SunnyFitness - Outdoor Fitness trainings and education

There are times in our lives when we train alone for longer or shorter periods of time, without a coach or a training partner. There are advantages and disadvantages to this form of training. I think it’s definitely worth trying it, especially after a few years of training in an organized setting, when you’ve gained some experience. In this article I’ve collected some thoughts, pros and cons, my own experiences of training alone. I believe you will find good lessons for individual exercising!

training alone sunnyfitness mihalysafran

The point is to keep moving

If you look at it on the scale of a human life, I think there has to be a place for both, exercising with a coach, partner(s) or alone at some point. That is when we will be able to get the most out of ourselves and experience the most.

The phenomenon of training alone is partly personality dependent. For the lone wolf, the shy or the ‘smarter than everyone else’ people, it is the obvious choice. Then there are those who train alone out of necessity, due to the busy schedules of the modern world. They would otherwise prefer to train with a coach or in a small team.

The lone fighters mostly train with previous experience (which can be pretty slim…), with a training program (videos) collected together from here and there, which they think will help them improve. Or they just exercise spontaneously, improvisationally, as time and energy permits.

It is commendable to exercise regularly, alone or with partners. The point is to have something, the health of the muscles, joints, fascia of the human body needs regular, varied exercise! Besides, doing sports is an excellent stress management and mentally recharging method.

training alone sunnyfitness mihalysafran running

Let’s look at the pros and cons of training alone!

Advantages

Free time management, own rhythm
No need to adapt to others, conform to others
No chatting with others, just pure work (as long as you forget the phone for this time..)
Teaches discipline, consistency, independence, awareness
Develops super body awareness, we become more aware of our body and its current limits
Lots of learning and experience about our body and training methods
Greater opportunity to adapt and improvise your training plan to suit your mental and physical condition on the day
Less frustration if we don’t see someone on the team who is light years ahead of us
If we are aware of the basic training principles and methods, we can keep improving
Saving money (can be good in the short term, may be not so good in the long term)
If you go to competitions, you can definitely benefit from the experience you gain on your own, as no one is holding your hand on the race

Disadvantages

No drive, help, healthy competitive spirit from teammates, coach to bring out the best in you, harder to step out of your comfort zone
Less fun, less socializing
No accountability
May lack regularity, continuity
Possible incorrect technical execution of exercises is not noticed (lower efficiency, higher risk of injury)
If we stagnate for a while, we may not know how to move on
The eye of an experienced coach is golden. That help will not be there.

training alone sunnyfitness mihalysafran OCR

My own experience in brief

So in 2023, I’ve been training almost daily for over 30 years and have been coaching for almost 10 years. I have accumulated some experience about my body and my training methods and exercises. 60-70% of my workouts were organized, with a coach or a team. For the last 10 years I have been training mostly on my own.

Fortunately, I had excellent physical education teachers and coaches. I trained with about 10-15 coaches for a longer or shorter period of time, from whom I learned a lot and many of the lessons I understood only later, after our cooperation, when I trained alone or as a coach I led training for others.

My teammates also helped me a lot, without a healthy competitive spirit I wouldn’t have been able to do my best, to cross certain comfort zones.

In kayak and canoeing (or any other) sport, I can’t imagine international top form on my own, it’s more achievable with a coach and teammates.

I think the natural fitness and a high level bodyweight strength, weight training, running etc. can be achieved alone. If you work consistently, keep learning and incorporate better knowledge into your training.

On my own, I have made nice progress (and surpassed my elite athlete level) in pull-ups, deadlift, squats, learned the muscle-up, handstand, handstand push-up, won OCR competition, etc.

Training alone has given me a lot of body awareness, patience, exploring my own limits and mistakes. Sure there are still mistakes now, but they are fewer and fewer. If I could put my current knowledge back into my young athlete self… OMG, there would have been even brighter medals.

I like training alone because it allows me to better manage my time with other areas of life. I’ve never had to be pushed to train and I’ve accumulated enough experience to improve also alone. If I were to aspire to international success again or get stuck for a long time, I would definitely seek the help of other coaches.

training alone sunnyfitness mihalysafran handstand pushup

Tips for training alone

Keep learning about training methods, stay curious and question your current knowledge
Set goals and milestones you want to achieve in the near future
Don’t just follow a routine workout with the same exercises, same volume, same intensity, vary the training parameters in a smart and progressive way
Occasionally train with a coach and ask for his/her opinion
Occasionally train with a partner or team for new ideas and inspiration
Occasionally test your fitness level or sign up for a competition
Listen to your body’s feedback and maybe adjust your plan if you can do more, or less that day
Occasionally record videos about your exercises and you’ll see if the movement is correct, nice and harmonious or not
Write a training diary

To sum up…

I don’t think it’s bad to exercise alone, in fact! It’s worth trying for a longer or shorter period of time! Before that, however, it doesn’t hurt to spend a few years with a coach, a team, a prescribed training plan or at least take enough time to study basic training principles and methods. And it doesn’t hurt to have a strong motivation, passion and perseverance.

Training alone is a good way to improve in any fitness parameter, while improving body awareness, mental toughness, discipline and focus. The disadvantages mentioned in the article should be minimized and occasionally train with partners and coaches.

Alone or in a team? The main thing is to move regularly! The best way, in my opinion, is to combine the two, either continuously, every week, or even by doing your trainings in separate ’solitary and partner’ periods.