Exercising with your partner can be one of the best ways to spend quality time together. Exercising as a couple can do wonders for your relationship, physically, mentally and emotionally.  Recent studies have shown that exercising together can increase compliance by 90 percent.

Here are some tips and suggestions to express your love through fitness and healthy living.

Circuit training (strength and cardio) hour: For your enjoyment together

Frequency and duration: Once or twice a week for 30-60 minutes

Benefits: Doing a circuit workout can improve your body composition, strength, endurance, metabolism and functional fitness.  This also promotes exercise enjoyment, because you alternate doing the exercises (cardio and strength) with each other for a specified duration (30-60 seconds per workout station), and you can see each other’s actual fitness level.

This can be done at home since you don’t need huge machines or special equipment to get the overall benefits of this workout.

Prepare 10 exercise stations in your exercise area (indoor or outdoor) with five cardio moves—jogging in place, jumping jacks, step-ups, punches and kicks—and five strength training moves—push-ups, squats, dumbbell rows, lunges and abdominal crunches. Alternate the cardio moves with strength training moves.

Set up your favorite workout music as a couple and get a stopwatch.

Prepare a pair of dumbbells for the dumbbell row, and you can also add more weights for the other exercises like squats or lunges.

Perform a five- to 10-minute warm-up together before you start the circuit workout by doing a brisk walk outside or just light jogging in place if you choose to do it indoors.

Start the workout by doing a 30- to 60-second exercise at your starting exercise station (can be cardio or weights) as your partner does the other station.  The total repetitions per exercise will depend on your exercise pace. Then proceed to the next station, as does your partner.

Do not forget to stretch and cool down after the circuit workout.

Walk and talk

Outdoor run and/or walk date: For expressing feelings and communication

Frequency and duration: Once or twice a week for 20-60 minutes

Benefits: Running and walking together as a couple can improve your endurance and increase your calorie burn.

This outdoor activity can also help manage your stress, since you can communicate with each other while you release the stress during the actual activity.

Choose a safe walking/running path with less cars and distractions like a park or a running place, either inside your village or a popular running place like UP, Bonifacio High Street or Mall of Asia.

Start with a 10-minute walking warm-up as you talk to each other.

The type of activity that you will do (walking, jogging or running) will depend on both your fitness levels.  You can also try to alternate walking with running for every one to five minutes so you will have time to talk during walking.

After your chosen duration, cool down by walking for another five to 10 minutes and then stretch together.

The core and stretch routine: For sexual performance and physical touch

Frequency and duration: Once to three times a week for 15-30 minutes

Benefits: Core strength is the foundation of all your physical activities and, coupled with a flexible body, can help you prevent injuries and  in your  daily living, like doing your chores and responding to the physical demands of your work. Aside from renewed endurance and strength, couples can benefit a lot with an improved core and flexible body for sexual activities.

Core and flexibility can be done with your loved one in an exercise setup like a gym, Pilates and/or yoga studio, but can definitely be done together even in the house or even while on vacation.

At home you can get exercise mats or even towels and do core activities together, like planks, shoulder bridges, abdominal and oblique crunches and quadruped hip extensions for 10-20 reps each. These exercises can strengthen your abdominals, lower back and buttocks, and doing it properly with correct form can really target the deeper muscles of your body.

Stretch each other after the core workout routine and hold each stretch for 15-20 seconds while executing proper breathing.  The basic stretches should target the hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, abductors, adductors, lower back, chest, shoulders, arms, upper and middle back. Aside from quality time, touching your partner by massaging or stretching him/her is a great way to express your love.

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