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"  I&amp;#039;ve long been a gym-goer, but recently I convinced my wife to start coming with me. Now going to the gym together is a significant part of the quality time we get to spend together, especially during this horrifying winter in which our other options include hibernating in a cave, and huddling around a can fire inside our frozen apartment. Aside from the social aspect, going to the gym with your significant other is a great way to keep each other motivated. Not that we actually work out together once we&amp;#039;re there, mind you. There are only three things a person should do completely alone in life: work out, defecate, and meet his maker. Unless you&amp;#039;re some kind of powerlifter, working out with a partner is a tremendous waste of time\u2014both yours and that of the breadline of people waiting for you two to relinquish the piece of equipment you&amp;#039;ve been protecting for an hour like a sweaty security guard. But working out at a distance from your spouse? There&amp;#039;s nothing quite so fulfilling as catching a glimpse of a woman working out across the room, checking her out for a moment, then realizing it&amp;#039;s your wife.  Does she feel the same way? There&amp;#039;s only one way to make sure: Get into even better shape. That uneasy dynamic is a woefully undervalued aspect of working out together. I had a thought the other day, as I glanced over at my wife doing pushups: Couples at the gym are like Cold War forces stockpiling nuclear warheads, just in case one of them launches an attack. Not that either of us has any plans of leaving, but staying one step ahead is a great way to both deter an incident and guarantee mutually assured destruction if one occurs.   Dark? Paranoid? Well, what do you want? It&amp;#039;s been snowing here for five months straight. Besides, the Cold War inspired some truly important advances, the race to the moon not least among them. Similarly, working out together, like the invention of nuclear power, has the potential to be one of our most glorious inventions, but also the one that could foretell our inevitable extinction. I am become hot, the destroyer of worlds.  MORE: Read our entire post-winter fitness plan, with workouts, creative coping mechanisms, and even hamburgers, here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/news/a27771/vortex-health-cold-war/>