On the weekend, someone asked me to be their gym buddy for the day. I guess their usual gym buddy was unavailable. I’ve been taking a weight training class and had told them about it, so I guess they’d mentally added me to their list of possible gym buddies, which was nice. I’ve never had a gym buddy before. I’ve only ever had personal trainers, or gone solo.
Having a gym buddy was kind of fun! We went to a rather large gym with many amenities, and I would definitely have been more intimidated by all the strong and serious people around me if I’d been alone. My gym buddy showed me some different ways of using weights and machines that my weight training class hadn’t gotten to, and that I hadn’t done since I last had a gym membership around ten years ago. In exchange, I showed them some exercises I’d learned in class using an exercise ball, and some mat stretches from my yoga/pilates fusion class. (Before I found out I was losing my job, I got a bit overzealous at the discovery of city-provided activities and signed up for several autumn classes.) With my gym buddy being a regular gym rat (is that the right term?), I was a bit concerned that what I had to offer wouldn’t be very challenging to them. I was glad to be wrong, and they seemed to appreciate the novelty.
We then went to the swimming pool. My gym buddy had never used the pool at their gym before, but I had two swimming lessons under my belt and was eager to show off. Thankfully, this was not an hour-long class, so we had the free will to only do a lap of swimming, then I challenged my buddy to four minutes of treading water. Starting out, they were convinced they couldn’t do the full four minutes, but they did! I think having a buddy helped motivate them to push themselves. I had found the same benefit when we’d done weights. That’s why people have gym buddies, I guess. Accountability and encouragement.
Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with a dip in the hot tub and a few minutes in the sauna. When I had a gym membership way back when, the sauna had always been my favourite part. It was nice to be back.
I’d been a little worried about going to the gym after so much time away. I remembered having little motivation to go, hating the burning feeling in my muscles, being bored doing cardio for any length of time, and being embarrassed with the amount of weights I chose for myself. That’s why I quit gym memberships and switched to taking classes and signing up for sports. But as I learned this weekend, the gym isn’t so bad with a gym buddy. There’s a lesson in that. Difficult things have always been easier when you don’t have to do them alone. Although we were each exercising for ourselves, we could push each other to be better, hold each other accountable, and teach each other new things. In the gym or in the world, a buddy can be quite beneficial. I highly recommend it.
