Have you ever thought about that question? Have you ever thought about how your training/workout goals affect your family or your marriage (even if it’s just you and your husband/wife)? (This definitely applies to boyfriend/girlfriend as well, especially when you’re both busy with your jobs/careers.)

Are your Saturday/Sunday mornings consumed with running/riding/lifting? Are you able to train with your husband/wife? If you are - then it’s probably an enjoyable way to spend time with each other.

In many cases, many families swap child-care duties on the weekends so they can train, thereby spending less time with their children and together as a family.

I’m gone a lot. Traveling. Training. Deployed. When I’m home, I like to be home - with my wife and my children.

With my current schedule, I sometimes am not able to train while traveling so when I’m home - I like to work out most days that I’m home.

The “old” me would have insisted that I train first thing in the morning no matter what was going on with our family, but I feel like I am more considerate of my family and spending time with them on the weekends...are we relaxing after breakfast? playing a game? watching Sportscenter on Saturday morning? going for a walk?

I often ask myself: when is the best time for me to train today? Maybe it’s early in the morning before my family wakes up, which is what I did on Sunday morning - or maybe it’s Saturday afternoon while my kids played with the neighbors for a couple of hours…

I offer this small tip to fitness-conscious parents and married couples out there because for a long time - like a decade - I got it wrong.

My wife loves to work out as well and is in great shape. So guess what? Now we work out together whenever we can. During a recent period of leave (vacation for normal folks…), we worked out together 3-4 times, which was awesome. We have found that we really enjoy it and it’s a way for us to bond and have fun while training together.

My wife can’t lift as much as I can! My husband is slower than I am!

Relax. One training session per week where you don’t kill yourself won’t hurt you one bit. You won’t get weaker, slower, less fit from that one session every week or every couple of weeks. I think most people will find that you start to look forward to these sessions with your partner because while they contain a fitness component - it’s almost like a date with your spouse.

Tracy and I just had one today…it was a blast.

Here’s another benefit. You’ll learn from each other. You don’t normally train together, right? So each of does different exercises, has different techniques, etc. that you can learn while you train together. I am always learning new exercises - or new ways to do old exercises - when I train with Tracy. She’ll often do something, and I say ‘hey, I really like that and I’ll try that this week…”

In closing, be considerate of your family when you train - especially on the weekends (when many people don’t work, and your kids aren’t in school) - and train with your spouse/significant other. These are two “easy” wins as you continue your journey on the fitness path and should make it much more enjoyable as you incorporate an element of selflessness into your journey.

Have an awesome month - talk to in November.

-Ed