Working Out At Home – Is It For You?
Are you the right person for home workouts or would you be better off joining a gym?
Beating A Dead Horse
When you came to this site, you already knew or soon found out it’s all about home workouts.
I sing its praises front, left and right: the simplicity, the money you won’t have to spend etc. ad infinitum. You likely are aware of it and probably just want me to shut up.
And right you are, because not everybody gets along with exercising at home. It’s time to see the other side of the medal.
The Home Workout Person
You are a home workout person when you…
- are self-motivating
- feel having others around is distracting
- can do your workouts without being disturbed (honey, the dishwasher!)
- manage to not distract yourself (I’ll just answer that call)
- have enough room to at least temporarily set up the necessary equipment and exercise
The Gym Workout Person
You are a gym workout person when you…
- get motivation from working out together with friends / meet people who are serious about it
- find the “let’s get to business” atmosphere of a gym useful
- use the gym to get away from anything that might disturb your workouts
- want to do exercises where you need a spotter
- don’t get distracted by the people just fooling around there (did you see that girl / guy?)
A Breath Of Fresh Air
If home workouts don’t get you anywhere, the fault might not lie with how you train, you simply may not be a home workout person.
However, even if it works for you, trying something different and doing a gym workout can reinvigorate your efforts.
And if you always were a gym rat, try the occasional home workout and find out if being all alone and fully concentrated on yourself makes your workouts deeper.
Have Your Say!
What are your experiences with working out at home or at a gym? What made you decide for one or the other? Or do you try to get the best of both worlds?
Picture courtesy of Diana Parkhouse.
4 Comments
I used to workout at home, until I had my son. He’s now two years old and during his waking hours if I’m not playing with him, he’s knocking on my door asking “daddy, what are you doing?” over and over. While he’s sleeping I can’t seem to avoid putting a dumbbell down with a lot of noise, which gets me in trouble with the wife. 🙂
Now I have a gym membership, and I truly cherish that separation. I love my family, but being able to get out for some along time working out is very important!
Yeah, I can understand that. I think getting away for a bit helps cherish the time spend together.
I would definitely work out at home if I had the professional setup that most gyms have, not of course to that scale but in terms of ventilation, equipment etc. I’m extremely pleased that I was able to continue using the gym of the high school I graduated last year. It’s below par with what you see at a real gym, but it has all the bars and dumbbells one could ask for, all it takes is a little bit of creativity with your exercises. I know for sure that if it weren’t for their generosity, I wouldn’t be working out pretty much at all. I strongly advise everyone to try your local schools to see if you can use their gyms. Chances are that if they have one, they will let you use it for a small fee, which I am sure would be a heck of a lot cheaper than what the big gym chains would ask.
Excellent idea, Melo!
I also think that developing that creativity in your workouts can have its advantages, because wherever you are, you will know how to improvise.
Last but not least, our muscles don’t care if we work with a shiny, new chrome-plated barbell or an old one that has seen a lot of use. Heck, I even like the old ones better – imagine if they could talk! 🙂