As I scroll through various social media, this is the biggest that has stood out to me by far. I always see either pictures or videos of couples lifting and working out together. I started to wonder if it could actually have helpful benefits to one’s health. I’ve found countless articles as to why and why not you should take your significant other to the gym, but it seems the positives outweigh the negatives. I’ve had difficulty finding actual studies that relate to this topic, however I did find one article that was very promising.
The purpose of the study was a controlled experiment to see whether or not joining an exercise with a spouse would cause an individual to stick to their program. The hypothesis of the study was that those who attended their exercise program with a spouse would adhere more to it than those who attended the exercise program alone (Research gate Wallace). It concluded that those who attended the program with a spouse had a much higher attendance rate than those who attended alone.
These results I believe are widely due to the assumption the spouses attending the program held each other accountable to actually get up and go to the gym. From the articles I’ve read, there are benefits other than adherence. Other than being able to lift more, there are psychological advantages. I could not find an actual study to help me explain this, although two articles were very helpful. The first article is from psychology today. The information derived from this post is from various conducted studies. It describes how working out with your significant other can increase happiness in your relationship, improve efficiency in your workout, make your partner fall in love with you, and achieve your fitness goals ( DiDanato 2014). The other article is from the Huffington post. It describes how working out with your significant helps to burn more calories during a workout, release stress, sharpen your mind, and become synchronized with one another.
I don’t believe there are many variables that can affect one’s workout, but this is the most interesting to me. There are many other things that can improves one’s workout, such as creatine, supplements, stretching etc, though this is substantially different than taking a powder. I really enjoyed researching this hypothesis. So will you make a change to your workout?
Works Cited
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/09/workout-partner-healthy-couples-valentines-day_n_2638571.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meet-catch-and-keep/201401/5-reasons-why-couples-who-sweat-together-stay-together
This study lists lack of motivation as a reason why college students avoid going to the gym, so as the study you included supports, bringing a friend or significant other could increase motivation to go. Students in the study also claimed that their other priorities prevent them from going to the gym. Many people prioritize spending time with friends and significant others; by going to the gym with them, they would be able to prioritize their companions while also getting to the gym. I also noticed that the article included in your blog focuses on adults, which made me wonder if the results differ with age. More confounding variables appear as a person grows older, such as physical restrictions which can require someone to need professional care when working out, or which can even prevent them from going at all. Another variable the article did not stress enough is the level of fitness. It describes the adults in the study as healthy, meaning the couple must be somewhat equal as far as physical health goes. One more third variable is the partners’ mindsets and goals – if they don’t match or correlate, then working out together may be counterproductive. I do agree that for some couples, there are more benefits of going together than alone, but it is also important to consider these other factors which greatly restrict the results to a specific type of couple.
Alexander,
Really cool topic! Although you have a lot of evidence to back up your claims, I sort of have to disagree with the fact that exercising with your significant other benefits everyone. I always see pictures of couples working out together too, but have you ever noticed that they’re always extremely toned and fit? You never see obese or overweight couples in the gym together, or even just people who are a normal weight. There could be a chance that the really toned couples met at the gym and loved working out beforehand, so we don’t really have a way to tell if them going together was what helped them become so fit. I think personality plays a very big role in this too. Some men and women could be self conscious about working out with their partner, so they wouldn’t push themselves as hard as they would if they were working out alone, or vise versa. They could try to impress their significant other and push themselves too hard, causing demotivation when they are extremely sore the next day, or even injury. Some people also just work better alone. Maybe working out with your spouse could help extroverts, but introverted people might want to focus on doing their exercising alone.
Alexander, really interesting topic you have chosen and good use of evidence to support your post. This topic is really interesting because I have found that when I go to the gym with someone else or know someone at the gym I always have a better workout and never knew why. Working out with a significant other can be a little taunting because who would want to look gross and sweaty in front of their boyfriend/girlfriend? However, due to your post i decided to research some great exercises that couples can do together. I even found a video demonstrating some workouts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6TGe2s5Ro
Alexander- I enjoyed this article a lot. As someone who enjoys working out, I always love tips and tricks on how to keep motivated. I have heard the theory before that going to the gym with a significant other can be a huge motivational factor. I agree with all of the reasons you gave as to why is can serve as motivation, but I wanted to give you one more possible reason as to why visiting the gym with a significant other can be motivational. Perhaps when you decide to embark on a workout regime with a boyfriend or girlfriend, some friendly competition will appear. If one member of the relationship perceives the other as doing better than them with the program, they may strive to increase their efforts to meet the outcomes of their partner. I know when I go to workout, I always compare my effort to those of my friends. The competition motivates me, so maybe it is the same way with partners. Just a thought! Over-all, great article.
Great job on the blog overall Alexander, I certainly enjoyed the topic. I have always wondered about the same thing as well because I see couples workout together. The articles helped me out in terms of understanding the physiological aspects of it. I personally do not like going to the gym with anyone, even my friends, it distracts me, I like to be proficient when I’m at the gym, But great job on the blog !
Hi Alexander! Very interesting topic. I would definitely increase the length or find some case studies related to this if you can. As somone who goes to the gym often and has for years, I personally believe that going with someone else is far better than going alone. Like you mentioned above, going with someone else pushes you to go and work harder. Likewise, they can spot you, helping you do heavier weight than you could alone. However, I wouldn’t go with your significant other. Not only would you get distracted by them working out, you both are going to obviously be doing significantly different weight. Because of that, you will spend a lot more time at the gym due to changing weights. For that reason alone, I wouldn’t want to go with them. If you both went together and then split up, it would push you to go but then you could focus on yourself and not on her.