A lot of couples train together for a while, but most don't find this to be ideal and eventually begin to do their own thing in the gym. There's a reason for this. Several, in fact.
Women and men aren't that much different when it coming to lifting weights for strength or muscle gains. But the more advanced a woman gets, the more she'll want to fine-tune things. Here are the generally accepted differences:
Here's what most couples notice. Let's say that Bonnie and Clyde decide to do seated rows. Bonnie goes first. While she's resting, Clyde does his set. After a couple sets each, the problem begins.
Women generally recover faster between sets. As coach Charles Staley has written, women have better endurance-capacity than men. So Clyde isn't ready to do his next set by the time Bonnie finishes. And Bonnie is probably ready to smash her next set before he's finished with his.
Clyde isn't getting enough rest and that will affect his strength from set to set. And if he DOES get enough rest, then Bonnie gets bored, begins to cool down, and might even lose focus.
Frustrated by the whole gym thing, Bonnie and Clyde say "screw it" and begin a life of crime. (True story.)
A new study out of the University of Waterloo tells us that women can process oxygen more quickly than men. It all comes down to oxygen uptake and muscle oxygen extraction.
The women in this treadmill study "...outperformed men with around 30% faster oxygen handling throughout the body." Basically, girl muscle extracts oxygen from the blood faster than boy muscle.
Now, if you're both new to lifting weights, this isn't going to be all that noticeable or make a big difference. But it certainly will for more experienced lifters.
Go the gym together, shower together afterward, but don't do the same exercise at the same time with the same rest periods. You'll both get short-changed.