Hi Everyone!! Hope you’re having a fabulous weekend.

I’m working on this new venture I keep hinting about… so not much of a weekend for this chick!! Sooooo, THANKS to my good friend Dave Hedges from Wild Geese Martial Arts & Fitness for helping me out during this busy time by providing a guest post for us all!

Dave has written us a great article about finding your best training partner.

Who knew your best workout partner might be that person who stares back at you from the mirror every day?

Check it out below to make sense of that!! It’s a great read and an even better idea!

Your Best Training Partner

You’re busy, I’m busy. Finding the time and motivation to exercise for whatever goal can be an uphill struggle.

This is where having a training partner comes in, somebody who won’t accept your excuses and will push you to perform at your best everytime you work out.

But, my schedule is all over the place! I train at home! There just isn’t anybody around!

Well have I got news for you….

There is someone, someone who’s always available and can if allowed push you harder than you ever thought possible.

Who? Look in the mirror, you are about to become your own training partner.

The first thing you have to do is make an appointment with yourself. At X O’Clock on Yday the Zth I am going to meet up with me and do workout number 1.

Of course, you have already asked yourself what goals you want to achieve, thought about your training plan and worked out your routines.

Now you have made an appointment, you must make sure you keep it. After all, you wouldn’t let your mate down, why would you let yourself down?

So you arrive at your appointment and find yourself waiting, what next?

Open your training log, you do have one don’t you? A record of each and every workout you do with written detail about how you felt, could you have done more? was it too much? We’re you having an off day or were you on fire that day? How long did it take?

Turn to workout number 1 and have a look at it, tell your self that today your going to beat your previous effort.

Start to warm up, watch yourself, is anything wrong? Are feeling good, do you need to do a little more today? Do we feel good and are just going to rip it up today?

Hit the session, you know what you did last time, so you now what you have to do this time, you have to get that extra rep, go that little heavier, do it a little faster. Record everything, you owe it to yourself. Berate yourself, congratulate yourself, do what it takes, just imagine your encouraging a friend, talk to yourself in the third person, “C’Mon mate, one more!!”, “Dave, move it, push!!”, “2 more and you’ve beaten last week, get going!!” You’ll be amazed at the effect. You may feel a little weird and self conscious doing this in a commercial gym, but persevere. I find if I talk to myself loudly, I tend to get left alone, nobody disturbs me, of course you don’t have to do this, it’s just a me thing…. If you are training at home, go wild.

If you’re struggling, look at the log, how much more must you do to beat last week? Use it as a target, count down to it…

Cool down, take your time with this, no rush allow yourself to stretch and relax, coming back down from the adrenalin and endorphins..

Check your log, write how you felt, what you had on the stereo, could you have done more or are you happy..All little details you can use to your advantage next time round.

Before you know it you’ve done a beasting workout, you feel great, and in good time you’ll look and perform even better than you thought possible.

Thank yourself and hit the showers.

You’ve just become your own training partner.

As an aside, if you are hitting the weights, especially Benching and Squatting, it’s a good idea to get somebody to keep an eye on you, while you make a great training partner for yourself, you’re a lousy spotter!

Home training with bodyweight, this isn’t an issue.

Let me know how you get on.

Regards

Dave Hedges
Wild Geese Martial Arts & Fitness

Dave is also the author of a great book called: No Equipment, No Excuses – Bodyweight Training for the Home, the Office & on the Road. Click the title of the book to head over there and check it out for yourself. You’ll love it.

And in my usual fashion I have managed to extract from Dave what his favourite workout song is, so here’s today’s Workout Song of the Day.

Be careful playing this at work or around the kiddies, though. There’s a couple of explicit moments in this one.

I have to agree that this one would be GREAT for weight training, it’s absolutely chock full of good, hard, angry ANGST!! And we all know how I feel about angst-ridden music and weight training! Pour that emotion into the iron and let it translate into brute strength!

Have a great workout to this one, gang!

JayZ / Lincoln Park – Points of Authority

Don’t forget, if you love it for it’s angsty-goodness, you can click through on the Buy button on the sample player to go get your own copy and add it to your collection of great workout songs, too!

Thanks again for the post and the song, Dave. I’m sure everyone really enjoyed this one! I know I did!

… and don’t forget to check out Dave’s book at No Equipment, No Excuses – Bodyweight Training for the Home, the Office & on the Road.

That’s it for today, gang!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll see you again soon.
Girlwithnoname