Here's Why Working Out With Your Partner Can Benefit Your Relationship

by guest writer Esben Lukas

Source: Unsplash

Source: Unsplash

Working out on your own can be rewarding in itself. But there may be a better way to enjoy sweating out toxins and building muscle like exercising with your significant other! Physical fitness will not only positively affect your overall health and well-being, but your relationships as well. In fact

Scott Moore Yoga previously tackled partner fitness activities and how they promote increased intimacy among couples. That being said, here are some of the other amazing benefits partner workouts can do for you.

1. Promotes support and motivation

Psychology Today notes that someone else's presence affects your ability to perform an activity for the better. Couples who workout together will naturally cheer each other on and encourage each other to reach their goals. Plus, you will start to be more accountable for your workouts. Having someone to lean on while you rough it out at the gym, yoga studio, or open field makes things more bearable and interesting. You can even create shared goals or workout routines so that you can execute some of the moves together! This type of camaraderie will transcend outside of your workouts and will develop a supportive type of relationship between the two of you in the long run.

2. Boosts overall self-confidence

It's normal for couples to feel insecure at some point during their relationship. Sometimes, this can stem from feeling like you lack something in the physical department. If that’s the case, there's no place like the gym to improve your body image and show off your moves. Plus, exercising releases endorphins, which are also known as 'happy hormones'. Endorphins play a certain role in a person's mood, making you feel more content, confident, and secure. If you and your partner feel good, there will be no reason to dwell on negative thoughts, resulting in a happier relationship and improved self-worth.

3. Guaranteed quality time

With all the work, errands, and personal commitments you both have to get done in your own time, working out together is guaranteed quality time for the two of you. Real Simple emphasizes that spending time together opens communication lines, which in turn strengthens your bond as a couple. Making it a point to always exercise together can also translate to prioritizing each other.

4. Increases emotional bond

Most likely, working out together will help you find your groove as a couple and allow you to experience doing something new together for fun as well. Watch as the other aspects of your romantic life get positively affected by couple workouts, too! Foxy Bingo explains how you and your partner can have fun outside the gym by doing activities such as giving each other a massage. Engaging in a shared activity will promote the feeling of being loved and trusted by your partner, and that you truly enjoy each other's company. Shared activities like these can also help make you feel more comfortable and open with each other.

Good relationships take time and work. By having a common anchor in the form of working out together, you are already exerting effort into improving your relationship.

The Woman I Love

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I'm married to the greatest woman in the world.

I just LOVE her! She's the perfect partner for me. One thing about her that I discovered about her early on in our relationship was that because of my relationship with her I was a better man and a better person. She sees and celebrate my strengths. I want to step up to the occasion to be honor such an incredible woman as this. THAT'S how I knew that she was the woman that I'd spend the rest of my days with.

I'm so happy to have celebrate that love with her this Valentine's Day weekend by collaborating with her to host our Couple's Retreat.

We try to treat our relationship like yoga: as a practice. We all know that with relationships, just like with yoga, we can get out of practice, we can get into ruts, and we can down right suck at relationships sometimes. Sometimes the circumstances of a relationship can be out of your control. Sometimes you can steer things differently. Even when things are going really well, there is always something to practice.

Truly relationship (any relationship) is just the closest mirror to the growth that is happening within yourself. If you're not growing, your relationship is not growing. And vice versa.

Like yoga, we can always practice. Practice gives us permission to learn without the need to be perfect. Practice lets you use all for faculties and experiment until you start to get it dialed in. Practice lets try again if you've messed up.

I invite you to treat your relationships like a practice this week. Remember, the greatest gift we can give any relationship is PRESENCE.

Because the Woman I love lives
Inside of you,

 I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can--

 And I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim.

 Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
 Hafiz will always be near.

 If you sat before me, wayfarer,
 With your aura bright from your many
Charms,

My lips could resist rushing to you and needing
 To befriend your blushed cheek,

 But my eyes can no longer hide
 The wondrous fact of who 
You Really are.

 The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,

 So I will always lean my heart 
 As close to your soul
As I can.

~Hafiz

“The Woman I Love” by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky from The Subject Tonight is Love by Daniel Ladinsky, published by Penguin Compass. Copyright © 2003 by Daniel Ladinsky. All rights reserved