar? If you fail on a bench, do you know how to use the safeties? Most benches now have safeties. Or there's actually a technique for failing on a bench press. If you have no safeties, and you could bring the bar down and you know how to get up with the bar, I don't recommend that for most people, but there is a way to do it. So learning these techniques is important for safety. Relying on a spot all the time, it could put you in a position where the one workout where you don't have a spotter, then you push yourself past a certain point, don't know how to bail on the weight, or don't know how to dump a squat. And now you're in a bad position. I've seen people before do that with a squat where they get to the bottom, and they're uncomfortable dumping the weight, and they start to grind, and then their back starts to round, and then they fail forward. You ever seen that where they fail forward and the weight goes forward? They turn it down. Well, that's what happened when one of my friends was helped spotting one of my heavy squats and was trying to help me, but actually kind of leaned into me and pushed me forward and literally squashed the weight on my back as I fell forward. It was awful. I can't believe I didn't blow my knees out. So yeah, I think it's one of those things. It doesn't get talked about at all really in terms of like how to bail and how to safely kind of make your way through. You know, I'm gonna put it, I'm gonna say it a little bit differently because I guarantee there's people who are like, oh my God, my workout partner's the best. I love them. This is great, whatever. Finding a good workout partner is almost as hard as finding like a great business partner or a great spouse. It's true. Like this person has to not inflate your ego but rather keep your ego in check. So if you work out with somebody and you feel your ego inflating, probably not a good idea, right? This person needs to make you feel like you could train more appropriately, need to be able to help you with your form and technique when you need help on it, need to be able to kind of match with your similar goals, help with the motivation and consistency, not the opposite. You know, I'm so consistent with my workouts that if a workout partner showed up five minutes late, seven minutes late, like I'm going and you can go work out by yourself now because I'm gonna do my thing. So it's really hard. Now I guess when you do find that perfect partner, it's probably amazing, but boy, that's a hard thing. I think the reasons that people like workout partners are the reasons why I don't like workout partners, which is most people would say like, oh, I get the best workouts or they push me when I have a workout partner and I need that extra push or else I'm not gonna train as hard. External motivation. And that is the reason why I don't like workout partners is I know now when I go into a workout, what level of intensity, how much volume I need to be training with, but I'm also very competitive and it's natural when I'm with my buddies that they're lifting, if he's getting after it, it's really easy for me to fall right into that, well, I'll do another set or go ahead and throw another 25 on there. I got this. When I know. Or at very least, I'm not gonna take the plate off to do my set. Oh, right. And I know that. I know what I need when I go into my workout and it's not always this crazy intense, crush myself on my routine. And I know that if, now that being said, there are times too when I think there's some value in that, right? I know I haven't trained really intensely in a long time. Maybe I'm gonna get in a workout with Justin or Sal and I know that when we work out together, we're gonna push each other that way, but that's not something I wanna do on a regular basis. Reminds me of that white snake song. You know what I'm saying? Here I go again. Here I go again. Here I go again. Oh my God. That's Adam, that's Adam when he's going to the gym. It's on my playlist. It is I rock. Literally, everybody right now is gonna be leaving their workout partner a message and singing that song.