We live in a very small flat, our living room is a kitchen/diner/lounge so I only have the bedrooms to 'escape' to. I find it difficult to stay in the living room whilst he’s exercising. He has a regime of seated exercises that he does every other day, on the off days he's doing knee exercises post knee surgery.
He does the seated equivalent of 'marching on the spot' and we have wooden floors to this, in itself, is noisy! He’s forcing himself, while exercising, to get his heart rate up. Whilst that’s commendable, for me in the same room, I can’t watch TV or read, or use my laptop as he’s so loud and, to put not to fine a point on it, he sounds like he’s performing a sex act!
I have two options, to either:
* go into the bedroom and read or watch TV while he’s exercising
* stay in the living room trying to watch TV or using my laptop but then I end up saying “oh gawd” to the ‘phew’ and puffing he does while he’s exercising.
Then he moans at me for not staying in the room or for criticising the noise he’s making and then moans about the fact that I don’t exercise. Like doing housework: changing the beds, hoovering, washing the wood and tile floors, cleaning the bathrooms (we have an en-suite meaning extra loo rolls and extra toilet cleaning) putting washing on and taking the rubbish out doesn’t get my heart rate up - I’m actually much more healthy than he is. He does try to help as he'll wash up ("let's not use the dishwasher as there's just the two of us") and make meals, but all the other housework just wouldn’t get done if I didn’t do it. His excuse for wanting me to stay in the room is that, if he started to feel ill, I should be there for him and I get that but it's not like our bedroom is so far away from our living room that I wouldn't hear him if he called me. I've tried to explain how I feel but it's difficult to verbalise without it hurting his feelings.
I’m at a loss to know how to deal with his attitude. I almost feel like I need to surreptitiously put in some ear plugs whilst he's exercising for some peace and quiet!
