Stronger together
I’ve read probably over a million articles on why you should work out with a friend.
Things such as;
– It makes you accountable (you’ll turn up)
– It’s less lonely and
– There’s nothing wrong with a bit of competition.
I’m guessing that’s exactly why group training (boot camps, crossfit, ludus) gained so much traction, it’s always much more fun to “die” amongst friends and you tend to push yourself further than you would if you were alone.
I’ve been “hooked” on group training since stepping into Ludus on that very first morning back in February 2011. I loved the energy all those people bought into the arena and I enjoyed trying to keep up with (or on the odd occasion) beat the boys.
Bodybuilding on the other hand can be quite a solitary sport. Although I usually had a training partner join me when I weight lifted. That is, unless they up and vanished after one too many binges (long story). These days however unless I’m doing bench press I’m pretty comfortable doing my strength training on my own and I do prefer to be able to work at my own pace – I’m old, It takes my joints a while to get into the swing of things. 😉
Today however Anna came to play ..
I went through Wendlers 5/3/1 de-load cycle last week and today was retesting. Anna has decided to start a strength cycle as well so she came into the box this morning to get her benchmarks so we could start the strength cycle together.
I’d said to Joe that Anna would be stronger than me on the Squat and the Deadlift but I “should” be able to “take her” on the upper body stuff, although I’ve also learned never to underestimate Anna – the girl is a phenom so she could in fact leave me hanging in all four movements.
We did bench (I got there first so my pick lol) then supersetted the deadlift and squat and finally we moved onto the strict press. I was going to be happy with any gains even if it was just better (more confident) form on all of the movements bar the deadlift – the deadlift I went into with a goal. To break the hundy!
First attempt – 100 kgs – Check! Then as that felt pretty good, I thought I’d have another go and I loaded 105 kgs onto the bar. Fail! As Anna strode over to the bar Joe said to me “take 2 minutes, you got this”. Anna picked up the bar with ease! Honestly you’d think she was picking up her handbag or something it looked that easy!
Right Julia! Go over there and pick that dam bar off the floor!
Out lift a runner they say … obviously whoever made that up has never met Anna!
I better keep her around it seems as though a little competition does a girl good. 😉
Till next time
