Everyone needs a partner in crime, even Bonnie and Clyde had each other. And while I’m not telling you to go down the route they did, fit couples have some advantages of being able to lean on each other.
This year, more and more fit couples are doubling down during Valentine’s Day (actually all of February), and they’re doing more for their significant other than the standard chocolates, candle-lit dinners, and the late-night cardio session that follows (and no, we aren’t talking about the one in the gym). They’re doubling down on their health and fitness goals and pushing each other to do and be better.
Fit Couples Are Maximizing Their Results… TOGETHER!
If you want to follow in the footsteps of many fit couples, here’s what you need to focus on.
Healthy Eating
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, why not clean up your nutrition and even take some couples cooking classes? How cool would that be? The fact of the matter is that both men and women love a delicious meal, and what better way to spend time together than to prepare your own multi-course dinners?
But the biggest take-home from this is the fact that if you want to achieve your goals together, both of you will need to make some changes to your current nutrition habits. Make it a date and go to the grocery store to pick out some fresh and healthy ingredients.
Better yet, for the whole month of February, why not cook dinner together (even if one of you can’t cook worth anything and considers Chef Boyardee a home-cooked meal)? Fit couples do this all the time.
The one thing you need to focus on to help both of you hit your health and fitness goals is protein. Strive to find lean cuts of meat, healthy fillets of fish, organic eggs, and just about any quality source of protein you can find. If you can get around 1g of protein per pound of body weight, that would be ideal. For instance, if you weigh 185 pounds, try to hit 185g of protein per day.
If you’re having trouble getting in enough protein to meet your daily requirements, consider using a protein powder. For instance, NutraBio Whey Protein Isolate is a delicious treat you’ll look forward to drinking. With 25g of high-quality whey protein isolate per serving, along with 0g of fat, 1g of carbs, and only 120 calories, you can support muscle recovery and repair in a mouth-watering shake. Use it between meals to meet your protein requirements, or maximize your recovery by using it post-workout. We know a few fit couples who have even used it to make some tasty desserts.
Partner Workouts
While Bonnie and Clyde ran from the police, you can run from obesity and illness. Being able to work towards hitting your health and fitness goals as a fit couple can keep both of you healthy.
Fit couples are taking over the gym as well as crushing at-home workouts together. Having your partner in crime also being the person spotting you not only brings a sense of comfort but let’s be real, you don’t want to look like a little bish in front of the person you’re dating or are married to.
Go to the gym together, have a post-workout meal together, and relax together after you complete a grueling workout. If you have a sauna or steam room at your house, hit it after a workout and unwind. Flush out those toxins and help your skin and overall health.
Circling back slightly, your workouts don’t need to strictly be resistance or cardio training at the gym or at home. Your fit couples workouts can be anything from what was already mentioned to yoga, Pilates, stretching, or the various at-home workout programs like Peloton, Mirror, FightCamp, and others. The goal is to achieve a minimum of 150 minutes of exercise each week... TOGETHER.
Working out together also ties in with accountability, which segues us nicely into our next section.
Mental & Physical Support System
Accountability is what prevents many fit couples from achieving success. It generally comes down to one person slacking off and bringing the entire team down. If you want to win, you need to work together and feed off each other. The energy of fit couples is contagious.
When one person isn’t feeling like working out, the other one needs to be there to re-energize their spirits and get them pumped to go crush a workout. Holding each other accountable is what’s going to take fit couples closer to their health and fitness goals.
Excuses will be made, but as long as one party is ready to put in the work, it’s their job to motivate the other both mentally and physically. And let’s be real, when you can get through a grueling workout together where you’re pushing each other beyond their limits, it makes it that much more special when you finish that final rep and know that you killed your workout together and couldn’t have done it without the support of your workout buddy.
Getting Enough Rest
The final area that fit couples need to assess is their rest. Sleep isn’t just for having the energy to get through the following day; it plays a key role in muscle recovery, optimizing hormones, and improving health.
The last thing you want to do is burn the candle at both ends by binge-watching something on Netflix only to look at the clock and realize it’s 2am and you need to be up in three hours for work or school. Fit couples need to be on the same wavelength at night.
If you don’t live with your swolemate and spend your nights chatting on the phone, have a cut-off time when you both hang up the phone and head to bed.
You want to strive for around 7-9 hours of sleep each night to get the most benefits for your slumber. If you need to, set an alarm to remind yourself when you need to go to bed. And when it’s time for bed, don’t lay there and scroll through your social media feed for hours. The best thing you can do is turn off anything that can ring, ding, or buzz that could potentially keep you awake or wake you up.
Use these strategies that fit couples have been leveraging to maximize your results both in and out of the gym.
