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It’s not all sex-related, but it could be!
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By Laura Beck
1. It breeds healthy competition!
You know what will motivate you to succeed? Your partner succeeding super hard at something. I don’t know why it is, but couples have been competing since the dawn of time (I believe it was two dinosaurs who first raced for shotgun) and so why not focus that (healthy, normal) competitiveness on something mutually beneficial? Besides, you’ll totally kick his ass when it comes to crunches. Go get ’em, tiger.
2. But it’s also motivating to watch each other succeed.
As much fun as it is to squash your competition, it’s even more awesome to set fitness and health goals, and cheer each other on as you make it happen. Whether it’s getting your blood pressure down or building a more bootyful butt, you can help each other achieve your dreams. Awwww.
3. The healthy feeling of accomplishment you get doing something active together.
Yeah, lazing on the couch and rewatching Mean Girls for the ten thousandth time while you inhale cookie dough is definitely more tempting, but you know you’re going to feel like garbage afterward. If you guys power-walked the neighborhood instead, you’d get to people-watch and count who can spot more cute/sad window cats. (And then you can come home and still watch Game of Thrones before bed. Win/win!)
4. Gym time is guaranteed couple time.
Decompressing from your day while you both do a circuit on the elliptical is incredibly cathartic. You can bond over bad bosses while climbing a hill and can laugh off all the silly stuff from the day.
5. You’ll both be physically healthier.
Which is great on its own because we all plan on living forever, but there’s an excellent side benefit: It leads to emotionally healthier relationships, which means you’ll be in love forever and skip off on a rainbow into a cloud of unicorn kisses.
6. Trying something new and different brings you closer together.
Cement your relationship by taking a Jazzercise class together. The couple who Jazzercises together stays together. That’s in the Constitution, I think. Or, if Jazzercise isn’t for you, perhaps a series of salsa classes will ignite your curiosity? Or couple yoga? Or a co-ed softball team? Or maybe all of them? You’ll be so busy signing up for different activities that you’ll forget that you’re even working out. (And isn’t that the whole point of all this?) (Well, that and bonding with your paramour.)
7. It’s fun (and funny!).
There’s nothing quite like taking a hip-hop dance class together when your partner can’t tie his shoes without falling over. It’s both adorable and hilarious to watch him try to work it out to Janet Jackson while still remaining upright. And what if you’re the one with two left feet? It’s still a great workout if you’re falling over yourself trying to do a basic box step.
8. It keeps you on track.
When you’re only beholden to yourself, you’re way more likely to end up spending your workout time working some pizza into the oven. When you have a partner that you don’t want to let down, all of a sudden you’re DVRing your favorite shows just so you can get more steps on your FitBit together. #10000StepsOrBust #AmIRight.
9. You can pretend you’re Katniss and Peeta, and you need to work out to survive.
There’s nothing like a little pressure from the Capitol to encourage you to succeed. Or just any ridiculous fantasy will do. I like to pretend that we’re in Jurassic Park and a T-Rex is about to eat us as a light snack. I’ve never run so fast on that treadmill and neither has bae. (Especially with me yelling about velociraptors and making the last chopper out.)
10. Four words: After-workout shower sex.
Reason enough to get out of bed in the morning.
11. And just more sex, in general. Rawr.
Getting those endorphins running is good for all sorts of things — especially your sex drive. Get ready to ramp it up in the bedroom the second you get a gym membership. What was I saying earlier about “go get ’em, tiger”? That works now too.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.
Photo credit:David Stillman/flickr
The post 11 Reasons It’s Awesome to Work Out With Your Significant Other appeared first on The Good Men Project.