Have you ever thought about doing sports with your spouse? It's obvious to everyone that it's easier to be motivated when you're together. But if your sporty partner is your life partner, the sports session will be a moment of complicity, laughter, mutual aid, in short, it will be much more effective. Here are 5 exercises to do as a couple.
First of all, why do you do sports together?
If having fitness sessions together is a source of motivation, practicing sports as a couple is even better. After a while, a routine can set in between you. Surprises become fewer and farther between and the days become predictable. To break this monotonous atmosphere, why not propose a small sports session to your spouse.
If you both like to keep fit: Laughter, teasing, fun, and motivation will be there! This is good not only for your health, but also for your relationship. Playing sports together is a way to enhance your relationship and to do something together.
Your moments of sport become real privileged moments where a new complicity is born between you. Indeed, with each of you having your own job, your own schedule... It can also be a moment to meet and do an activity together. Especially if at the moment, each of you is doing sports in the gym on your own. It is not a question of talking about your objectives of muscle gain or weight loss, but only to change your training routine to spend a good moment of complicity.
Perhaps it had disappeared, the practice of sport as a couple can rekindle that complicit flame that there was at one time.
More than that, it's a great way to reconcile. Although it may seem surprising, working out regularly is a great way to relieve stress and your bad mood. This makes you feel more relaxed, less angry and more fit. In addition, exercising promotes the secretion of endorphins and dopamine, the pleasure hormone that stimulates sexual desire and contributes to the achievement of orgasm.
How to work out as a couple?
You have several options for practicing an activity with your spouse. You can go to a gym, or you can work out at home. It is the latter option that we will discuss. To work out as a couple at home, you don't need much equipment other than your partner.
Contrary to popular belief, you can play sports without equipment. You may need to set up a space at home and equip yourself with the right gear for sports. If you don't have a spouse, you can invite a friend. The goal is to exercise together in a fun and friendly atmosphere.
Exercises to do with your partner without equipment
There are many ways to do bodyweight training, but for greater efficiency, it is best to establish it beforehand and follow this weight training program with several activities. To help you and give you an example, it can be developed as follows:
- warm-ups : Which are not strictly speaking exercises
- bench dips
- two-person chair (who stays the longest)
- balloon abs for two
- pumps in pairs
- burpees
Warm-ups
Before you start sweating as a couple, it is important to do a good warm-up to get in the right physical condition. It can consist of stretching, jumping jacks, knee lifts, butt lifts, etc. This training only lasts a few dozen minutes. Don't forget, you are two people, you motivate each other!
You can do what is called jumping jacks, which is a body weight warm-up. It should be remembered that the warm-up serves to increase the temperature of your body and to warm up the muscles to the effort as well as the joints. Another technique is the ARM SWINGS WINDMILL.
Otherwise, you always have the solution of the rubber band if you have one.
Let's move on to training.
1 - Bench dips
Ideal for toning and building up your triceps and pectorals, dips on the benches can be done without equipment. The exercise consists of leaning with your hands on a support behind you with your legs straight and your buttocks in the air. It can be a low chair, a bench, a staircase step (last one down), etc. Once you are in position, you simply move up and down with your arms.
2 - Chair for two
The chair exercise is an exercise that consists of sitting in a chair against a wall. The only difference with the chair for two is that the wall is replaced by your partner's back, which is also in the same position. This exercise allows you to build up your lower body, especially your thighs, buttocks and calves. It's up to you to see who will make the other fall first.
3 - Balloon abs for two
Stand opposite each other, one metre apart (depending on your height). Take a weighted ball or any other non-dangerous object. If you don't have any equipment at all, don't panic, replace the weighted ball with a basketball or a small bag filled with sand. Rotate on each side while keeping your feet in the air, then throw the ball to your partner who must catch it without touching the ground.
Example:
1 rotation on each side : throw and hop
2 rotations on each side: throw
3 rotations on each side: throw
and so on.
This exercise favours the toning of the abdominal muscles which will be contracted throughout the exercise, until you pass the object to your partner. The difficulty will be to never put the feet on the ground.
4 - Paired pumps
What better way to end a fitness session than with push-ups? To do this exercise as a couple, you can stand opposite each other. With each push-up, one of your hands must touch your opponent's hand. Once with your left hand, then a push-up, then once with your right hand.
This activity is designed to strengthen arm and pectoral muscles. It also helps to sculpt your abs and contributes to a general body fitness. To find out what other type of push-ups : 17 pump variants to test
5 - Burpees
A real fitness exercise, burpees allow you to work all the muscle groups of the body. It is carried out without material and represents a cardio exercise and muscular reinforcement quite complete. There is a whole variation of burpeesBurpees: push-up burpees, jumping burpees, weighted burpees, etc. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your legs and place your hands on the floor. Use a slight push-up to send your feet backwards, do the same to bring them back. Return to the standing position and repeat. The one who does the most burpees wins.
With these 5 body weight exercises to work both the upper and lower body. Suitable for sportsmen and women.
You can do the sequence of these exercises up to 3 times with rest periods between each exercise and thus you will reach the same time as a weight training session which is between 45 minutes and 1 hour.
There are endless other ways to create a workout program for yourself as a couple. But you can modify this one and adapt it to you and your other half. Another possibility is to do an indoor session with couple pull-ups, couple lunges, couple rowing or even dumbbell curls.
Finally, you can opt for the ZERO GYM which is entirely bodyweight and perform it with two people.
Conclusion
The sequences are to be performed according to your level in bodybuilding and to be adapted to men and women since they do not have the same strength. You can start at low intensity and over time complete your training. With your spouse, start slowly and then vary your training with gym, crossfit, cycling, boxing, hiking, etc. Don't hesitate to participate in group sports sessions or with friends. This is also a good way to change your routine and stay motivated or even give yourself a challenge.
If you have the time to keep track of your records and you work out as a couple once a week, it may be a good idea to keep track of your times and reps so you can see your personal progress the next time you work out.
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