3 Reasons to Use a Home Gym
Although I love going to the gym, I don’t go as often as I should to get the full value from the monthly membership fee and, so, sometimes I use the gym equipment I have at home instead. Here are a few reasons why a home gym is a good idea.
It saves you money
I’m lucky my gym is cheap – it only costs me £20 a month with my student card (yes, I still have one) and even before I had a student card, it only cost me £25 a month off-peak. Not everyone is a student though or at home in the daytime to go in off-peak times, so gym fees can be expensive, with most gyms charging between £50 and £100 a month.
Aha, you say – treadmills and elliptical trainers and all those machines cost a fortune, don’t they? Well, yes, they can do, but you don’t have to get all the machines – I’ve got a rowing machine, a Swiss ball, a bench, a step, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, a resistance trainer and a bunch of fitness DVDs and that does me just fine. I do quite fancy a treadmill though. Especially one of those desk ones.
If you do decide to go down the buying-all-the-machines route though, it’s a one-off expense, so you’ll eventually save money on gym fees in the long run (no pun intended).
Convenience
What could be more convenient than going into your garage/spare room/conservatory/bit of front room not covered with kids’ toys instead of walking or driving to the gym. Hell, you don’t even have to get dressed! (Although, for the females reading this, I’d advise you to wear a sports bra. I’d also advise – and this is for the men as well – to keep your curtains and blinds closed.)
Working out at home is also convenient if your local gym holds classes at a time inconvenient for you. Get yourself a fitness DVD or have a look at fitnessblender.com and have your own exclusive gym class in the privacy of your own home. As an added bonus, no one will see you skip the bits you don’t like (for me, that’d be the lying down bits in body pump) and you won’t get told off for not stretching, either.
No people
Speaking of privacy; for the more shy and self-conscious of you out there, working out at home saves you from having to exercise in front of people or getting changed in front of strangers in the changing room (and after seeing a girl dry her armpits with a hairdryer in the gym in London once, I almost cancelled my own membership).
Although I love to encourage people to go to the gym and emphasise just how much everyone is there to do their own thing and NO ONE IS LOOKING AT YOU, I can understand it might make some people a bit anxious. So, unless you ignore my advice above about closing your blinds and curtains, no one will be able to see you, so you can really go for it without fear of embarrassment (you know, like when you haven’t noticed everyone’s on a rest bit in body pump and you’re still going, in a little world of your own).
Right then, now I’ve extolled the virtues of exercising at home, I’m off to the gym. See ya.
If you’re interested in buying an elliptical trainer, here are some elliptical reviews.