Exercising with your spouse might add up to less movement

Working out with a buddy might not generate as much physical activity as intended when that buddy is your spouse, a new study suggests.

Published online Oct. 18, 2023, by the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, the study involved 240 people ages 54 to 72. All were married and living with their spouses. Researchers split participants into four groups. These included two groups with 30 couples each who would exercise as couples, and two groups with 60 individuals each who would exercise without their spouses. All participants wore fitness trackers, but only half received real-time data from them; the others' real-time feedback was disabled. The researchers collected data over 12 weeks about how consistently participants met daily step thresholds of 5,000, 7,500, 10,000, and 15,000 steps, along with their daily average step count.

While earlier studies showed that older adults exercising with a buddy moved more, this analysis found the opposite: participants exercising with their spouses logged lower average daily step counts. They also met daily step counts of 7,500 or higher less often than participants who exercised without their spouses. The findings suggest that people who want to get the most from their exercise time might more easily achieve their goals by doing it on their own rather than exercising with their spouse, study authors said.

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