Top 6 benefits of working out at home

There are numerous advantages to working out at home. You don't realize how much until you make the switch.

For the past ten years, I've been working out at commercial gyms. Going to the gym had become a major hassle a couple of years ago, as life became much busier. Membership fees began to rise, and I realized that I needed to become more efficient with my workouts. I began to seriously consider setting up my own home gym. In the fall of 2017, I let my gym membership lapse and cleared some space in my basement. It's been fantastic, and I've never looked back. I'd like to tell you about my experience.

Here are ten reasons why a home gym is preferable to working out at a commercial gym:

1. Save Time

Time is a scarce resource. It's one of the few things that you can't get more of. It's one of your most valuable resources. The older I've gotten, the more responsibilities I've accumulated and the busier I've become. The amount of time I've saved has been by far the most significant benefit of investing in a home gym.

You'd be surprised how much time you save by not going to a commercial gym. Let's see how many there are:

- 5 minutes are required to get dressed and ready to go.
- Commute to the gym = 10 minutes (and I'd consider this pretty close, as I've done 20+ minute commutes to the gym in the past).
- Parking the car, going to the locker room, and changing clothes = 10 minutes.
- Distractions from socializing = 5 minutes (I tried to cut this down as much as possible)
- 10 minutes wasted waiting for equipment
- 45 minutes is the actual workout time.
- Return to the locker room, take a quick shower, and change = 10 minutes
- The commute back home takes 10 minutes.

The total time for all of those steps is 105 minutes, or slightly more than an hour and a half. That's roughly how much time I'd have to devote before I got my home gym. That same workout and a quick shower now take me 50 minutes, or roughly half the time, now that I have a home gym set up. I can do a lot with the 55 minutes I've saved – my quality of life has greatly improved. The best advantage of working out at home for me is the ability to save time.

2. Save Money

A home gym may require a larger initial investment, but it will save you a lot more money in the long run than a gym membership. You will benefit greatly from having all that extra money in your pocket as a result of deciding to work out at home.

Consider the following simple example:

Assume you have a $30-per-month gym membership (which is pretty typical). So you'll have paid $360 over the course of a year. That doesn't even take into account the money you spend on gas to get to and from the gym. Keep in mind that prices and fees may rise over time.

For $360, you could buy a set of adjustable dumbbells (Bowflex SelectTech 552 dumbbells) and a weight bench (Bowflex SelectTech 3.1 bench) and start working out at home with a full body dumbbell routine. This is what I would call a minimally viable setup to get started – I did something similar at first. After a year, you would be ahead of the gym membership because your cost is a one-time, fixed cost, whereas the gym membership requires you to pay in perpetuity.

Let's say you want to begin with a full barbell setup. For around $900, you could get a rack (PowerLine PPR200X), a better bench than the first example (PowerLine PFID125X), and a 300-lb Olympic weight set (Troy USA Olympic weight set). That investment will pay for itself in less than three years.

Regardless of how you slice it, if you are serious about working out in the long run, owning a home gym will save you a lot of money. Your wallet will appreciate it.

3. Convenience

The convenience of having your own home gym will make the investment more than worthwhile. Once you've set it up and put a system in place, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Nothing beats the convenience of being able to work out in your own home gym whenever you want. Consistency and not missing workouts are two of the most important aspects of working out. You simply need to show up, take action, and progress over time to see real results, regardless of your fitness goals.

Over the years, I've made a variety of excuses for missing my workouts:

- Timing and scheduling issues – something comes up during my scheduled workout time, and I'm unable to get to the gym before it closes.
- The car has broken down.
- There is too much traffic.
- It's raining or it's too cold to go outside because of the weather.
- Don't want to work out on weekends
- Feeling too lazy to work out at a specific time.

Many of the excuses for not going to the gym are rendered completely invalid when you have your own home gym. All you have to do is walk over to your home gym, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you can work out at night (which I prefer) or on weekends if you want. If you miss your regularly scheduled time, simply make it up later in the day. If you know you'll be busy on a particular day, you can simply get up an hour earlier and complete your workout.

There are numerous other benefits as well. After your workout, instead of using a public shower, you can simply hop in your own shower. You can simply walk over to your kitchen to consume your pre- or post-workout shakes and meals. I've literally forgotten to bring my water bottle or post-workout shake to the public gym on numerous occasions, forcing me to either delay consumption or improvise! None of this applies to your home gym, where you have complete control over both your workouts and your routine.

4. Freedom

If you join a commercial gym, you must follow their rules. Most of the time, those rules are reasonable for a shared public space, such as re-racking your weights and wiping down your equipment, but they can also be extremely limiting and prevent you from making progress.

Planet Fitness, for example, is marketed as a "no judgment zone" for people who want to avoid being intimidated by serious lifters and "meatheads." Many of the most basic compound exercises and lifts required to gain serious strength, such as deadlifts, overhead lifts, and T-bar rows, have been banned by Planet Fitness. It has a lunk alarm, which is a siren that sounds if someone is dropping weights or grunting too loudly. It personifies the worst aspects of the Globo Gym stereotype. Planet Fitness is just one example; many gyms prohibit items such as chalk, cell phones, and certain types of shoes.

Planet Fitness, for example, bills itself as a "no judgment zone" for people who don't want to be intimidated by serious lifters and "meatheads." Planet Fitness has banned many of the most basic compound exercises and lifts required to gain serious strength, such as deadlifts, overhead lifts, and T-bar rows. It has a lunk alarm, which is a siren that goes off if someone drops weights or grunts too loudly. It embodies the most negative aspects of the Globo Gym stereotype. Planet Fitness is only one example; many gyms forbid items like chalk, cell phones, and certain types of shoes.

5. Privacy

One of the most appealing aspects of working out at home is the privacy it provides. You don't have to be concerned about your appearance or spend money on overpriced gym wear. You are free to wear as much (or as little) as you want.

You can put your ego aside because no one is watching you. Gym culture can be toxic at times, especially when the emphasis is on constantly lifting as heavy as possible to impress others, destroying your form and increasing your risk of injury. Who cares what your one rep max is if you're in the comfort of your own home? You can go at your own pace. There's a lot of bravado at the gym, but you can ignore all of that nonsense. You can concentrate on going light and using proper form.

Trial and error is also one of the most underappreciated aspects of fitness. When you're trying out a new movement or exercise, it can take some practice to get the form down or to perform the movement with the proper range of motion and comfort level. When you work out at home, you don't have to worry about making a mistake or having people hover over you while you try out a new exercise.

Working out at home means you have complete privacy and no one is staring at you. You are welcome to dance in between sets if you so desire. If you want, you can collapse and sprawl out on the floor after doing squats. Your gym is your own private haven.

6. No waiting in line

The last gym I belonged to didn't even have a power rack (an unfortunate trend). They only had one squat stand, and it was the only station where you could perform many of the major barbell movements. The gym's serious lifters were always hogging the squat stand. Waiting for my squats and Romanian deadlifts on leg day became unbearable. I'd sometimes have to wait 15-20 minutes behind several lifters just to get to my sets. The same can be said for many of the other machines and stations that I had to use.

My previous gym didn't even have a power rack (an unfortunate trend). There was only one squat stand, and it was the only station where you could do many of the major barbell movements. The serious lifters at the gym were always hogging the squat stand. On leg day, waiting for my squats and Romanian deadlifts became unbearable. To get to my sets, I'd sometimes have to wait 15-20 minutes behind several other lifters. Many of the other machines and stations that I had to use were in the same boat.

When working out at home, the concept of waiting in line to use equipment is rendered obsolete. It's like having your own private gym, which is essentially what a home gym is all about. That level of control over your workouts, as well as on-demand access to your workout equipment, is priceless.