How to Fix a Boring Marriage

After the wedding, lots of couples can feel a letdown, and they begin to get bored, says Rachel A. Sussman, L.C.S.W., author of The Breakup Bible.

“The excitement of dating has passed, the excitement of falling in love has passed, the excitement of the engagement and the wedding has passed, then it gets stale,” she says.

Here’s what it means if your relationship is going dull—and how to get out of a rut without breaking up.

Why Working Out With Your Girlfriend Helps You Build Muscle Faster

The first time I joined a gym, I was 24 and scrawny. The jacked guy at the front desk said all new members received a T-shirt and asked me for my size. Small, I said. He threw me a muumuu.

“This is a large,” he replied. “It’s all we have. Once you start lifting, you’ll fill it out.”

Hardly. I lasted 8 months.

But then I proposed to Jen, a onetime runner and yoga nut who had largely abandoned those pursuits to sit around with me. With our upcoming nuptials, the threat of shame finally loomed large: If we didn’t shape up and sharpen our softening bodies, we’d be gathering our loved ones together for a display of our shortcomings.

Hate Watching Rom-Coms with Your Girlfriend? Here's Something That Might Change Your Mind

Sappy is sexy: Romantic movies can make women horny, suggests new research from the Netherlands.

In the study, women showed more implicit desire for sex after watching particularly tender scenes from Titanic and Indecent Proposal than they did after viewing sexually explicit clips. Men’s desire, on the other hand, took a nosedive after watching the mushy movies; the guys wanted sex much less following sentimental fare than when they saw X-rated scenes or boring documentary clips.

Why might romantic movies rev up her motor? Women’s sexual motivation seems to be triggered more by a relationship-based context than an overly sexual one, says study author Marieke Dewitte, Ph.D.

It’s all evolutional: Women needed to be more tuned in to what went on relationship-wise before agreeing to knock boots with a handsome caveman. That's because a partner that stuck close by could help increase the survival chances of their baby Neanderthals.