Exercising as a couple: spouses who work out together communicate better, study finds

People who exercise together with their partner are more likely to report good communication in their marriage. That is the finding of a study by Brigham Young University (BYU) in the United States, published in the journal Family Relations. A team led by Jeremy Yorgason analysed survey data from nearly 1,700 young married couples in the CREATE study, which has followed newlyweds in the US for more than a decade. The researchers compared individual and shared exercise against three measures: communication, conflict resolution and marital stress.

Both forms of exercise were associated with healthier marriages, but shared exercise showed consistently stronger links. About 60 percent of husbands and wives said they exercised, yet only about one-third exercised together. Walking was the shared activity couples mentioned most often. The clearest association was with communication: couples who were active together reported listening better and feeling more supported by their spouse. Shared exercise helps couples resolve conflict peacefully "in a small but significant way," Yorgason said.

The researchers stress that the results are associations: the study does not show that exercise improves marriages, and the effect is not necessarily large. Exercising together is not a fix for every relationship problem, and couples raising children may need to plan it deliberately. Co-author Ashlyn Mildenhall sees walking as an easy way to start. "It naturally provides opportunities to communicate," she said.