Going to the gym alone can be boring, tedious, and even enervating sometimes when all you want is to sit back and relax in front of the TV. Couple workouts “are great for adding accountability and making sure you stick to your plans,” as award winning US-based trainer Jonathan Jordan puts it. Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover, Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput, Sushmita Sen and Rohman Shawl make working out together endearing and exciting. It’s also important to choose someone whose workout goals complement and fit well with your own workout goals, otherwise, that hour spent working out together may end up being unproductive. Most trainers agree that motivation is key — the reason why couples choose to work out together. Whether it be about doing squats, jumping jacks, partner plank taps, partner push-ups or mountain cobras, working out together can help encourage the opposite person to strive to achieve more.
Personality types and the kind of relationship a couple shares also prove important when couples hit the gym. Some trainers are of the opinion that couples who are not as ‘like-minded’ as others should perhaps steer clear of working out together because then workouts could become another bone of contention. Others are of the opinion that couples working out together are a way they can bond and catch up at the end of an exhausting day. For Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra, who train together, that time spent at the gym is just that. “Shilpa Shetty is a fitness enthusiast, but at the same time, she loves food. She pushes Raj and makes sure he is eating the right stuff. Since Raj is Punjabi, he has a tendency to really enjoy his food and drinks, but the two often tweak their diets to incorporate leans meats and adhere to a more disciplined lifestyle. Seeing them work out together, the entire family is more motivated to stay in shape. The spirit of competition between them is what inspires them to get out of their comfort zones. Apart from that, they are always having a great time working out together. However sometimes, I have to give them a rap on the knuckles when the chit chat starts and I have to re-establish the focus in the session,” says celebrity fitness trainer and consultant Vinod Channa.
Fitness guru Mickey Mehta believes that workout sessions bring out the best in people. A workout challenges an individual to “push the envelope,” he says, and he recommends partner workouts over individual workout sessions – even if two friends or family members are working out together. For couples who are in a relationship, Mehta endorses workouts without the use of props and equipment believing that it helps build a greater bond between the couple and promotes teamwork. “The couple’s personality and their connection is more visible during a workout. A workout session helps create bonhomie within a relationship and many times I have observed that issues between couples come to be resolved during a workout session. Everyone is a work in progress and a common workout session gives couples another opportunity to spend time together, often translating into romance. Sometimes movie plans are made. A workout session can re-establish a sense of harmony in a relationship and highlight the chemistry between a couple,” avers Mehta.
For individuals who choose the early-morning hour for their workouts are important because a good nudge to get out of bed is occasionally a must. Prakash and Pooja Bharwani work out in the mornings and use their workout sessions as training to achieve greater goals like to go on tough treks. They also play sports, have taken part in marathons and have undertaken tough climbs such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Apart from that, working out together helps them spend valuable time together before the beginning of a long day at work for both of them. Collective training sessions have also helped both set goals for each other in terms of strengthening their muscles, attaining flexibility and staying fit.
“Exercising together is more inspiring because then we know the other’s comfort zone and how to push the other to go beyond it. Fitness is an important goal for both of us which we try and balance with our erratic work schedules. Additionally, if one needs to cancel due to an injury or other extraneous circumstances, the other can be there for the workout, and therefore we don’t need to cancel the session entirely. Hence common workouts help maintain our commitment to working out which I think is an added advantage,” says Pooja Bharwani.
Sometimes working out together is a game changer in itself and even better than date night. The shared activity kills the monotony and boredom associated with exercise which often comprises doing the regular pull ups, push ups, lunges, and sit-ups because trainers have the freedom to throw challenging and inimitable partner-driven exercises into the mix. Nupur and Rabindra Jhunjhunwala both use their morning workouts together not only to de-stress but also to discuss and sort out important everyday decisions hanging in the balance. In addition, they motivate each other to stick to their diets and remind one another not to indulge when a cheat day is over. “We both have different fitness goals – from stamina to strength to playing a sport. I play a lot of cricket and the workouts help me get fitter to play the sport. There have been many advantages to working out together – one being that the achievement of results has been greater. We have also ended up doing more classes,” says Rabindra Jhunjhunwala. “Hiking to base camp (Mount Everest) has been a goal and impressing upon each other to work harder at the sessions has only helped one move closer to realising the goal,” adds Nupur Jhunjhunwala.
Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover bonded over their passion to stay fit while Sushmita Sen and Rohman Shawl have posted several Instagram videos working out together with inspirational messages of how it has helped them share each other’s struggles and revel in the other’s achievements through the building of trust, commitment and making each other stronger through the practice of different yogic postures. For other couples like Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput, workouts have been geared towards helping Rajput get back into shape post-pregnancy.
Freelance fitness trainer Om Veer agrees that greater mutual respect and fondness for the other are the pros of couples’ fitness. On the reverse side, he says that sometimes couples get into fights which saps energy levels at the session along with the drive to continue working out at a session. “A fight at a class will usually result in a drop in coordination between partners as well as the refusal to do common exercises. They cease to support each other and end up doing their own thing, and that affects the workout considerably.”
