Couples who exercise together reap benefits.
In couples or marriage counseling, people often work on improving their sex lives.
- Revive a lagging sex life.
- Improve sexual connection.
- Improve relationship overall.
As a marriage counselor in Raleigh NC, I rely on a variety of therapeutic techniques to help couples with this challenge. One of them is exercising together.
Benefits of exercising together :
- Better communication
- Better problem solving
- Increased sexual arousal
- Shared feel-good chemistry
- Better sense of being a team
Research shows that exercising together can make a relationship better both outside and inside the bedroom.
In couples counseling, I often recommend to couples that we turn up the volume on these exercise benefits by adding the element of competition. Engage in a competitive sport together. The chemical boost we get from winning (either against another team, or against our previous best performance) can add to our sense of connection and arousal.
Along those same lines, activities that produce what we commonly refer to as a “rush” like white water rafting, or rock climbing, could also serve to provide a similar benefit, particularly if we do them as a couple.
When it comes to exercise, its not absolutely necessary to add the competition or the “rush” to your activity. An example of exercise together with great couples benefits is dancing. Its no accident that many singles mingling locales add a band and a dancefloor!
There are many things in couples counseling and marriage counseling that can help you build better connections, better communication, and better sex with your mate. Exercising together is something you can do outside couples counseling to help build a better relationship.
See the research and links below for more information on how exercising together can be a benefit to your relationship.
- Research from Oxford University suggests that working out in the company of others produces higher levels of endorphins (feel good chemicals) than working out solo creates.
- It’s no surprise then that Linda Vanderbleek, a researcher at Troy University finds that couples who exercise together resolve conflicts faster and communicate better. She suggests this is because exercise boosts the chemicals in our brain that are associated with problem solving (like endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine).
- It has long been understood that exercise increases the arousal we experience when presented with erotic stimuli. (Hamilton LD, Fogle EA, and Meston CM. J Sex Med 2008;5:845–853.
Cantor, Joanne R.; Zillmann, Dolf; Bryant, Jennings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 32(1), Jul 1975, 69-75)
Kathy Cato
Couples Counseling Raleigh NC
919-710-7145