Things to consider when selecting your fitness partner:

• Reliability and punctuality
• Enthusiasm and positive attitude
• Shared goals and attitu
• Complementary temperament and personality
• Talent for communication and constructive criticism
• Consistency and focus
• Sense of fun

Once in a partnership, it’s important to develop strategies for developing and sustaining the relationship.

If you are already involved in a partnership, and don’t think things are going well; the most important thing to do is to identify what’s going wrong. Partners should jointly develop goals, and then create some sort of plan to reach them. Be it setting a ‘concrete’ workout schedule, choosing times of the day to exercise when it’s most easy to focus, or something else, as long as both partners are on the same page, it’s much easier to be successful and attain desired results.

Make a contract with your fitness partner not to allow each other to cancel a session. Put money on the line, each time one cancels, the other must buy lunch, pay a fee to a fund or do an errand for the other. Partnerships can come from so many sources, the best I have seen are spouses and best friends. Each help push the other forward.

All exercising should be done with safety as a number one goal. Partners should encourage each other to only lift within their means, and to maintain proper form and style with every lift or movement. Don’t forget to have fun – if you don’t enjoy working out, chances are you won’t last!

Alisa Blanchard
Fitness Director
(904) 387-1653
ablanchard@thefloridayachtclub.org