Benefits of Training with Your Partner

I experience the benefits of training with my partner almost on a daily basis and I find it quite fantastic. Here I’ll share the benefits I have found, a video Celia Dubey and I were filmed discussing and demonstrating a few exercises last week on Tampa Bay’s Channel 10 – Great Day Live show, and a handful of other findings on the topic.

I have a lot of work to do as a partner and I attempt to be the best I can be. One trait I think is critical for a successful relationship is supporting your partner in whatever jazzes them. What is important to them should be important to you. My partner in crime, Lauren, is prolific in being a beekeeper, gardening, and boating that I knew little about. These things are important to her and I love hearing her talk about them and seeing her in action. I learn something new all the time, she includes me when she is doing her thing often, and I help or participate where I can.

One thing we both have in common is exercise. We have ran, biked, swam, played pickleball, and the list goes on with things we have tried together… We love being active and with Lauren competing in marathons and ultra distance races while I’m racing duathlons (run-bike-run) and run only races, we run often together. When I say often, that is sometimes 6-7 times per week as we both put in a heavy load. We run our slow runs together and even when we are doing workouts with different paces we are with each other at some point. On our slow runs we discuss life stuff…the great, the ugly, and all inbetween. We start most our runs at 5:00 AM and we both find it starts are day off in a most glorious way. It’s so invigorating accomplishing a great workout before the day really gets going.

Here are a few benefits I recognize while working out with Lauren:

• Bonding – when we run together, especially the hard workouts, there is a bond of working through the pain, discomfort, and grind. When we both raced our first marathon at the Space Coast Marathon in late 2021 it was an unbelievable experience to accomplish what we did on that day. We both qualified for the Boston Marathon (Lauren is racing this April!!!) and crushed our times – that exhilaration together was special. You can see me popping the champagne in the featured photo on that great day.
• Learning – I have learned a lot about Lauren through stories on our long runs she shares and also how she perseveres during training, racing, and life.
• Time – Think about all the time we are running together that we may not be able to spend with each other with busy lives surrounding us. I don’t take that for granted.
• Fitness – We both take full accountability for our own health and we are both fit. Having fitness as a shared value has spurred us to do so many activities together and has made us even fitter than before we got together.
• Fun – We both love working out and usually have a blast doing it even when it’s hard. We make each other laugh in so many ways.
• Passion – There is science that shows the kick in that bonding attraction when working out with your partner. It gets those juices flowing in a grand way… More below on that…

A few extras for you to consider:

• Celia and I on the Great Day Live show last week on a segment called, Fitness Friday: Couple Workouts
• 5 Reasons Why Couples Who Sweat Together, Stay Together
• 5 Reasons to Workout as a Couple
• Science Explains Why Working Out Gets You So Worked Up