Gym membership vs. working at home

LisaMfit4life

Just as everyone has stated there are pros and cons to both. Personally i have done both and actually I prefer working out at home. I can exercise at my own schedule, I have my own shower and can wear whatever I want. I don't have to wait for equipment, worry about someone cleaning a machine and I know the cleanliness of my home. I do need somewhat of a structure schedule and that's why I have worked out to Jillian Micheals in the past, before I became a Team Beachbody Coach, and as a coach have done various programs with much success. I stay very active with my customers, and those customers have had results in their programs. Currently I am doing Insanity which I never thought I could ever do, but I find that I push myself more when I have a structured workout and have set goals. I feel the commute of driving to a class waste too much time and that's time I could be spending doing a workout or focusing on something else. Take care.

brittanyd83

I have a gym membership and zumba (separate studio) because I have a personal trainer who works me much harder and probably more thoroughly, since he knows the muscles and capabilities of the body way better than I do, than I'd work myself (just being honest), and a gym membership is required for that. Other than that, I much prefer to work out at home, though the chances of me doing it decrease there. I LOVE Zumba, but at the studio I go to. I find most other zumba classes/videos too rudimentary to really enjoy it, since I grew up dancing. I know it's great for many people; I'm just picky. a second plus for the home column, though, is that I have a child who isn't allowed at the studio and I have to pay for childcare at the gym, and only until 8 pm. No childcare after that. As a single mom, that's a hurdle for me. I'm in the middle of a Biggest Loser competition at my gym that runs through summer, so I figure after summer, I'll keep the zumba but ditch the gym and, sadly, my personal trainer. My motivation will just have to increase on its own.

pwnderosa

Yikes, if it a choice between health insurance & the gym, get the insurance!! When I didn't have insurance I never went to the dr unless I was really sick and as a result my husband and I really suffered from missing out on some routine tests and stuff.

I work out at home for the convenience and I find an endless variety of stuff to do, running/walking/biking around the neighborhood, bodyweight and dumbbell exercises, dancing, and so many great free workouts on youtube. There are tons of groupon type deals for fitness classes in a lot of areas too if you like those but want to do some bargain shopping.

courtneytrisha

I lift aswell as do cardio, and I have a gym membership. I'm a skinny little 20 year old girl so I usually don't use free weights at the gym as all the guys intimidate me, and I always feel so much motivation at home to use my free weights (and use them often at home, btw). However I never feel motivation at home to do cardio, but I always feel motivation for cardio at my gym. So in my opinion it depends on how much motivation you have for what you do. I would never drive all the way to my gym just to do a little 10 minute workout, so it gives me motivation. I would never give up my gym membership

rainbow198

I prefer to workout at home. When I've tried getting fit in the past I would sign up for a gym membership, be gun ho about it for a couple of months, things would slowly started to wane and then I'd eventually stop going.

At home I don't have any excuses....the weather doesn't matter, the time of day doesn't matter and what I wear doesn't matter. I could workout in my underwear if I wanted too!

I do a mixture of workouts at home including dvd''s, Youtube videos, bodyweight exercises and working out outdoors that way I'm never bored and my body doesn't get used to one thing.

However, I do enjoy taking group fitness classes. To satisfy that need I attend classes two days per week at a community center. It's great because there is no membership or contract. I just sign up for the session and that's it.

People should try different things and find out what works for them and their lifestyle!

JustJennie1

If I had a fully equipped home gym then I would most definitely ditch the membership and workout at home but I don't. I love lifting and I don't have the ability to do that at home so my husband and I go to PF which works out great for us.

With that said, I do have a TM at home and a plethora of exercise DVD's that I will use on the weekends if I want to throw an extra workout in or if we don't make it to the gym.

Part of the reason why I like going to the gym aside from loving weight lifting is if I don't go and just do home workouts I am more likely to come up with excuses why I can't do it. Since I have to get out of bed and drive to the gym (and the fact that I am training a friend of mine) makes it easier to exercise with no excuse.

bokodasu

I love my gym. I go without a lot of things in my budget to make room for it. That said, insurance is definitely not on the list of things you should be going without. And if you're just using it for cardio, it's probably not worth the price. Running is free, and there is a pretty fun Zumba game for the Wii. (Yeah, I know, it's not the same as being in the class with all the group energy but you're not going to be able to do that if you get hit by a car and can't pay your hospital bills either.)

Except maybe the pool. But it's summer now; are there any community pools around you? The ones in our city are $3 per visit for adults, so unless you make multiple visits a day, probably cheaper than a monthly membership to somewhere with an indoor pool.

pookles64

I am OBSESSED with pintrest!! I usually go to the gym 4 to 5 days a week. Lately I've been finding weekly challenges on pintrest and adding them on to my usual routine!

gsmithnp

Pros to home-based workouts:

1. I can do it on my timetable and not have to depend on what time the class starts, bus runs, gym opens/closes, or whatever.

2. I can wear whatever I want and not be inappropriate.

3. I can experiment with different moves and exercises and not feel like I'm either in someone else's way or that they are laughing at me. Though when I fell off the exercise ball I laughed at myself for a good 5 minutes!

4. I can alternate sets of different activities and not have someone get all peeved that I'm hogging equipment. Likewise, I can rest as much between sets as I feel like I need to.

5. If I'm in the zone and jamming to my tunes, nobody cares. The cat just looks at me like "whatever, weirdo."

6. My bank account is much happier without the automatic debits for something I rarely used.

I did belong to the Y for a while, and I do kinda miss the pool and it would be nice to go to some of the classes, but I live about 20 minute drive from there (and it's the closest one to my house) and by the time I go, change, do my exercising, shower and change again, and go home we're talking a good 2 hours roughly. I don't have that kind of time. Now, I roll out of bed early in the morning, throw on some shorts and a ratty t-shirt, throw my tangled hair in a ponytail, put on my glasses and my HRM and get my routine started before I'm even fully awake. In that same 2 hour time frame I've done a good hard workout, showered, dressed, and walking out the door to go to work.