Fun & Easy Workout Ideas You Can Do With Your Spouse

Written by Bethany Bartholomew

With all the fun plans around the holidays, finding time to hang out with just your spouse for a few minutes can be difficult. Even just preparing for time together takes time! Cooking the turkey, roasting the ham, mashing the potatoes, baking the pies—the to-do list gets pretty long. And then the list afterward usually includes another big check box: a plan to work off all of that food you just ate.

Why not burn the calories together?  

Teaming up with your spouse can make anything more fun. Yep, even a workout.

Check out some of these fun and easy workout ideas. Find ways you can include your spouse in your winter workouts, even if the holidays have you pushed for time, cooped up inside, or needing something different to change up your routine.  

I’m running short on time.

One of the excuses we often use (or maybe this is just me) is that we don’t have enough time in the day to fit in a workout. Twenty-four hours just isn’t enough time to do everything! And when you throw in the holiday fun, those hours get even more tight.

How about some fun things you can do together in about 10 to 15 minutes?

• Practice shooting hoops with your spouse from anywhere in the court (half-court challenge anyone?), even if the court is your driveway. Or just play a quick game of HORSE or around-the-world.
• Toss a Frisbee, a softball, or a football back and forth for 15 minutes in the yard or wherever you can find space. You can also set, bump, and serve a volleyball to each other, practice your tennis swings, or work on quick passes with the soccer ball.

• There are tons of apps, DVDs, and even YouTube videos you can find with quick and easy workout ideas. You can personalize your own workout routine, and you can decide how long or short you want your workout to be.
• Stretch out. Even just 10 minutes of stretching every day is good for your joints and muscles, and working with a partner can help you add more variety to your stretches.
• Do some yoga. And if that’s not really your thing, do a ten-minute sun salutation just to get the giggles together, or find a quick combination of yoga poses you both enjoy.
• Hit it hard for just a few minutes. Do ten minutes of hard-core abs one day. Run some sprints together in the neighborhood. Or have a push-up contest and try to beat your last personal record.
• Be each other’s motivation. Cheer your spouse on as you get through a tough workout together. ​

It’s way too cold outside.

This one is a pretty common concern during the winter months. Sometimes the temperature reaches such an extreme that being outside is more than just not enjoyable; it’s actually unhealthy.

How about some things you can do together indoors?

• Jog around an indoor track together, play soccer in an enclosed field, or take a few laps in an indoor pool. (Bonus! Sometimes indoor pools are even heated during the winter months.)
• Hit the courts and play some racquetball, volleyball, wallyball, tennis, basketball…you name it! And if you need more players, invite friends, family, or even neighbors to join in the fun.
• Head to the gym. It’s a classic, and it’s warm!
• Go dancing. Find somewhere that teaches Latin styles, country dancing, blues dancing, or even your classic ballroom dances. Most places will offer lessons the hour before they open up for general dancing. Learn some new moves and have fun practicing them together.
  

• Let the personalized workouts do their thing. Use an app or a video to get in your cardio, strength exercises, or stretching all in your own living room, bedroom, kitchen…wherever! Take turns going through your favorite workout routines together. You can even jazz it up with some of your favorite tunes.
  

• Take turns running on a mini trampoline.
• Jump rope in your kitchen (or wherever you have enough space).
• Use your doorway as a chin-up bar (or buy your own bar that can be installed in your doorway instead).
• Lift weights together at home. If you don't have weights, use cans or books for weights. There are lots of options all over your house if you know where to look. Just make sure you choose safe options.

I need more ideas.

There are plenty of ways you can work out with your spouse that you’ve probably already thought of.

However, if you are still stuck, why not go for some of the classics? 

• Think of the most common ways to work out and stretch each muscle group. Brainstorm together how you want to organize your workout based on those basic exercises.
• See how many sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups you can each do.
• Practice touching your toes.
• Jog in place.

• Go for a run together. If you want to talk more than you want to focus on intensity, run for a few minutes and walk for one minute, and keep doing that for however many miles you’d like to run. Or slow it down and make it a moderate jog.
• Take a stroll. Walk hand-in-hand through your neighborhood, around the block, or around a nearby park.
• Enjoy a bike ride together. You can even try tandem biking. Nothing builds teamwork like figuring out which foot to push the pedals with, when to brake, and when to coast on a tandem bike.
• Be young again. Ride push scooters, cruise on skateboards, or go rollerblading around the block, just for the fun of it.
• Teach your spouse how to use your favorite equipment at the gym.
• Take sports, yoga, Pilates, or other classes together at your local recreation center.
• See who can make up the most random sequence of gym exercises. Try going through that workout, and then try it again in reverse.

Whatever you do, do it together. And then treat yourselves! You’ve both been working hard on building muscles in your bodies and building teamwork in your marriage. Take turns massaging each other’s sore muscles. You’ve earned it.

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