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MuscleMecca: In your opinion what makes a good training partner

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DriDDeRz

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What is your list that you believe makes a good training partner
 
Pickle

Pickle

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Someone thats on time. Can see if your heads not quite there and knows how to pick you up. Has similar goals to you and keeps on improving towards those goals. Someone who knows when to joke and when to be focused. I train alone lol.
 
dilatedmuscle

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Someone who is on time and doesnt chit chat with the other gym members.
 
Skeptic

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I've never had one. I don't know anyone who lives close that I could train with.
 
tim290280

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Someone who is on time.
I've had several training partners that would rock up after I had already warmed up and started training, annoying to say the least.

Someone who is reliable.
Very similar to the above and below points. Basically there is nothing worse than having someone pull out of training because of some emergency every 2nd week. The worst I've had is guys not turning up for leg day because they were playing basketball the next day and didn't want to be sore. This would happen every couple of weeks.:shakefist:

Someone who is committed.
Nothing worse than having someone hold you back with their approach of attitude. I've only had one of these guys, he would always comment on how we needed to be careful, this was heavy stuff, blah blah blah.

Someone in the same ballpark strength and conditioning wise.
It's ok if you are training with a newbie or veteran as long as you can pull your weight (reload bars, train as hard, etc). The part that makes it not work is when the newbie is holding the vet back or the vet is pushing the newb too hard. I've burnt out a couple of training partners because they either couldn't keep up or were only good for one lift.

Someone who knows how to focus.
I hate the guys that stand around and have a 1/2 hour conversation between sets, I especially hate it in a training partner. You might have 60-90sec of chat time between sets while you change weights or get setup or whatever. You have to let the conversation either not happen or be in 60 second chunks so that you can both focus on the lift. Most people focussed on getting stronger seem to be able to do this, in my experience it is the image obsessed that get distracted or distract others between sets (10mins between sets WTF is that about!!!).

Someone a similar size to you.
This isn't 100% necessary and I'm not talking about how much mass you are carrying. This is about convenience of using the same equipment. Having to move the hooks around on the rack for a taller or shorter lifter grows really old really fast, especially on a heavy squat day. Some pieces of equipment allow for this (e.g. monolift) but even the quickly adjusted equipment is annoying to play with.

I caught up with my buddy recently. We used to train together when we both started lifting. He remains one of my best training partners ever, even though his time management skills waned towards the end of our training relationship. He still regards our training time together as the most productive he's ever had. That's what good training partners are about.
 
Pickle

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^good points red nut, i have had phenomenal training partners in the past. my two best ones I wasn't anywhere in the ball park of competiting with strength wise and the other wasnt anywhere near my ball park. Both were strong in everything else though. both were a convenient situation where we would goto the gym together, warm up together, train together only talk nonsense when we had finished scenario. In terms of training knowledge though, both were poor. Its no wonder I only had 2 good lifts with them and everything else stagnated. Id blindly follow them or they'd blindly follow me so the only progression we really got was one-upmanship. It was good fun to train with my strong mate tho. Id do 10 reps on 3 and a quarter plates a side (only a basic bar not olympic) for squats and tell him i was catching his 4 plates and then he'd put on 5 plates a side out of nowhere and do 6-8 reps a2g. lol he was a good 5-7 kilos lighter then me most of the time as well with a reconstructed knee and dodgey hamstrings.
 
Anabolicus

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Someone who actually has some training knowledge.

Sometimes I train with a dude who has trained for about ~5 years and if we are training together he always asks me like ''What is this exercise good for?'' or ''Which exercise should i do next?''

Oh and one more ''I can't do any squats or deads because of my ''bad'' back.''
 
Natzo

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Tim covered all the spots there.

A good training partner is someone that can keep up with you strenght wise or near. Nothing bothers me most than doing heavy deads and have to take >1 plate and then have to put them again.. fuck.

Someone who is on time.

and knows how to assist properly. this one is number one to me.
 
Big_Guns_Lance

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Good work ethic basically and someone who knows how to spot and when I wana pump out 2 forced they don't just rack the bar because they think I'm going to drop it, idiots!

its good to have a training partner who has similar goals so your training can be specific and little to no compromise regarding my training.
 
Cork

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Tim pretty much nailed it on the head. You accept applications for this kind of thing?

Out of all his points though, I think the most important is someone who has the same goals. If they have the same goals then they will be the most dedicated to cutting chit chat to a minimum between sets, they will rack/rerack weight as necessary, and they will show up on time to get business done.

The best training partner I ever had was the guy who taught me how to properly squat and deadlift. And he also introduced me to a lifelong mate, Charles Poliquin.

I train alone now. No one in my crappy gym can match my dedication recently. There is a guy I work with who can give about 1 session a month, he is a real good partner, but our schedules are too different to train together any more than that.
 

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tkD

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Someone who is reliable.
Very similar to the above and below points. Basically there is nothing worse than having someone pull out of training because of some emergency every 2nd week.

The worst I've had is guys not turning up for leg day because they were playing basketball the next day and didn't want to be sore. This would happen every couple of weeks.:shakefist:

I didn't knew you've trained with Maxmunzter.


All great opinions in this thread, nothing new to add. For now I train alone, but from time to time I used to train with a bigger guy than me, size wise, same height, and I had to say those were the best/most productive training days so far. It was like a challenge for me to try and push even harder in every set just to surpass that guy one day hehe.
 
kn609

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One who can motivate you when you're not feeling good about yourself.
For the newbs-one that will show you how to do everything with the right form.
 
Hypocrisy86

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1. Knows how to spot.
2. has good advice, and his motivational.
3.can keep up with you
4.Can communicate with well, chat here and there, (after workout)
 
M

mvsf1

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Nothing. I don't like it. If I need a spot, I'll ask for. End of story.
 
El Freako

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*Must know how to spot.
*Must be able to unrack +160kg.
*Similar training goals.
*Brings me beer after I squat.

My current training partner is my first in 5-6 years and the best so far. He suffers from slight training ADD sometimes but I'm keeping him in check. He squats, benches, deadlifts and presses so that what matters most.
 
Skeptic

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Oi bitchface... When I play down the coast on the 25th we should do a day of smolov together :keke:

EDIT: Oh wait, its a Friday.... do you work?
 
DanishBB

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- one who don't take too long rest breaks between sets.

- one who do not send messages or talk in the phone while training

- A person who has the same strength as yourself, There is nothing worse when you have to take plates on & off, that just makes your training a lot slower.

- A person there push you hard enough, and know how to spot proper.

- One who always come at time, and don't make stupid excuses and have as much focus on training as yourself
 
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DIPLOMAT007

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- Someone that brings something to the work out , not just follow around and saying whats next
- Being on time and not missing days for stupidness
- Not getting caught up with talking to other people and their phone
- Please no complaining about their progress ( cant help if you eat like crap )
i need a new training partner :(
 
dilatedmuscle

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One thing i hate... (spotter not partner) is when the person spotting me is used to spotting someone with gay ROM and when im half ways down they try to help me lift the weight up... They dont realise that im trying to do full ROM and instead they think im going too low because its too heavy and its pushing my arms down or someshit.

My last training partner was waaaaay weaker then me but i didnt mind until i started going heavy and loading/unloading becomes a chore and a half when im deadlifting over 3 plates.
 
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