It’s the eternal problem – should you exercise at home or go to the gym? Well, I can’t give you a definitive answer on that, but what I can do is to help you make up your mind and see what suits you best. I won’t take any sides or advocate for the acquisition of an indoor cycle, but merely present the advantages and disadvantages of both options.
Atmosphere
At home, it can be you with your friends, your music or your TV. At the gym, you will find yourself in a totally different atmosphere, since you will be sharing your space and time with people who have the same goals as you. Because everybody is focused, you feel more motivated to keep pedaling, while the home exercise can take longer than it should, because you are pedaling in your own rhythm or you spend time talking to whoever is in the room with you.
Insecurities
If you feel you are out of shape, you might be embarrassed to put your gym suit on and sweat in an environment where everyone can see you. Not everybody goes to the gym to lose weight – some people are purely there to build their muscular mass and for those who see themselves as overweight, their sight might be discouraging. At home, you decide who sees you and there is no clothing etiquette involved – you can work out in your pajamas and nobody would complain.
Equipment
If you would rather pay a subscription fee than buy an exercise equipment for home use, the gym might be for you. The quality of the machines is mostly above what the exercise bikes for home use have to offer. Sure, you can buy professional spinning cycles, but you would have to dig deeper in your pocket if you want one for your home. When deciding on the kind of equipment you want to use, think for how long you would want to go to a gym. Sure, subscriptions aren’t that costly, but if you’re in for the long haul, in the end, you might spend more on fees than you would spend on a bike with similar characteristics to the ones available in a gym.
Facilities
At gyms, you might get additional services apart from the equipment at your disposal. There might be massaging and steam rooms included, which help you relax after a tiring workout. At home, you might have a shower and that’s about it. Sure, you can throw yourself on the couch to regain your energy, but if you really want to spoil yourself, many gyms have the means.
Distractions
Sure, both exercising at home or at a gym can prove to be distracting, but at least at home, you have control of who is bothering you, while at a gym, you might be tempted to start conversations with your fellow colleagues and forget about your workout plans.
Freedom
You can’t embarrass yourself in a gym. Well, you can, but it’s not recommendable. At home, you can scream, shout, make long breaks when exhausted or sing. Try doing these things in a gym and you might get kicked out of there.
Queues
When home exercising, that bike is yours and only yours. At a gym, it might be yours plus 12 more people. If you go to popular gyms, you might find yourself waiting in line to get to the wanted equipment and if your workout involves short rest periods, then the wait might prove to be frustrating.
Hygiene
Your house, your rules. When you work out at home, you use your towels, it’s your sweat dripping everywhere and you can cool off if the heat is getting to you. At a gym, you might end up sitting down in someone else’s puddle of sweat, even though most respectable gyms look clean. However, if you are picky about these things, consider that not everybody might put the same price on hygiene and you might end up witnessing unwanted things.
Non-Stop Service
A gym is open only between certain hours and during certain days. At home, your own private gym is open 24/7. You can exercise whenever you want, no matter if it’s early in the morning or late in the weekend.
Location
Not everybody can boast about having a gym right around the corner. For some people, the closest gym might be miles away and it can become tiresome after a while to keep driving to the location, just to get one hour of exercise. When exercising home, you could make good use of those 30 minutes you spent driving.
Diversity
Sure, a gym might have superior equipment, but because there are so many to choose from, you can get too wrapped up in all those exercise machines at your disposal and flub your workout goal completely. While at home, you know what your bike can do, so you program your workout accordingly and stick to it.
Fitness Trainers
It sure helps a lot to find the proper guidance at a gym if you are a novice. Trainers can come up with workout plans depending on your goals and are there to assist you, while at home, you mostly have to figure yourself how to exercise properly. Doing it at home also increases the chances of botching your workout, because you might cheat with the resistance level and the time spent on the bike, while a trainer would motivate you to complete your workout plan successfully. If you don’t take exercising that seriously or if you know what you are doing, then you can live without an instructor.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve presented the advantages and disadvantages of both exercising at home and going to the gym, it’s up to you to make that choice. If you are someone who is hungry for socializing and feels more motivated when working out in a group, then you would fit best in a gym. If having privacy and working out in your own rhythm are priorities, then you might want to stick to exercising at home. You can do the former, you can do the latter or you can do both, since the two are viable options in their own way.