what’s more effective? the gym or home workouts

trulyhealy

the gyms have just opened back up where i am and i’ve been doing home workouts up until now and i’ve just started going to the gym.

what do you find for you or in general is more effective? (i know that any exercise is good but i’m jsur curious)

info weight training and cardio and i’ve managed to job for 20 mins on the treadmill without stopping and i’ve never been able to do that before. i probably could of went for 30 if i really tried

janejellyroll

Effective for what?

If you mean effective in number of workouts completed, I find that I'm much more likely to exercise when I don't have to make a separate trip to the gym. So for me, working out at home is likely to result in more time spent exercising. However, if I had specific fitness goals that were helped by access to certain equipment and that equipment was at the gym, I might have a different POV.

jessgetsatit

Whatever one you will actually do. For me, it was hour-long coach lead classes at the gym. But that was because they pushed me harder then I would have ever done on my own. BUT, I'm doing Beachbody at home and find that the convenience gets me to my "gym" most mornings. I don't even have to change or put shoes on.

Ddsb11

The one you stick to and enjoy.

sijomial

Dunno for you as no idea what equipment you have at home or what your training program is or what your goals are.

For me the gym is massively more effective for strength training and cycling outdoors is far more effective for my cardio goals.

Training indoors at home I find tedious, too many distractions, lacking in equipment and focus.

quiksylver296

For me, as a competitive powerlifter, the gym is more effective.

kshama2001

quiksylver296 wrote: »

For me, as a competitive powerlifter, the gym is more effective.

Lol, I was just thinking of you - that it would be neither cost effective nor practical for you to try to set up a home gym.

For someone like me who uses way less weights, a home gym plus cardio outdoors is fine.

quiksylver296

kshama2001 wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

For me, as a competitive powerlifter, the gym is more effective.

Lol, I was just thinking of you - that it would be neither cost effective nor practical for you to try to set up a home gym.

For someone like me who uses way less weights, a home gym plus cardio outdoors is fine.

And yet, I'm still trying. Gotta be ready for the next lockdown. I've got a power rack and a barbell, now I need to find some weight plates.

sal10851

To improve you have to implement progressive overload. In other words you go harder than last time. If last time you ran 20 next run 21. Harder than last time. If you lifted 50 pounds next time lift 51. If you went over on your calories next time don't go over on your calories. Better than last time. That's how you improve. A room full of equipment is pointless when you don't try harder than last time.

Duck_Puddle

Home workouts are more effective for me. I don’t have (or want) a gym membership. I have a full lifting setup (rack/bench/bars/bumper and iron plates, KB, dumbbells....) as well as treadmill, I rower, air bike, heavy bag and other assorted stuff.

I am mostly a runner so most of my workouts are outdoors. But for non-running stuff? It would never happen if I had to go to a gym to do it.

FWIW-I used the money I saved from quitting smoking and the money I would haven spent on a gym membership to fund my home gym.

Point being-the one you’ll do is the effective one. I won’t go to a gym and workout in front of other people. So the gym is not effective for me. Home is. Others are the opposite for the reasons that matter to them.

sardelsa

I have a good amount of equipment and I love working out alone so home gym for me . It depends on what you mean by more effective, what you will actually do and your goals.

AnnPT77

Neither. Rowers like me like large bodies of water. Mine is a river.

Other than that, I can lift at home or the gym (prefer home, but still don't like lifting), use the rowing machine at home (prefer boats/river, but machine is OK in off season), bike outdoors in season.

I miss spin class at the gym, but won't be going back anytime soon: Pretty sure the woman one bike over was the source of a cold then cough I got in the Spring that had me coughing deeply for *weeks*, leading to a diagnosis of early stage COPD. I figure if I get Covid, I have a decent chance of dying, and if I go back to spin class, I have a decent chance of encountering people like "sneeze and cough on everyone girl". Don't need it.

As a generality, I agree with others: It's a personal convenience and preference issue. I think not just the workout effectiveness matters, but the whole effect on your life and happiness. The two scenarios may have different effects on more than just exercise performance.

LiftandSkate

If you like to lift heavy, and I do, the gym is the way to go. It's been very challenging and frustrating only having a total of 130# of weights to work with at home!

zebasschick

it depends on your goals, your equipment vs the local gym's equipment, etc. our local gyms didn't have the stuff i'd really like to use, so over time, we started building our home gym in our little condo.

we have what we need for very effective workouts including one of these
https://valorfitness.com/products/valor-fitness-bd-62-wall-mount-cable-station
which is basically a tiny functional trainer and you can raise or lower the cables to 16 positions so it's great for pullovers, ab workouts and low rows, not to mention lat pulldowns, tricep pulldowns and kickbacks, lower back and ab work, bicep curls and chest. we have all sorts of weight plates next to it.

i also have dumbbell, barbells and toys like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZ0HECI/ (i use this for hip adductions) and a bullworker (go figure) as well as a recumbent exercise bike. i'm working on a better set of dumbbells and considering if i can make room for a set of fixed or should stay with adjustable ones.

AndreaTamira

Whatever works for you.

I dont like doing workouts at home around my family. It feels awkward. So, I go for long walks and to the gym. If there was a pool around I'd most likely do most of my exercising in the water instead, as I miss swimming.

SnifterPug

I tend to work harder at the gym even if I am doing stuff I could do just as well at home. It's not a huge difference but over time it would add up, for sure. Plus I don't have much in the way of weights at home, nor do I have a heavy bag.

HeidiCooksSupper

THIS:

msalicia07 wrote: »

The one you stick to and enjoy.

Dogmom1978

kshama2001 wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

For me, as a competitive powerlifter, the gym is more effective.

Lol, I was just thinking of you - that it would be neither cost effective nor practical for you to try to set up a home gym.

For someone like me who uses way less weights, a home gym plus cardio outdoors is fine.

If you have the space and shop around (it took me 2 years) you can get commercial equipment cheap.

I have a full commercial (except for my power blocks) gym in my basement, so it’s way more convenient to work out at home. Now, If only I had the time to use it more...

Dogmom1978

zebasschick wrote: »

it depends on your goals, your equipment vs the local gym's equipment, etc. our local gyms didn't have the stuff i'd really like to use, so over time, we started building our home gym in our little condo.

we have what we need for very effective workouts including one of these
https://valorfitness.com/products/valor-fitness-bd-62-wall-mount-cable-station
which is basically a tiny functional trainer and you can raise or lower the cables to 16 positions so it's great for pullovers, ab workouts and low rows, not to mention lat pulldowns, tricep pulldowns and kickbacks, lower back and ab work, bicep curls and chest. we have all sorts of weight plates next to it.

i also have dumbbell, barbells and toys like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZ0HECI/ (i use this for hip adductions) and a bullworker (go figure) as well as a recumbent exercise bike. i'm working on a better set of dumbbells and considering if i can make room for a set of fixed or should stay with adjustable ones.

In a condo, I would stick with the adjustable ones personally and utilize the space for something else that doesn’t have a compact option, but that’s just me 😊

zebasschick

Dogmom1978 wrote: »

zebasschick wrote: »

it depends on your goals, your equipment vs the local gym's equipment, etc. our local gyms didn't have the stuff i'd really like to use, so over time, we started building our home gym in our little condo.

we have what we need for very effective workouts including one of these
https://valorfitness.com/products/valor-fitness-bd-62-wall-mount-cable-station
which is basically a tiny functional trainer and you can raise or lower the cables to 16 positions so it's great for pullovers, ab workouts and low rows, not to mention lat pulldowns, tricep pulldowns and kickbacks, lower back and ab work, bicep curls and chest. we have all sorts of weight plates next to it.

i also have dumbbell, barbells and toys like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZ0HECI/ (i use this for hip adductions) and a bullworker (go figure) as well as a recumbent exercise bike. i'm working on a better set of dumbbells and considering if i can make room for a set of fixed or should stay with adjustable ones.

In a condo, I would stick with the adjustable ones personally and utilize the space for something else that doesn’t have a compact option, but that’s just me 😊

yeah, that's what i should do. i just love the convenience of grabbing a dumbbell and getting to the next move rather than fumbling and messing with it.

how noisy are the power blocks? others i've tried rattle madly... i'm currently using spinlocks.

dragon_girl26

I'm not sure what you mean by "effective", but I'm more likely to work out at home than to make a special trip to the gym, especially these days. I guess home is more effective for me, then, in the sense that I actually complete more workouts.