Total Gym

The Total Gym Workout Date: It’s More FUNctional Than You Thought

Today’s post comes from guest contributor Dr. Michael Mantell, a clinical and fitness psychologist in San Diego. Dr. Mantell regularly writes for San Diego Magazine and has appeared on “Oprah,” “Nightline,” “Larry King,” and “Good Morning America.” Dr. Mantell is a Total Gym user and sits on the Sports Medicine staff at The Sporting Club – a Total Gym GRAVITY facility in San Diego.

A couple of years ago, a series of studies came out that showed that couples who work out together increase their chances of sticking to their exercise program more than 90%! This can’t be ignored and it got me thinking about couples I treat for relationship problems. Maybe they ought to go from a therapy session to their gym, and they’ll not only stick to their exercise program, but also stick together.

The friendliest total body workout that offers couples a chance to exercise together in the privacy of their own home is certainly the Total Gym. It offers couples the opportunity to spend quality time with each other, the chance to discuss mutual goals and fitness levels, build a shared commitment to well-being and health, create mutual motivation, develop a deeper bond with each other, and when done right, it provides couples with opportunities to celebrate each other’s successes in a non-competitive way.

For many couples that do belong to a gym, he goes his way and she goes her way. The Total Gym is an up-close, even intimate, work out in which instead of exercising apart, husbands and wives are right next to each other doing the same exercises at different bodyweight levels, each achieving the same type of gains.

Matters of the heart beyond fitness benefits are only some of the rewards you can look forward to with a Total Gym couple’s exercise date. Remember, there are studies that show that men and women who exercise regularly report better and more frequent sex with their partners—so how much more enjoyable can exercising with each other be on a machine that promotes the right kind of movement for all activities of daily living, personal and otherwise?

It’s been well known that FUNctional exercise is good for the body, soul and mind. Now, we can add, it’s also good for our relationships. Why not use the Total Gym to fuel and fortify not only your physical fitness, but your physical and emotional relationship as well?

Here are five Total Gym “workout date” ideas:

1. Learn how to stretch each other. Gently helping each other with a pull or push can ease each other’s muscles before and after your workout.
2. Build total trust with each other simply by serving as each other’s spotter. And there’s nothing like saying “thanks” to help a relationship.
3. Eye contact and communicating while exercising offer chances for intimacy building that can extend to other activities that are, well, a bit more intimate.
4. Celebrate each other’s achievements and successes. Working out on Total Gym is not about competing, but succeeding. You’ll both work at your own level and speed, and of course, bodyweight, so you both win!
5. Want to give each other a real gift of love? Create 20-30 minutes several times a week to help each other lose weight, burn calories, build muscle and core stability, tone up, build body strength and change body composition.

There is nothing like this love-building, home-based, full-body exercise machine that I can recommend with such confidence for couples who want to build their bodies and their relationships.

Michael Mantell earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his M.S. degree in clinical psychology at the Hahnemann Medical College, where he wrote his thesis on the psychology of obesity. He has served as Chief Psychologist of Children’s Hospital and Health Center of San Diego, and created and led the nationally recognized Psychological Services and Employee Assistance/Wellness program for the San Diego Police Department.