Fortis After Hours Podcast

ONE | The Art of Training with Your Spouse

• Nate & Liz Ribaudo • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Ever wondered if training with your partner is a recipe for relationship gold or disaster? In our premiere episode of the rebranded Fortis After Hours Podcast, we pull back the curtain on what it's really like to share training sessions, sweat, and sometimes tears with your significant other.

After a decade of training together through Orange Theory, CrossFit, and ultimately finding our home in competitive powerlifting, we've experienced the full spectrum of couple's fitness dynamics. From the early days of heated gym arguments to our current "diamond" training relationship, we candidly discuss how communication, boundaries, and persistence transformed our training partnership into something special.

The truth? Not every couple should train together. We explore why some relationships thrive in a shared fitness environment while others fare better with separate workouts. For those who do want to team up, we reveal the key difference between couples who succeed and those who struggle: alignment in passion and commitment, not necessarily matching fitness levels or identical goals.

Our journey through powerlifting has taken us across the country, with Liz achieving competition bests of a 385lb squat, 203lb bench, and 457lb deadlift, while Nate has hit a 585lb squat, 407lb bench, and 672lb deadlift. But beyond the numbers, we've discovered how our distinct training personalities have influenced each other, with Liz adopting more energy for certain lifts and Nate learning the value of strategic intensity management.

Whether you're currently training with your partner, considering making the gym a couple's activity, or have decided it's absolutely not for you, this episode offers practical advice on supporting each other's fitness journeys. The communication skills we've developed spotting each other have strengthened our marriage outside the gym walls – proving that sometimes the heaviest things we lift together aren't weights, but expectations and understanding.

Join us for this honest conversation about strength, relationships, and finding your way together. Subscribe to the Fortis After Hours Podcast for more unfiltered discussions about fitness, mental health, relationships, and everything in between!

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HOSTED BY
@lizribaudo_fortis
@nateribaudo_fortis

Nate:

What's going on, you guys? Welcome to the first episode of the Fortis After Hours Podcast. I'm your co-host, nate, joined by my wife Liz.

Liz:

Hey.

Nate:

And we have a awesome episode planned for you guys today. As you guys know, we kind of rebranded the podcast and our new name theme is the Fortis After Hours Podcast. Why is that, liz?

Liz:

Because we're talking about things other than powerlifting.

Nate:

now that is true, and it's after hours. That's the main thing I was hoping that you would do.

Liz:

AKA. It's about 7.30 on a Saturday night.

Nate:

Yeah, we record these kind of after hours and we're going to be focusing and diving into unfiltered conversations about fitness, mental health relationships, powerlifting and everything in between, so going to be a little bit broader topic range for you guys. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast over the past few months to slash maybe a year you've probably already experienced this. But this is just going to give us the freedom to kind of just talk about whatever we're feeling.

Liz:

that day and time. Yeah, because sometimes we felt like we had to talk more about like powerlifting, specific even if we had, like, other things we maybe wanted to talk about, and then we would still sometimes talk about the other things anyways.

Nate:

But exactly now. We're just going to talk about whatever we want, so get ready worry because we both still are very much into powerlifting yeah there will definitely still be powerlifting.

Liz:

Fitness, nutrition, life, things related to that yeah, 100.

Nate:

We just want a little bit more freedom to talk about other topics in the fitness space, not just, uh, powerlifting and not just kind of like I don't know being chained to that.

Nate:

Uh, yeah, exactly so, anyways. So welcome to the first episode. And today we're going to be kind of reintroducing ourselves, uh, in case we have some new listeners, since we this is technically going to be episode one, I think I am going to title it episode one, I'm going to have some sort of denotation so you can see the difference between the before episodes and now.

Liz:

But this is episode one, perfect um, so yeah, who are? You, because I feel like too, as far as like reintroducing ourselves, even if people aren't like totally new, it's probably been. I mean, I assume most people probably know who we are, but like yeah they might not know about, like I don't know, our past yeah, exactly, I don't know maybe they just know who we are now yeah, so we going to start with reintroducing ourselves, and Liz is going to start us off.

Nate:

So who are you?

Liz:

Oh, I'm Liz.

Nate:

All right.

Liz:

Told me about Fell on the Couch.

Nate:

Yep.

Liz:

Trying to come join us.

Nate:

He did.

Liz:

What are we introducing ourselves about?

Nate:

Why don't you tell us how you kind of got started in the fitness space, since that's, you know, the majority of our life Talk about, yeah, let's talk about that first. If I give you all of them, you're gonna forget them, so I'm just gonna say that first.

Liz:

Probably yeah. So growing up, sports fitness, whatever exercise, any of that such was not even a relevant topic in my life.

Nate:

Growing up, not on your radar.

Liz:

Nope, not even a little bit. I did not play sports, I did not participate in really any of those such things.

Nate:

Okay.

Liz:

So it was probably oh, I don't know, maybe like after Well, in college I would say I would like try and be like yeah, I should, you know, go exercise or something. And I would go to the gym and do like.

Nate:

Like an elliptical or something.

Liz:

Yeah an elliptical.

Nate:

And be like yeah.

Liz:

I'm exercising which, I mean, is better than nothing. To be fair, but, like I wasn't really like trying that hard, not going to lie, it was more just moving, a little bit sort of, because I thought that's what I was supposed to do, yeah, and then it was, I would say, after college. I don't remember exactly how long, maybe a year or two after college.

Liz:

I had realized that I was starting to gain some weight that I didn't want to gain. So I started going to the gym a little bit. I think I worked with a personal trainer for a little bit to kind of like teach me sort of how to move, I guess, how to lift, how to work out. I had no clue what I was doing no clue and then I ended up losing actually like a decent amount of weight, I would say I don't know something.

Liz:

And then one of the teachers that I taught with at the time it was actually over the summer she invited me to go try out Orange Theory, which was this new thing that had opened up.

Nate:

Like group fitness.

Liz:

Yes, but it was like new to the area or something and she wanted to go try it. So I went and tried it with her and that was kind of where I like, really I would say started consistently working out.

Nate:

Gotcha.

Liz:

Probably five to six to maybe seven days a week.

Nate:

Okay, I always really enjoyed the strength part of it, like the dumbbells, the floor part, the weightlifting if you can call it that weightlifting part of it, I guess Weren't you kind of naturally pretty good at that? I?

Liz:

at that. I guess that you found or whatever like you could like start lifting the bigger weights type thing yes, like, and I would also like push myself to the bigger weights where, like, a lot of people maybe didn't, but I was always like I would always push myself and that was something that I enjoyed then. Yeah, I guess that was kind of like the very beginning Cool.

Nate:

Right on Um. So that's how you started fitness. And then I guess let's also talk about how you discovered powerlifting, since you have spent the most time doing powerlifting and competing in the sport of powerlifting, um, and then like how you discovered powerlifting. And then what are your best lifts all time and what are you doing now?

Liz:

um, so I did orange theory for, I don't know, probably a year and a half, two years, maybe that's obviously where we met. If you didn't know, um, now you know we met at orange theory yep um, and then we kind of started going to the gym in addition to Orange Theory and actually lifting like squat, bench, deadlift, which I had kind of done before with a personal trainer. But then I feel like we like really started doing that a little bit more.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

Not like powerlifting, though I mean technically it was, but like it wasn't. Like for me, it wasn't at all in my brain, didn't even know what powerlifting though I mean technically it was, but it wasn't For me, it wasn't at all in my brain, didn't even know what powerlifting was really. Then we ventured to CrossFit for a little while. Yeah, that was a time. Ironically, it was my idea, but it was not for me.

Nate:

Yeah, Liz is not a fan of this.

Liz:

Is all competitive exercising this is all in illinois so then we came down to florida and the gym we came to that we then bought, but it was definitely like not crossfit but crossfit, like they called it functional fitness, but it was definitely more of like a crossfit s class um, and I just it never was really like something I enjoyed doing, but I always enjoyed the lifting aspect of it, like even then, like that was still the part that I enjoyed the most was lifting.

Liz:

And then, I don't know, somewhere along the way, like you, brought up powerlifting to me or told me about powerlifting, um.

Nate:

And essentially I said, no, I'm never doing that because I'm not competing in front of people, um somehow I think it's because we were talking, you were doing crossfit and then you were doing olympic lifting for a while because you just liked the lifting, but you didn't like the olympic lifting because of the, I think really just because of the lack of like. You're not in control for a section of those lifts.

Liz:

I think that is what kind of bothered you. I don't like throwing things over my head, it's just not it's too free-flowing, crazy for me.

Nate:

And then I was like you know, I was aware of powerlifting, not like in the area, but just like the sport, and I was like why don't you just do that?

Liz:

And then I that, and then I think you did some research and well, it took me a while to even like be able to like be willing to like compete in that too, like I trained for, I don't know, probably like a year, year and a half, maybe like following some online programs that I found, or different coaches, whatever, um, and then at then, finally, somehow you convinced me to sign up for my first meet in.

Liz:

It's either February or March, I don't know. One of those two months of 2018 was my first meet and I apparently was hooked after that.

Nate:

Yeah, here we are, here we are.

Liz:

However many years it's been now.

Nate:

Seven.

Liz:

Yeah, that's a lot of years seven years later.

Nate:

And then, last but not least question how did fortis come about slash? How did you start working in the fitness industry?

Liz:

um, so hold on. You'd ask me another question on the question before this, what are your biggest lifts?

Nate:

And then, what are you doing right now? Or like in the sport, like what's your next competition?

Liz:

So my best lifts are that right?

Nate:

there is called teamwork folks.

Liz:

I knew there was another question.

Nate:

I was working on it.

Liz:

My best squat ever in a competition was 385. My best bench is 203. And my best deadlift is 457.

Nate:

All of those done in competition.

Liz:

I think I technically benched 209 one time, like in the gym, but not with like a competition, like not to like competition standards. Next up, the meet I'm training for is in September. It is the power surge pro-am I'll be for. Is in September, it is the Power Surge Pro-Am. I'll be doing the Pro Day and yeah, that's up in Chicago. I did this meet a couple years ago. I'm sure I've talked extensively about that as well as how the last couple years have gone, but we're working on having fun and going and doing that meet again, um, in a couple months yeah, all right, okay, and then what was the third question, or the next question that I oh fortis like?

Liz:

how did fortis start. So, if you guys didn't know, I was an elementary school teacher for 10 years. Um, I taught for five years in illinois and five years down in florida.

Liz:

We moved down here in 2016 yeah and then you were working at the gym the other gym with the other owners back in 2016 and then they left and sold us the gym in 2018 and I would say, around that time I started doing like a little bit of like personal training kind of like on the side as needed, um, maybe with like some specific people.

Liz:

And then that was 2018 and then I kind of I was still teaching full-time. I was. It was um an interesting time during COVID, for sure, um, so I taught through COVID um. I taught until 2021. So, like May of 2021 was my final time teaching um. At that point, I had started doing a little bit more coaching at the gym, I would say training um at night and on the weekends, around teaching and my own working out training um, and so I was doing that. And then in 2021, I did my final year of teaching and then joined the gym full-time then and really started doing, obviously, more personal training, more coaching, online coaching, things like that yeah, I think that's about right yeah, yeah.

Nate:

Cool, right on, yeah, and then I guess one last question would just be what's one thing that you really like enjoy? I know one thing is kind of tough, but one thing that you enjoy about being a coach and a personal trainer, and also your favorite flavor of ice cream, and also your favorite flavor of ice cream.

Liz:

So I think, like, my favorite thing with training and coaching is getting people to like accomplish things that they didn't ever think that they could do, or like helping them reach their goals but then like going even beyond that, I guess, because usually people can do much more than they think they can do, yeah, and so I just think that's really cool, finding like I mean, our whole thing is redefining strong, so it's finding like the strong that people have that they never even like knew that they could have, if that makes any sense at all.

Nate:

Yeah, no, it makes sense sense.

Liz:

So just kind of helping people find that and like feel empowered through their strength and their progress, um yeah, okay so that's probably my favorite part about it and then my favorite flavor of ice cream. So like, just like generic ice cream, like regular I would go with cookie, but I really like half-baked Ben Jerry's.

Nate:

Okay, right on.

Liz:

Which has cookie dough in it.

Nate:

Nice, I did not have half-baked the other day when I got some Ben Jerry's for us.

Liz:

Sad.

Nate:

The only way to buy Ben Jerry's realistically is buy one, get one free at Publix or your local grocer whenever they do that, because otherwise it's insanely expensive. It is, but it's so good insanely expensive it is, but it's so good, yeah, all right, so my turn. I'm going to try and run through the same questions that I asked liz, but the problem is they're in my mind.

Liz:

So the first question how did you get into fitness?

Nate:

how to get into fitness. Well, I was, uh, about probably 15 years old and I was tired of being small and weak and I struggled to do push-ups. I couldn't really lift too much weights. And I saw you know again in school. You start to see these people around you. I'm like what is going on? What are these kids doing? Like, what am I not doing? Then I realized it's not lifting weights. So I started lifting weights, probably around like 15 or 16 years old, somewhere around there, and then I started really getting serious into it 17, 18. Into it 17, 18, um. And I became a personal trainer when I was 18, 19, what year is it?

Liz:

what 2025.

Nate:

Okay, personal trainer in 2013, um, so whatever that is.

Liz:

However old.

Nate:

However old I think I was 19, maybe 18, whatever, but anyways, yeah. So once I did that, I kind of really dove into fitness headfirst, made it kind of like my lifestyle because I really enjoyed it. You know, I just like the progress. I mean, that's kind of the answer to that question is how I got into it is I just really enjoyed making progress and seeing the progress in my body. You know, I'd go to the gym. I started lifting some weights, maybe I was only using 20s, and then I did that for a few weeks and then I would use 25s and then 35, so and so forth.

Nate:

I definitely remember when I was younger being enamored with people that could bench press the hundreds. 100 pound dumbbells like that was like insane to me. And then here we we are. That did not take me that long to do. I did that a long time ago, um.

Nate:

But yeah, I've gone through different phases of my fitness journey. Um, you know, I kind of started off just lifting, doing like a lot of plyometric stuff, some pull-ups, like a lot of pull-ups, muscle-ups, things like that. Um, and then I've done, I've competed in a lot of stuff I would say pretty much the main organized sports as far as like strength sports, so I competed in men's physique bodybuilding first. Then I did CrossFit competitions, I did Olympic lifting, olympic weightlifting, so overhead snatch and clean and jerk competitions. And then I've done powerlifting competitions, like organized powerlifting competitions, um, and then like actually like sanctioned events for powerlifting, like both. Um, I kind of like backyard events and then like real ones, um. And yeah, my fitness journey has kind of taken me quite literally all over the country at this point, especially with powerlifting, kind of been all over, um, and it ended up turning into my full-time career and something I love to do, um same I always say yeah, I always say um, and I do mean this like I'll probably be lifting weights forever, like until I die.

Nate:

I don't obviously that's not going to look different as I continue to age, but yeah, I'm gonna be doing some sort of weightlifting until I die. It's just my passion. I love it, and part of the reasons I do love it is the whole concept of redefining strong and, you know, finding my own strong, because, you know, everyone has different journeys and everyone starts at different spots. And for me, you know, there's some things that I really excelled at very easily and there's other things that took me years and years and years to build. Uh, so I just think that's cool. I think that's a cool part about fitness yes, um the next question?

Nate:

I don't remember yeah, I didn't think so um something.

Liz:

Oh, your numbers.

Nate:

I think we talked about that how I got into powerlifting yeah, which you kind of just said yeah I kind of combined the first two.

Nate:

So, yeah, now I'll just talk about my best powerlifting numbers that I've ever hit um, 585 squat, that was in a competition 407 bench, that was in the gym recently, and then 672 deadlift. I've done that in the gym and on competition, um. And my next goal is a meet in november, uh, here in florida. It's like the florida state championships for us apl and my goal for that is to get as close. I mean, it's the pr of the total, that's number one, but then the main goal is to. That's the main goal. Secondary goal is to get as close to 1700 as possible and then tertiary goal would just be to win the weight class or the meet, whatever is there on that day.

Nate:

And, yeah, I'm kind of really locking in and focusing on that. For this year I focused a lot on if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I've focused a lot on like running and lifting last year, um, and I'm really kind of like locking in just to lifting. I'm still doing cardio, um, but a lot less running these days for now, for the time being yes um how did fortis?

Nate:

fortis appear yeah, so disappeared.

Nate:

Yeah, fortis not appear seven years ago. Yeah, basically took a big risk when we first moved down here and ended up paying off. I was working for these people that owned the gym before us and it was called Husky Mafia Health and Fitness and it was more of like a functional training functional fitness gym Kind of did more like Metcons CrossFit-esque type workouts and I was a coach for them and worked with them for a little bit, kind of helped them build up like a good following and I built up my own like personal training clientele. And then there was an opportunity to purchase the gym or the majority share the gym. So we did that. And now to purchase the gym or the majority of shares of the gym, we did that and now we own the gym with our good friend Joel Bretz.

Nate:

We decided to rename it and came up with the name Fortis. My dad actually helped me come up with that. He speaks Latin kind of weird because it's a dead language language but he like can speak it right. It knows it uh, very well. And fortis in latin means strong and I knew I had the concept of redefining strong and I knew that I wanted to call it fitness studio.

Nate:

Uh, because that was kind of what I wanted, the I don't know how you say it, but like, basically, like I wanted the kind of like aesthetic, but in word form I don't even know how it is, but I wanted that to be known, just when you're like looking it up, okay, this is a fitness studio. It's not just a gym. A little bit like cleaner, higher quality, more premium experience is what I was going for with that name. So, yeah, I actually came up with the Fortis or sorry, with the fitness studio first, and then we came up with Fortis, and then we have Fortis fitness studio. Here we are, so that was 2018. And we have been open for just over seven years now. It has been a wild roller coaster journey of ups and downs.

Nate:

It's been a journey, yeah that's pretty much, I would say, owning a business. If you have any other friends that own businesses, that's probably they'll tell you something similar. But it's really really awesome and really rewarding and I'm super thankful to have people supporting us, not only like our clients and members loyal members I mean we've had some people that have been with us literally since the beginning and are still members, but some members loyal members I mean we've had some people that have been literally since the beginning and they're still members, uh but also the support of my wife, liz, and joel. Um, they've been super supportive in all of my uh, I'm kind of like the idea person of the business kind of and yeah they're super supportive and just kind of let me do my thing.

Liz:

Sometimes I keep you in check.

Nate:

I was just going to say they're good at kind of bringing me down to earth sometimes, which I need, because I'd be not down to earth sometimes, I'd be just in space. Thanks, so yeah, and what was the question? Just kind of like how it started. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how to take some time. But while we're working on like fully rebranding is just that like kind of one unification of fortis, we're all strong together, redefining. Strong together, um, and we really want our brand, our branding, our messaging, our marketing, everything to reflect that um, because I think we can do a lot better at that. So we're going to okay.

Liz:

Okay, and then the last question yeah, what is your favorite part about training? And then your favorite ice cream flavor.

Nate:

So my favorite part about training is definitely just like communicating with people, like just like I don't know building relationships, seeing people, like you said, like seeing people go from point A to point B, being alongside, and I definitely like the I guess, fix it part of training that's like three or four different things all in one well, that's just how I am welcome to my brain.

Nate:

But yeah, I definitely just like. Like you know, people come to me with a problem and I like coming up with a solution. Sometimes it's really easy, other times it takes me a little bit, uh, but pretty much every time I can come up with some sort of solution that works for them. I also just kind of pride myself in being able to do that. I feel like a lot of trainers these days, and specifically powerlifting coaches, are very one dimensional and I think that that is unfortunately a big weakness in long term success as a trainer. So if you're listening and you are thinking about getting into personal training or coaching, I strongly encourage you to try and work with a lot of different individuals.

Nate:

In the beginning, you're going to have to work for free. That's what I did in the very beginning. I worked for a lot of hours, a lot of free hours, and just build up that experience, working with human beings, working with different everyday issues. You know like there's I mean there's a lot of like theoretical, like knowledge out there, but then applying it to the real world is much different. Um, so that is, I guess, just one thing that I pride myself in is being able to really kind of work with anyone, um, and try and you know, achieve the results that they're looking for.

Nate:

Um, specifically, it's been awesome to get in the sport of powerlifting and coaching the sport I've been coaching now for seven years and a lot of trial and error, and I would say my favorite part of coaching powerlifting which you didn't ask but I'll tell you anyways is, of course you will uh, that is going to be meat day. I love making attempt selections, I love the rush of it. I'm also pretty good at it and I, yeah, I just love like meat day in all aspects as a coach or a lifter.

Nate:

Big fan, big fan couldn't be me in an ideal situation lizard, write all your programs and communicate with you all, and then I would just show up on meat day and make all the weight calls yeah, I love it. Um, not to say I don't like the other stuff, I definitely do, but uh, that's just like my favorite part, because that was the question. Yes, my favorite ice cream would be Ben Jerry's Cherry Garcia, old man flavor.

Liz:

That's so gross.

Nate:

Not really yeah.

Liz:

I really want ice cream now.

Nate:

Okay, we need to focus up. So that is us in a nutshell, or the basics as far as really quickly. One last thing I did forget about. Why do you like podcasting? Because you enjoy it, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it, so you must enjoy it a little bit. When we first started podcasting together, this was a little apprehensive. We'll say this is after. I was like talking to myself for years. So I'm like I mean, so, so what do you enjoy about it?

Liz:

I mean, really, the only reason I started doing it was because you wanted me to do it.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

And so I was just being nice, but I don wanted me to do it, yeah, and so I was just being nice, but I don't know, it's kind of fun talking and sharing stories and hanging out and giving advice, and then I think, like I just think it's cool too when people are like hey, I was listening to your podcast and I really appreciated this, or I learned this, or I liked this, and so I think it's just like another way of like helping people and I think that's cool and we get to just hang out and talk on the couch and sit here and not be on video anymore liz's anti-video.

Nate:

Um, yeah, that's cool, I think, honestly, my answer is probably pretty similar. Like I just enjoy uh talking to you and getting to talk about the stuff that we love, which is fitness, powerlifting, strength, relationship stuff. And yeah, it's just an awesome medium that I think has grown in popularity greatly, for a good reason, because it's awesome and people can be, you know, learning and growing in their car, uh on their way to work, coming from work at the gym. Some people work out listening to podcasts.

Liz:

I don't know how you do that, um I worked out listening to a book the other day that's you're doing like the pump work out yesterday?

Nate:

yeah, not like heavy lifting it was just like accessories and cardio. Just to clarify for the people.

Liz:

But still, I listened to a book while I was working out Cool. Book Book time I don't know, it's like listening to a podcast, but a book.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

I guess. So yeah, exactly.

Nate:

So people listen to podcasts when they work out and books, exactly. But yeah, no, and I enjoy it and I really hope to reinvigorate our podcast that we have here. We also really appreciate all the listeners that we have. We have usually around 150 or so per week, which is fantastic. If you are listening to the podcast, you've been listening for a while. You haven't left us a review. Leave us a review. We'd appreciate that. That'll help grow the podcast. If if you want to share with your friends, that helps as well. So let's go ahead and get into our topic of the day, which is training with your significant other which is something we've been doing for quite a while.

Liz:

We met training together.

Nate:

We did Sort of yeah, sort of. So we've been training together for quite a while. We've been training in the, been training together for quite a while. We've been training in the same sport together for quite a while.

Liz:

We've technically been training together for like 10 years now.

Nate:

That's crazy. That is true, I didn't even think about that.

Liz:

Yeah.

Nate:

Weird.

Liz:

That is weird.

Nate:

You know what? Here's some crazy stuff.

Liz:

Oh.

Nate:

When we first started training, I vividly remember, I vividly remember I was like around like a 365 squat or so.

Liz:

Yeah, that was like hard. I can do that, you can do that.

Nate:

And I just benched that for two today, okay, on a secondary day, so that's pretty cool. Yeah, 10 years, so yeah, so training together. Let's first talk about some of like the benefits of training together. Start off some positives. What do you feel like are some of the benefits of training together as a husband and wife team?

Liz:

also should be noted that me and lynn spend basically all day, every day, together, so a little unique situation yeah, we're literally together like 24 7, unless, well, like other than like the hour or two you go to work before I get up, and yeah, sometimes it's also kind of funny how many questions we get about that.

Nate:

Like not I guess how many, but it is a pretty frequent question. People are like, oh, like, do you get tired of each other? Like, oh, are you good? Like like we're like in jail or something. I'm like yeah, I'm good, I like my wife and I like spending time with her.

Liz:

So but yeah, we are, are basically together all the time. Yeah, we work together, we train together, we live together. That's all the things.

Nate:

Did you say we live together?

Liz:

Yeah, obviously.

Nate:

Nice.

Liz:

I'm just saying, we do.

Nate:

Oh my gosh, Hence 24-7. Okay.

Liz:

Anyways, I don't know what I'm supposed to be saying.

Nate:

What is like the benefits some of the benefits you think that there are to training together?

Liz:

I mean, I feel like this very much depends on the couple, I would say Because some people can do this and some people can't. All right, as far as significant others training together. I would say because some people can do this and some people can't All right as far as significant others training together because I've heard a lot of stories, of ones that can't train together.

Liz:

I do know several, obviously I do too, and I think it just kind of depends on, like what your goals are. If you have similar goals, what your lifestyle is is like like how important training is to you, and I think for us it works well because we have similar, like important, similar goals, so like we can kind of like push each other and like make sure that we're like both working towards what we need to be working towards, if that makes sense.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

Because we both are like very passionate about it. Where you know, sometimes I mean this isn't really what you asked, but where I'm going with that is like sometimes, if you have two people like with very different passion levels of the sport or of going to the gym or training, like you have one person that's super into it, like really invested, like it's their whole life, and the other person just like works out a little because like it keeps them healthier, like I feel like they would have a harder time.

Liz:

Uh, maybe training together, which there's nothing wrong with that. But I think for us, like, it allows us to kind of like push each other, because we do have like the shared goals and so we're able to, like, you know, make sure that we're we're training like to the best of our abilities. Obviously, we also are our own coaches, so that's, I would say, another benefit, because we coach each other and train together, um, for the most part, yeah, so we have like a lot of real-time feedback yes, you can kind of like see it.

Liz:

You can make like on-the-spot adjustments if needed. Um and plus, you just kind of like have that person that's like always in your corner cheering for you, no matter what yeah, yeah, no, I would agree.

Nate:

I think, yeah, I think I get what you're saying. Like I think it definitely depends on, I guess, each couple's like situation. Yeah, um, I think I think people can have like different, be at different spots, different like training levels and things still train together, but there's definitely a difference between training. I'm not saying training levels.

Liz:

You could have one person really strong and one person just starting out. But I'm saying I don't know.

Nate:

No, what I was going to say is it's definitely different because we're both at a fairly elite level in the sport of powerlifting, or fairly high level, whatever term you want to use. We've been doing it for a while and we have a lot of time invested to it, a lot of money invested into it and a lot of muscle invested into it, and we're both trying to really push our bodies to the limits to find what we can lift. So that is kind of the basis of us training together. So that is a good way to maybe put that. And that is a different connection than, like, if you are training with your significant other and you should not expect that, I guess, is my point. You're training with your significant other and they're just not into that type of fitness. But that doesn't mean you can't train together. It's just it's going to be a different like experience than like what we're doing.

Nate:

So, like you know, if someone might be into like we'll just call it lifestyle training and not pushing the weight, they might not even moving up in weights. They're just kind of using the same weights. They want to maintain, they want to, you know, do a little cardio and then you come in the gym and you're pushing your body to the limits. That's two totally different things. Uh, it's not to say you can't train together, but you, like both, would need to have, I would say, like metered or like correct expectations for what the other person is doing and like respect for what the other person is doing, so like, if you know, again, using my example, if somebody's like pushing their body to the limits, whatever strength sport you may be doing, and the other person is kind of like training for life, I mean the training for life person needs to respect that the other individual is getting after it. And then in the off, you know, on the other side like that person needs to respect that.

Nate:

they're just in there trying to like stay healthy, stay fit, Because those are two totally different things.

Liz:

Well and I think with that too, it comes the amount of time that you invest in the gym too. Typically someone who's more of just a lifestyle trying to be healthy and all of that they're going to go to the gym for maybe 45 minutes or an hour, whereas someone who is deeply invested into powerlifting like what we are you're going to be spending usually two plus hours like training.

Liz:

Yeah, so I mean not necessarily, but like for most people, like by the time you like, warm up, get ready, like I would say, maybe an hour and a half, two hours, maybe two and a half, just depending on, like the workout, how much you talk, how much you rest, um, but you might be spending a little longer than someone who's more just like lifestyle training yeah and so I think that can differ a little bit as far as like training together that can make things kind of wonky yeah, if you don't like understand that because that's like a comment.

Liz:

I know I've heard from a lot of people like oh, they spend so long in the gym and so you know if you're not interested in that, then that's harder.

Nate:

So, yeah, all right. So I guess, since you know training together can definitely be, I guess, more of like a personal choice, we'll just talk about like us training together. Yeah, because kind of like Liz said, like it just kind of depends on the individual whether you guys are going to train together or not yeah, I just feel like some people like I've met a lot of couples that like can train together and like do, but usually I have not they don't train each other.

Liz:

They can like work out, like in the same space. More than often they don't work out together.

Nate:

I was just going to say, like I would say, if I had to guess a percentage, I would say like 90% of couples do not work out together. Like that I, at least in my experience like I feel like most people do not. I feel like there's some that do.

Liz:

Yeah.

Nate:

And then like right, the second we happen to know like a few yeah.

Nate:

But I would say, over the years I would say most people don't, and I do think that probably stems from just different like styles of training, different interests, things like that. So for us it's definitely been a kind of like journey, been a kind of like journey and we've had like a lot of different like phases, I guess, of like training each other, and I think now is definitely kind of like the result of sticking it out and a lot of years of I don't know, communication. Hard work, hard work working together, not quitting.

Liz:

It was rough.

Nate:

Yeah, in the beginning it was rough.

Liz:

It was rough.

Nate:

If you've never heard those stories, I don't even remember why.

Liz:

Though, it just did not work out well.

Nate:

Yeah, I know.

Liz:

Because that was more. You were coaching me was really the rough part. Well, when we were doing CrossFit, that was rough too, but just because I hated what we were doing and I was not good at it and I didn't like dying, and it was just terrible.

Nate:

Liz had a panic attack one time during a CrossFit workout. Yeah, I couldn't breathe. Yeah.

Liz:

And it created not great things. Anyways, it was a lot of running and squatting. I still remember that it was terrible.

Nate:

I don't even remember that day.

Liz:

I know, don't remember that it was terrible. I don't even remember that day, I know I do. It was traumatic. Um, I remember your face, I remember that, um. But I feel like what was rough was more the part when, like you started coaching me because I did, I had a couple like online coaches when I first got into powerlifting, because we didn't really know, you didn't really know what we were doing with powerlifting, like yeah that was something new to us.

Liz:

I mean obviously like the basics of squat, bench and deadlift and how to get stronger yeah, but we were trying to learn like the actual sport yeah, so I did a couple different coaches, or I did like an online, like a training app for one of them, the hybrid and then I did get like a one-on-one online coach, um, for a while I don't remember how long- Neither one of those worked out very good for me.

Liz:

I don't know if it was. I don't exactly know why. I would be curious now to go back and look at what I was doing. I don't even remember what I was doing, but I'd be curious, now, with more knowledge, to go back and look at what I was doing and see if I could figure out why it it?

Nate:

didn't work.

Nate:

I can tell you why is because, like 100 back in the day, you did not fully like understand, like sport, and like the ups and downs of sport well, so like this mentally yeah and then I think, like you just had a very high standard of like this needs to be happening here and this should be happening, because that's what it says on the sheet but not as high of an understanding of like real life and then like how to like change or like adapt to that. Because, like every time, like I would like come in and like peak you for the meat or whatever stuff like that, that's all I would do is just like try and work around whatever things you had going on and then make sure you're feeling good on that actual day. So I think that's probably why those didn't those first two didn't really work.

Liz:

Yeah, I don't know, but then you started coaching me and we fought a lot about you coaching me. You would get like mad about things if I didn't like them, and I would get mad that you would say things and it was just a whole situation yeah so then, finally, like this would be like we'd fight like while training, we'd fight about it at home, like it was like a whole thing at home, like so then we finally turned it into.

Liz:

Like there was like coach nate and husband nate, because we had to like differentiate the two, and so then it literally it had to be like clear like who was talking, because there was like some weird fine line that like we didn't really know how to I don't know how to like cross the line.

Nate:

I don't know like I couldn't seem to find the correct balance of like communicating and then like as a coach versus a husband. Yeah, and liz couldn't like find the balance of like it was like getting offended versus like I was just trying to like help me yeah, it was a rough time yeah, it was a situation um I think, uh, weaker souls would have given up, but luckily, luckily, uh, we are both really stubborn hard-headed individuals and basically I would say we have now come to the point where we've created a diamond and that is our current training relationship.

Nate:

So a lot of pressure and then I don't know how, but diamonds come out of pressure somehow. According to the internet, and. I would say now is like the diamond portion of training. So that's been like almost a decade, so that's cool, uh. So just to let you know, you know, uh, no big deal, but just buckle up.

Nate:

Yeah, it took a little while, and I think so you know. On that note, I think that not everyone does need to train together. I think that's something to note, like I don't necessarily like recommend it per se, like I maybe I do. It just depends on the situation. Um depends on your relationship, depends on your goals, like liz said earlier, um and maybe that's just something to note too is like you don't need to. It's just kind of like it has worked out well for us.

Liz:

Uh, after all these years of kind of going back and forth, I mean, there's also a good chunk of time where we didn't train together, like when. I was teaching. You trained in the morning at like 5 am and I came in and trained at night afterwards, so like there was a good chunk of time where we weren't training together.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

And then, even when I was done teaching for a while, you would still train in the morning, and then I would train in the afternoon by myself, but, and I would train in the afternoon by myself, but then that ended up not working. So then we just trained together.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

So I mean, there was a chunk of time where we weren't training together. So, like also, like for some people, like their schedules just might not like, align, like even if they have similar goals, similar, you know, styles of training, similar, whatever, but like you have different schedules, you just work out separately. It is what it is and there's nothing wrong with that.

Nate:

No, that's what I was trying to say. It doesn't matter.

Liz:

You can still be supportive of your significant other and their desire to train or their goals for training or what they're trying to do without actually having to train with them. And I think that does get glossed over sometimes is people are not super supportive of their significant other, and what?

Nate:

they're trying to do um but then they, like, expect support for what they're doing yeah, so just don't do that just kind of throw that out there.

Liz:

you know, just because like you don't want to do, it doesn't mean you don't need to be supportive Like you're running, for example.

Nate:

Yeah.

Liz:

Never, would I ever go run a 15K. Yeah, that's a great example actually In my entire life, would I go run a 15K? At least I don't think so, but I didn't care that you chose to run. I drove you to the race. I picked you up. I'm going to support you in like, however, I can.

Nate:

But I am not doing this type of training and that's okay. Yeah, um, yeah, no, I think that's a really good point, because I think that's the thing that a lot of people I think they're just interested like human nature and like themselves, which is fine, but also, like you, should have a vested interest in your significant other and what they're doing. You know, like I don't. I think that's one thing that is just so strange to me. It's like you definitely should be like interested, like when you, you know if, like pro tip, if your significant other signs up for a powerlifting meet, go to it or at least do the best effort humanly possible to be there Like I get. There's maybe certain extenuating circumstances maybe, but like like it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of guts, takes, like you know, some gumption to get up there and lift weights in front of a lot of people. They're going to definitely be glad if you're there, even if they're like, oh, they do.

Liz:

And honestly, this goes to like I know we're saying significant other, but this could also just apply to like a really important friend in your life too. Just significant other, but this could also just apply to like a really important friend in your life too. Just so you know. Yeah, that's a great point, like you might, maybe you don't have a significant other but you have like a really good best friend that you are like, yeah, super close with. If they sign up for something like this, like go support them, like again.

Nate:

I understand we're talking about significant others, but I'm just gonna throw that out there like I don't know no, I think supporting your friends and significant others and family is super important, because if you would want that same support, then you need to deliver that same support to them. You know you don't want to do unto others as you want it to be done unto you, whatever that is.

Liz:

Sure.

Nate:

But I mean that's like a really good point, because I think, like we say that, and I think it's like a really good point because I think, like we say that, I think it's like oh yeah, yeah, but it's like especially with, like I feel like relationships specifically, I feel like people just get very complacent in their relationships and they're just like, oh yeah, that's just what they're doing, but it's like, no, like you should be there, be supportive, uh, be encouraging. You know, on the bad days, maybe, be there to listen. That's something that I had to learn. I was really bad at that in the beginning, uh, but then I just you always had to try and fix everything yeah, then I just got better and now I don't do that.

Nate:

um, crazy. Now I'm like it's like the scene from lord of the rings. I told this to liz the other day when something like this happened. But it's like, uh, the there's a scene where gimley's like, uh, let her be that, let her be. That's what I have to tell myself With me, yeah, yeah, because sometimes they just need some space, and that's a pro tip for all of you out there. Sometimes people just need a little bit of space, because if they want a shoulder to cry on type situation, they'll probably come find you.

Liz:

I mean, maybe it depends on the person, but also, you like know the person, yeah.

Nate:

But I'm gonna go say uh, go out on a limb and say that most people just might want a little bit of space. Yeah, like that probably happens more often than the other thing, yeah, so, so, yeah, so, you know, that's just another example of like something that I had to learn over the years. Um, something else, something that's interesting to me and Liz's training relationship as we uh, continue to train together and get stronger together is that, uh, we both kind of train differently with different like energy, and what I mean by that is like Liz is a very like, by nature, pretty like calm lifter. She gets kind of hyped for like certain lifts like squat, um and deadlift, but by nature she's pretty calm and serious.

Liz:

Even my like hyped is more like not even focused anywhere near.

Nate:

Yeah, it's a different kind of mine is more like a crazy person yeah, um sometimes yeah, yeah, sometimes I'll be talking to myself sometimes cuing myself, yeah, you know, um, and anyways, what I was gonna say is I have now, I think right now I have like a good balance, and I think so does liz. Liz has learned like some certain moves, like slapping her legs and things like this, to kind of get her real hyped and ready to go and focused I think is a good term and I have learned the value of being calm and collected on most training days and then like really ramping up for like a single or a top set. I also learned that I cannot be calm and collected every day. There was a phase of my training it was like when I was coming back from my injury, kind of like last year, where I was trying to be like calm every day, including like, and I just I I kept telling Liz I'm like I just don't feel like I can get into like that last gear. And then we finally, you know, discussed it and we're just like yeah, maybe you just need to be a little bit more hyped when you lift, and that's what I do now and it's much more controlled than I used to be.

Nate:

I used to get like hype for every set, every lift, whatever, and that does not work because you I mean that and that's just a, that's a blanket statement Like that will not work, because you only have a certain amount of adrenaline in your system and if you're just constantly going through it, you're not going to like that's not how it works, letting it replenish.

Nate:

But I have found now this like kind of balanced sense of like energy where I can, you know, hit most of my warmups. Then when I'm at my top set or my top single for the day, I'll get, I'll get pretty hyped. Uh, it's probably go from like zero to a hundred. I try to save a hundred for meat day, but zero to 80%, we'll call it and, um, I just think that's cool because, like I said, that's kind of evolved for both of us as we've trained longer and longer together where we've kind of like taken some of each other's like whatever mannerisms or whatever you want to call it and applied it to our own lifting and gotten better from it it has gotten better yeah, exactly, toby, toby agrees, um, yeah, and I think, uh, I think the biggest thing with training like so kind of wrapping, wrapping this up, thank you, toby, wrapping this up.

Nate:

I think the biggest thing with training with your significant other if that's something you are wanting to do is number one. I would just focus on communication. That's like, of course, the number one thing in like, uh, relationships in general is communicating, but I think in the gym it's a good opportunity to like build your communication skills. I actually think that, like us, training together has helped our communication skills in like our whole marriage. You know what, what I mean, like outside the gym, probably yeah.

Nate:

Otherwise I don't think Liz would talk to me at all. So really I think it's a.

Liz:

Just talk to him about training, that's it.

Nate:

Yeah, Well, yeah no no. I'm saying, oh my gosh. I'm saying like, because we've talked about that, then we'll talk more about other stuff too. Versus naturally you versus naturally you would not really want to be talking about anything at all is more what I was saying. But yeah, that's kind of. I think that like training together and communicating together in the gym has like overflowed into our relationship outside the gym. Probably you haven't thought about that until this second.

Liz:

Nope, sure haven't.

Nate:

But think about it.

Nate:

I mean, mean, it makes sense yeah, um, but yeah, I think that could be a great way to kind of build a good communication bedrock, so to speak, because you're both trying to achieve something, whatever it's. You know the same goal or a different goal, and there's going to be days when you have bad days and there's going to be days when you have good days, and communication is key for all of those days. Also, something to note off Liz's initial point if you don't really understand what's going on, like when the other person's training, ask them. Or if you're the person like, tell them, you know, share what's going on. Hey, I'm about to hit this PR. I've never done this weight, this weight before.

Nate:

If, like, they're not in the power of thing, they'll be more invested. You know, I think sometimes, like a lot of people, they just like expect it. It's like well, I'm doing this, so they should know. It's like, how would they know, like, if they, if you have a significant other that's not into powerlifting or maybe not into insert whatever you're doing, like they're not gonna know just off, rip what that means to you. But if you share, it takes one sentence like hey, uh, before I've only been pressed 203 and now I'm about to go hit 209. You want to watch this, like they're probably gonna say yes yeah um.

Nate:

So that's, you know, an easy way to kind of communicate and, hopefully, grow together. Grow stronger together. Hey, grow stronger together.

Liz:

Oh.

Nate:

Nice, Crazy, All right, so yeah. So I think that kind of wraps it up for our first episode of the Fortis After Hours podcast. Hopefully you guys enjoyed that. A little bit of a reintroduction from myself and Liz.

Liz:

Obviously, we'll continue to talk on future episodes about we're going to talk in a podcast, really.

Nate:

Okay, our past, present and future is what I was gonna say. Um, and hopefully you guys enjoyed us talking about like training together and I think the biggest like key takeaway at least my key takeaway, my advice, is I'm just gonna go with be supportive, be encouraging. Uh, you know, deliver positive energy into your significant other or training partner. Like Liz said, it doesn't even need to be your significant other, but I do think that is kind of different. Uh, so, you know, deliver some positive energy and encouragement towards their way. That's always going to be a plus, is never going to be a negative and it will probably always be received well, you got a key takeaway for everybody um, I don't know, I mean, that's pretty good yeah I feel like like I guess my thing would be if it's like something that's important to you, like as a couple, so like both of you.

Liz:

If it's important that there might be some growing pains, so like if it is important to like train together, like if that's something that, like whatever, is something that you value, or you both value that you might have to be a little patient to like work through some of the growing pains to get to where it's actually like good training together Because, like, at first it might not be.

Liz:

But that doesn't mean like if the first like I don't know, a couple of weeks or a couple of months are kind of like weird and just like you don't, it's not going great. If it is something that is extremely important, like communicate, like you said, and like talk about it and see like what you can do, and then just kind of be patient and like allow the training relationship to grow as your relationship grows that was good very insightful of you.

Nate:

I like that. I agree with all that um so smart yeah, no, I would agree with all that.

Nate:

And yeah, I just think training with your significant other can be a really special bond that you guys can grow, uh, so if you don't already do that, talk to them about it. See they'd be interested. Um, if you have already tried it, talk to them about it again. I'm telling you, it's a fun time. And if you've decided as a team that you're like, nah, we're not doing that, then valid, stay tuned for the next episode. Uh, yeah, and also valid, that's totally fine.

Nate:

Like Liz said, schedules and sometimes, just like you know personalities, like maybe you love doing everything else together, but that's not for you, so that is cool too, and that's no problem. I think that's another thing. That's just what we're talking about, because that's something that we have done now for, like Liz pointed out, 10 years, I didn't even think about that Crazy. Now for, like this point out, 10 years, I didn't think about that crazy. Yeah, um, right, but that might not be important to other people and other people's relationships. Yeah, um. So, if it's not, I'll leave you with this.

Nate:

If it's not, find something that you could do with your significant other that you both enjoy doing. Um, that's some good advice for long-term success, I think, in a, in a marriage or relationship, and, and even if you, uh, don't fully enjoy it as much as the other person, if you at least enjoy it a little bit, then you never know, you might find yourself, like me, seven years deep into a sport that I didn't really too much care about as much as Liz in the beginning and I really enjoy it now. Um, and honestly, I didn't really enjoy it now. Look at that and honestly, I didn't really enjoy it until recently.

Nate:

So there's that weird yeah takes time takes time and patience. All right, that wraps up the first episode of the fortis after hours podcast. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode. If you did leave a comment, leave a like um, we're gonna be trying a new. I'm gonna give you guys a little sneak peek. Well, not a sneak peek, a little insight. We'll be trying out some new uh ai features with our podcast host, bus sprout. So stay tuned.

Nate:

More content coming your way we'll see how it does this first week and then I'll give you guys a review on the next week because we might just not use it at all. It's a free trial for for starters, but I'm excited because it could produce more quality content for you guys to share on instagram. Make sure you guys are following fortis fitness studio on instagram. Check out the new website, fortisfitnessstudiocom, and we'll see you guys in the next episode of the pod. Peace, bye.