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Fitness Topics
Partnering potential
One potential solution is to partner up with, well, your partner. Whether that happens to be your date, girl/boyfriend, or spouse, working out together can be productive, fun and even sexy. Teaming up with your mate offers many benefits. One is that you become a coach to each other. If one is not in the mood to exercise, the other can be the motivator and do the persuading. Another benefit is that you will both have yet another aspect of life to share together – namely, health. In general, when couples work on mutual projects or establish mutual objectives, stronger bonds tend to be developed.
Let’s not forget about those feel-good hormones (like endorphins and adrenaline). If you are an experienced exercise enthusiast, you already know how good these hormones make you feel, once they’ve kicked into gear. As you work out more regularly and with more intensity, you will more easily tap into such uplifting moods. There’s no better time to have your honey with you than when you begin to feel so good.
Even if it weren’t for those wonderful hormones, there is the psychological gratification of knowing that you and your mate are working at something that is truly positive. Also, as you each shape up your body, a mutually heightened level of sex appeal will result. We humans are, after all, a visual species.
Options
There are many ways to share health and fitness. For starters, you can choose to go on long, brisk walks together, after work and on weekends. It’s a great way to de-stress while burning calories and, perhaps more important, sharing quality one-on-one time. Then there are more vigorous physical activities, like bicycling, playing tennis or handball (a favorite for my wife and me), going rollerblading, ice-skating or even cross-country skiing. Doing physical activities and having fun at it, while being with your special person, adds a special dimension to relationships.
To be able to remain active and injury-free, and to be able to sculpt your body, remember to keep those muscles strong and shapely through resistance training. As a couple, it is easy to maintain a smooth flow to your workout. Take turns doing each exercise. In this way, you can watch each others form, making sure techniques are correct. Also, you can spot each other through the sticking points of each exercise as you attain muscular fatigue.
Even if you and your mate have incompatible workout styles, you can still keep each other motivated. First of all, you can do a 10 minute warm-up together, followed by a few minutes of gentle stretches. Plan a specific time, at the end of your respective workouts, to begin doing crunches together. By having a mutually agreed-upon time to wrap up your workout, you’ll be more likely to stay focused and avoid gabbing or watching the gym TVs. The benefit to such a plan is that it would help you and your partner conquer the most difficult part of any workout – getting there.
One last thing: if one of you is more advanced than the other, be easy on your mate. Nothing takes the fun away quicker than when one becomes a drill instructor. Even if one must guide the other, be gentle. Keep it fun.
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