Couples Fitness: Should You Work Out with Your Spouse?
Couples fitness is one of those topics that either results in a happy ending or a nasty divorce. While the results aren’t precisely cut and dry, and many other scenarios can occur, you tend to have massive extremes in either direction more times than not.
The question with couples fitness becomes what you’re trying to get out of it and how you plan on getting there. What steps do you have in place? Do you know how you’re going to react to some tension? What are each individual’s goals in going through this process? These are all things you want to consider before trying to make couples fitness work.
In this article, we will cover some areas of concern that you need to think about and understand before jumping into couples fitness, and it potentially causes great tension and animosity between spouses or significant others.
Let’s dive into it!
Forcing Couples Fitness on Your Spouse or Significant Other
I wanted to start off with this one because it’s going to set the tone for couples fitness and could potentially change the dynamic before it even starts. First and foremost, if your spouse or significant other is not interested in health and fitness, DO NOT force it on them. Introduce the idea to them and how you can support each other, but don’t make this about YOU or that it’s something they MUST do. It’ll end disastrously. Everyone needs to be doing this for themselves and use the other person as a means of support, accountability, and encouragement.
Health and fitness have somewhat of a learning curve. Many people need to understand the process, what the results can be, and realistic expectations. Couples fitness is about training together to help BOTH individuals. If you make this a “let’s work out together and help get you in shape,” you’re going to find yourself sitting alone in your home.
Related Article: Spouse Workouts Who Hate Exercising — Can It Work?
Understand what the other person would want from couples fitness. Maybe it’s simply spending more time with you? Figure that out first before you dive in and make sure everyone is on the same page and one party doesn’t feel challenged or forced into working out together.
Fitness Demands Consistency, Dedication, and Time
There’s one thing that will never work when it comes to fitness, and that’s not making it a priority and putting in the time and effort to achieve results. If you want couples fitness to work, both of your schedules need to align, and there shouldn’t be any “forcing” couples fitness into your schedule.
Both of you need to ensure you are fully committed to making this “a thing” and that both of you actually WANT to do this together. Consistency, dedication, and time are something both of you are going to need to focus on. One individual should not be the ringleader and call all the shots. Both of you should be in it for the long run and be excited to train together in the gym (or even at home if you don’t want to get a gym membership).
You can even get specific books that are dedicated to couples fitness and couples workouts.
One Person Gets Great Results While the Other Achieves Minimal
One of the hardest things to control is the results you get from training. With couples training, expect one person (generally the male) to see results faster. This can be defeating and create some tension between both individuals. While men generally notice changes more quickly due to a higher testosterone level allowing them to add some quality lean muscle mass which can also help kickstart the metabolism, it’s easy to have your spouse or significant other feel defeated if they don’t see the same results. This is normal but shouldn’t be something to make the wheels fall off.
You both need to be supportive, and if you’re the person seeing the faster results, ensure that your workout buddy is still progressing and to keep up the good work (and it helps to tell them how proud of them you are for a little extra reinforcement).
Changes in a Physique Can Attract More Attention
A topic that can get uncomfortable is when the attention towards one spouse or significant other increases due to the changes to their physique. There’s no denying the fact that couples fitness or training individually can cause drastic changes to your physique. When your body changes, you may find more eyeballs are pointed in your direction, or if you’re on the other side of the equation, you’ll notice more eyeballs are on your spouse or significant other. This can get awkward and uncomfortable extremely quickly.
Related Article: Want to Stay Fit? Then Skip Getting Married!
Jealousy can quickly ruin a relationship. It can create tension, trust issues, and even infidelity. Obviously, the goal of couples fitness isn’t to divide relationships or end marriages. Instead, it is to bring them together and strengthen your bond by helping each other improve your health and life.
Be open with one another if you feel a certain way, and ensure the other person understands that you may be slightly uncomfortable so that both of you can talk and come to a resolution amicably. Generally, one party merely needs reassurance that they’re still your person and that you feel happy and healthy thanks to the changes you’ve made to your health and physique. Explain that you enjoy working out with the other individual, and it’s through their support that you’ve been able to push so hard to achieve your results.
The goal is not to create a division between both parties. Couples fitness should be about pushing each other during your workouts and having fun in the process. If things are no longer fun, it may be time to stop trying to make it work and allow both people to either exercise alone or maybe one person stops working out altogether. Things happen, and some people merely prefer to work out independently as it allows them to clear their minds without focusing on anyone other than themselves — and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Be Realistic and Have Fun with Couples Fitness
At the end of the day, couples fitness is about having fun. If you aren’t having fun, you shouldn’t be doing it. Coming together and sharing a passion for health and fitness is special and can have huge benefits for all parties involved.
You should push each other to get the most out of your workouts. Help one another push more reps at the end of a set, help change the weights, and have a laugh from time to time. Workouts shouldn’t be 100% serious to the point you can’t crack a smile or a joke. If you’re having fun, the smiles and jokes should come naturally.
Be realistic about what your goals are and what you want out of couples fitness, and you’ll have years of being together with that special someone while both of you achieve health and fitness benefits from your efforts and support for one another.
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