First off I have no clothes you’d ever wear to a gym. I wear jeans and a t shirt pretty much daily (think Hank Hill). Second, I don’t get what you do there. I hated gym time in school (workout gym, not like throwing balls and running around gym, thats fun) and I don’t get what you do. Run on a treadmill and lift some weights? I feel like I could do all of that at home. Gym memberships are insanely expensive. Are home workouts actually effective? Does one even enjoy gym time?
Weightlifting can require insanely heavy weights, they take up a lot of storage and cost a lot of money. Gyms also offer the benefits of having specialised machines that focus on specific muscles. I used to go to a commercial gym then built a home gym, I’ve spent over £2,000 and I’m still not close to finished.
Sure you can do bodyweight stuff, or limited exercises with adjustable dumbbells and resistance bands, but you won’t get nearly as strong as a good gym, training plan, and diet.
I realize that if I don’t go, I feel weak, to the point where I struggle to carry a 3kg bag of potatoes.
I have spent years using public gyms and now have a home gym. Home gyms are better in every way if you have the motivation to push yourself. At a public gym its easier to find that motivation because everyone around you is focused on the same task.
You have all the things you need in one space and you can’t leave easily and go home.
You can jog on the treadmill for 30 minutes and that way you don’t have to be out in the blistering sun.
I’ve seen plenty of jeans at my rural gym. Just don’t wear them on leg day.
Otherwise, you might exercise too hard and end up like The Hulk.
Thank-you all, this was actually super helpful and motivating. I’ve been doing what I can at home and maybe looking into a gym membership but I still feel that may not be for me as I don’t really want to be around others while working out. Im going to keep biking and keep looking for some gear for the basement
According to Atomic Habit, we tend to form a habit when there is a reward.
First you you can’t wear jeans to work out. If people have to argue, then they have never worked out before.
Then, reward. When you workout by yourself, then is almost no reward, no motivation. In the gym, you can see how for some people are and that motivate you.
With no goal and no motivation, hiding in the basement/garage lifting some weights and wearing jeans, I doubt that person will work out much.
I work out at home and watch movies that usually have some fit people in them, which removes the need for real humans in the room.
Work out and watch Kung Fu movies - actually a great idea
Yeah it’s great. I’ve always already seen it and it’s always an action movie so I don’t need to pay attention all the time. Latest watch was Aliens, so good!
Its mostly for the social aspect, people will say its not, but with how expensive they are, especially in Aus where i live, itd be cheaper to buy your own equipment than pay for a couple years membership.
You need the room for the equipment. I had to go to gyms when my rental was too small.
You lived in a shoebox, thats not very common, you are a distant outlier.
I lived in a 3 bedroom house with 3 other people. No room was available and not many would have been big enough anyway. I need at least 2m squared
Okay? Did you read what I said?
Run on a treadmill and lift some weights?
Yes, that is exactly what you do at a gym.
I feel like I could do all of that at home. Gym memberships are insanely expensive.
Absolutely correct.
Are home workouts actually effective?
Yes.
Does one even enjoy gym time?
Yes.
People don’t have space for a home gym, so it’s either pay the membership fee, or don’t work out.
Noooo, there are soooo many exercises that take nothing extra. … ok maybe you can double or triple the number of exercises you can do with even just like… a playground within jogging distance, but still.
The vast majority of muscles can be exercised either with body weight, or a few heavy items that are easy to grab. Add a sturdy bench you can lay on or put weight on without it flexing too much or falling over, and you can cover basically any muscle.
It is purely a lack of knowledge of anatomy that drives someone to say you NEED a gym’s amount of equipment. Muscles are dynamic, but you can only move your body in so many ways.
This is going to trigger people who just forked out for “insanely expensive” gym memberships, but it’s obviously true.
I can think of two caveats:
- body-weight exercises are clearly healthier than pumping iron, but they will only get you toned, not jacked (personally I think being jacked is ugly as hell, but whatever)
- presumably many gym-goers are there for the same reason that sociable people do all kinds of things in groups - because otherwise they would not find the motivation
The funny thing is, you can get DAMN jacked with only bodyweight. You just won’t look like a steroid-addled meathead, which far too many people assume is just time in the gym.
Yea, even personal motivation changes a lot when you go to some other location to do something. Don’t have much choice but to procrastinate or do something if you’re standing in the middle of a gym in just shorts and a shirt.
I don’t go to the gym either but know several people who do and the equipment lets you strength train with a lot more weight than your body weight if that’s what you’re going for. You can use water jugs and stuff at home but that can be janky and potentially dangerous.
Also there’s probably something to be said about traveling to a dedicated location for your workout to help you get out of the house, in the right mindset, etc. I’m sure it’s similar to how some people love working from home while others prefer to go to the office to help focus better and socialize.
The vast, VAST majority of people do not need weight that is greater than bodyweight.
Exercising in a unique place is huge for at least removing distraction and easy excuses to not exercise, though. For some people I can see that being important enough for the membership.
Like how my buddy went to college just to learn some programming when there are a million quality tutorials/books/guides/docs out there for free these days. He wanted the forced structure and push to do homework.
He now regrets paying college prices for that knowledge.
Depending on where you’re at in life, gyms with machines can be really useful. It forces certain muscles to activate and if you’ve lived a sedentary lifestyle, it’s very useful.
Otherwise, yeah. The only thing you need is body weight and a set of dumb bells.
After that gets meh, get a squat rack/ bench press combo as well and you’re set
This is my gym. The bar was picked out of the trash and it was an old broomstick someone used as a fire poker.
With body weight exercises and a small weight set you can make from junk, you can get an amazing body.
You start very light, and you just take baby steps from there, I can help you build a routine.
Most of the YouTube people are way too hyper focused on ‘blasting’ this and that, really you just need to do some simple exercises.
First I unpack my tripod, mobile phone and water bottle and set them into position in the most annoying direction possible. Then i hit record. Pump some irons getting upset at each and every passer by as it’s obviously about me not them. All the while intermittently berating those stupid Nord, Beton and Thalmor wannabes as inferior chuds to my faithful Khajiit follower’s. Then I strike some epic posses, admiring my strikingly beautiful ears, furs and tail. Of course I check the phone to make sure my benevolent masses of one follower shower me with praises. Thanks mom!
This one is disappointed with Maiq’s use of pronouns.
I mean, I guess it depends. I row often, and I don’t wanna do it in a gym, so I purchased a rower. But if I didn’t want to spend the ~$800 on a nice Concept 2 rower, a gym membership for $20/mo would give me about about 3.25 years of rowing before I hit the cost of the rower. Then I also get access to every other machine they offer, free weights, other amenities such as pool and basketball court, classes they offer, trainer access (probably not great but better than winging it). That may be valuable to you or it may not, but it’s an option. You could run on a treadmill or lift weights at home, if you purchased the items. Sure, running outside is free and you can pick up/put down stuff whenever, but weather gets in the way, and unbalanced or unwieldy weight isn’t always safe.
Home workouts can be effective and many make it work, but some people like/need the separation. Sometimes when I get home, if I sit down, I’m just not gonna get up and workout at that point. Stopping at a gym in the way home gives a clear delineation between still working physically and being done with your days work when you get home. Or if they go in the morning, I can’t row at odd hours I may want to because of neighbors (it’s not quiet). I can go to some gyms at 5am or 2am if I really wanted to, where I couldn’t currently at home.
Gym memberships are insanely expensive
Wait until you see the price of weight plates and dumbbells.
You go to the gym to work out. You clearly don’t know how to work out, so go watch some exercise guides on YouTube.
I got a bench and all the weights and bars I could ever need for a couple hundred bucks on Craigslist after looking for deals for about a week. They even came with little bars so I can use the smaller plates as dumbbells. Obviously it’d be harder for someone in a more rural area, but exercise equipment is usually pretty easy to find relatively cheap second-hand. Way better than a gym membership so long as you’ve got a bit of space in your home for a bench. Paired with basic body-weight maneuvers and some running shoes, you can get all the exercise you need without all the fancy stuff at a gym.
you use the stuff that you can’t reasonably have a whole separate collection of. Weight machines, swimming pool, etc.
It also provides a place and time to do group fitness activities.
