I really enjoy them but our trainers do try to match us up with people of similar ability, or sometimes it's one boy with one girl to balance out strengths/weaknesses. Plus the feedback he gave us after our last partner WOD was that he was actually wanting to see what our communication/motivation/feedback skills were like when working with a partner. So a skill that will benefit the box as well as building fitness/strength - I thought that was pretty cool and why I love my box!!

Yeah...I know what you mean! I'm usually the weak link haha. Last week we had one and I wasn't the weak link and my partner got really down on himself. I think he felt his weaknesses were letting me down. It was the first time I'd been on the "other side" so to speak.

We did a team WOD once that I did really like though where we were going for reps and rotating to four exercises: rowing, burpees, kb swings, and farmers carries. Four of us at once, three rotations (12 minutes). Now that was awesome. Because no one was watching or waiting or anything and every rep counted.

We sometimes do partner wods but it is usually a complete wod and partners split to strengths etc. Once you know people in your box these are really good as everyone works hard but if their is a big difference in fitness one person can do more work. I have never worked with anyone that has worried about this, as long as everyone is working their butt off, everyone is happy! I like them, I also see how awesome other people are, you also learn to communicate with people. I would not want to do them everyday, but as part of everything else, its a good element to mix in.

My gym doesn't program partner WODs very often, when they do its generally only on Saturdays. I love them and wish we did them more. If the WOD involves any type of heavy lifts our coaches generally encourage us to pair up with someone of similar athletic ability (probably for the sake of minimizing equipment use when setting up different weights etc.). Some of my favorite partner workouts though have been when I’ve partnered with someone with completely different strengths and weaknesses than mine; it's awesome to see how quickly we can move when strategizing efficiently. Whether i'm the "stronger" or "weaker" partner I always tend to push even harder because I'm either anxious to match/beat my partner when they're strong or to help speed us up a bit if my partner isnt quite as athletic.

Overall, I like Partner WODs! At my Box they either assign us a partner or they say partner up. I usually wait until someone asks me to partner up since I still need to learn how to do things properly. Some of the Partner WODs are just because we have so many folks that it doesn’t matter who your partner is because you do the WOD while they count and encourage you to complete and other times they are true partner WODs… you go, they go. I think the coaches usually pick a good partner for me, someone that will push my limits. If there is an odd number I don’t really like being in the 3 person group.
Last Saturday’s Partner WOD:
I got put in the only 3 person group (2 guys and 1 woman) basically the woman and I was one person.
50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 Complete each set as a group (E.g., 50 Cleans total between the partners)
Cleans * Box overs * Push Jerk * T2B
It was a good workout overall, I did extra for the team because I could.. not sure it was the best mix… maybe it was my turn to push my partner(s).

We do them every Friday and call them Team WODs. I look forward to them. For the most part, we are teamed-up in pairs ... but every once in a while, the coaches program the WOD by using teams of 3 or 4. *I don't worry about who I get teamed-up with because we work with each other's strengths and weaknesses (*and scale if needed) to finish.

Our Saturday workouts (when we have them) are often partner workouts. Since this is kind of an extra credit workout for me, I'm happy just to be working out with my friends.

Otherwise, it depends. Sometimes the workout is to do something like 100 pushups, 100 pullups, 100 squats, 100 DU's, 100 burpess...splitting it up however between the two of you. I may or may not pull my weight, may get more or less of a workout.

Sometimes it is partner one does something. Partner two does it. You get to rest. You get to do your thing. Every once in a while it's fine. I can't remember a time that I left the box and thought that I didn't get a good workout in.

We do partner WODs only on Saturdays (and Saturdays are always partner WODs), so you can avoid them if you don't like them and no one can claim to be surprised by them. As others have said, they try to pair with someone with close ability if you are lifting, so you can share the equipment, but otherwise it doesn't matter. I've been paired with someone much better and we just split the numbers unevenly (I'm particularly thinking of wall balls) or he did his half strict pullups and I did ring rows, stuff like that.

Our partner WODs also tend to be really long (30 min AMRAP or horrible stuff like that), and I've always found them really fun--some people come paired up, but most don't. Being paired with someone better has always resulted in me learning a lot and getting great pointers, but I do feel badly that I can't do the same yet.