Why pay for a gym? Buy your own weights, instead

Why pay for running shoes? Make your own.

I have a gym membership, and i threw together a little home gym, too. It's nice being able to get a little workout in at home once in a while if i didn't hae a chance to get to the gym.

But the home gym just didn't survive. Having enough room was a problem and had to largely dismantle it.

And even when it was available, it just wasn't the same. The difference in the quality of the equipment is enormous (gym wins), way less distractions at the gym, and time you spend accumulating and setting up your equipment at home is wasted time that you could be using to actually workout if your just paid up and started working out at the gym.

It's another one of those things where it depends on your situation, and either one can be a total win depending how you approach it.

One thing that has been a real asset at home, though, is setting up my road bike on a fluid trainer - that has gotten a lot of use over the years. I don't really think of that as part of a home gym, though.

Weights are one thing, but where do you row and play polo if you don't belong to an athletic club? My membership dues are less than the cost of the stable keepers I'd have to hire to do it at home.

The Original P.i.m.p. Baller wrote:

crunchyinmilk wrote:

And while I kinda miss the hard bodied girls at the gym, they're way too much of a distraction to get anything done.

Are you 14?

No I'm 15 and a half.

getting to the gym puts a smile on my face, despite knowing that its going to have more morons there than not.

i did some cross fit gym stuff as a runner,my coach was a pole vault coach.

i ended up getting some decent core strength which seemed to lay the base for life.

i loved the gym but stayed out of it to avoid gaining muscle.

now i don't care about running times and overall fitness that is functional is the goal.

i love gyms, but having been in world class training environments, it is a very annoying thing to go to a gym.

why?

firstly personal bro science trainers, who have done nothing, often not in shape or on a quick roids program liter the place, but good for them, they're trying to stay off the street and keep out of trouble

the music in the gym is often really bad, random, soft music or rap crap, which, if you ask anyone in the gym, they can't stand. in other words it sets a pvssy tone, and not a go get them tone, like you're lining up like in hockey basketball, anything.

then people don't pair up with a partner, and take up a workout station and sit there between sets.

then there are the cleaners, which are toxic, if you actually read the ingredients, and are bronchial inhibitors.

then you have half the gym with walker machines, while next door you have a park and can jog in comfort in the fresh air... instead of on a machine.

recently, they've started adding machines without any marking on how much weight your pushing... it is 1 3 4 instead of the poundage.

then you have the clients, that express as much joy as a jewish person that is walking into a nazi oven.

the clients literally hastle or look down upon real athletes doing things properly.

in the gym i was going to for a stint in summerside PEI, there were about 5 good athletes, but the locals complained that they grunted or banged the weights (on very heavy lifts), and that set of real athletes got out of the gym within a month, i suppose going to a facility where they were not hastled by the pvssy crowd, what they do is complain behind the scene and a official comes in an "has a talk' with the person in question.

then there is the location of machines, and benches and weights, here they have say 12 benches but they are so close together, only 6 can be used, instead of having 9 usable spaces...

then there is the iphone, people sit punching away between sets..

etc. etc.

basically we're talking about the dumbed down and depressed people leading the way, and any sensible person is probably going to hate the gym experience.

they do everything wrong, bad mood, bad focus, bad technique, ..

myself, i just love the gym, and this stupidity, if it gets to me, i roll it into smashing out the next set.

but god bless them, for getting out and working out, doing the best they can, that is , without any quality thinking.

============

at the end of the day, if you run a gym, just copy the top profesionals, go to their gym, and take a few sessions with a proven world class guy or gal...

copy the experts.

at the end of the day, people don't know the difference between a real expert and a fake.

the education system almost always has fake teachers, like a fake martial artist, who, push come to shove, can't perform.

it is a low quality fake paradigm.

and the media and system, it's set up to make you stupid and weak.

no doubt.

but you can educate yourself, via real experts on the internet, and throw quack-ademia down the toilet. almost always,

these phd and "masters" are total quacks.

follow the experts. ditch quackademia.

what about the polo grounds? wrote:

Weights are one thing, but where do you row and play polo if you don't belong to an athletic club? My membership dues are less than the cost of the stable keepers I'd have to hire to do it at home.

Stabling fees for horses and dogs can be annoying, but my club still rides to the hounds on Saturday a.m., You peasants.

Kvothe wrote:

Please explain ... wrote:

You want to be like the clowns at the gym?

Maybe he's training for the circus.

Don't hate me just because I'm a Acro superstud.

for some going to a gym has advantages over your basement.

HS XC coach stated

"socialization

atmosphere

space

variety

girls"

Every gym is different, but I would add support the above list. The support can be real (spotters) or imaginary (getting psyched up to do your best to try to 'compete' with or impress others).

Why go to all the trouble of entering a running race when you can crank out a time trial by yourself any time?

Some people like the advantages of a group setting. Others can push hard on their own.

Pros and cons for both, to state the obvious.

I will say that it would take a while to recoup your cost for a home gym, especially if you have a treadmill and wanted to do bench, squats, bar curls, etc. not to mention a fair amount of space taken up in the garage or basement.

But if you run outside and have a simple program (pull ups, dips, curls) then doing things at home is cheap and convenient.

I’ve thought about buying more stuff for the home, but I’m trying to have less s#it that I own, not more. It’s nice to be able to walk away from a gym. Keep your own life clean and simple.

If you live somewhere that weather is good and you don’t need a treadmill then a pull up bar and a few db’s or kettlebells are good for 99% of what you want to do. That is unless you are trying to be a bodybuilder. For general fitness, even muscle building, not much equipment is required. I was a gym rat, wannabe bodybuilder before I got into running. There’s not much I did at the gym that I couldn’t do with the items mentioned above. For most people, pushups, pullups, and core work is enough to stay in good shape as you get older or look really good when you’re younger.

Hourunner wrote:

If you live somewhere that weather is good and you don’t need a treadmill then a pull up bar and a few db’s or kettlebells are good for 99% of what you want to do. That is unless you are trying to be a bodybuilder. For general fitness, even muscle building, not much equipment is required. I was a gym rat, wannabe bodybuilder before I got into running. There’s not much I did at the gym that I couldn’t do with the items mentioned above. For most people, pushups, pullups, and core work is enough to stay in good shape as you get older or look really good when you’re younger.

This ^^

Depends on the exercises you want to do.

- All about squats? Who's going to buy a squat rack, barbell, and all those weights? 99% of people are better off buying a gym membership.

- Just there for the treadmill? GTFO. Stop wasting money on the gym and go run outside.

Hourunner wrote:

If you live somewhere that weather is good and you don’t need a treadmill then a pull up bar and a few db’s or kettlebells are good for 99% of what you want to do. That is unless you are trying to be a bodybuilder. For general fitness, even muscle building, not much equipment is required. I was a gym rat, wannabe bodybuilder before I got into running. There’s not much I did at the gym that I couldn’t do with the items mentioned above. For most people, pushups, pullups, and core work is enough to stay in good shape as you get older or look really good when you’re younger.

^^^ THIS

Its all about the chix man!

Ya first gotta see what youre really getting, unlike in a bar.

Depends on your situation. For us, putting together a home gym made total sense.

After the sub prime collapse of 2008, we bought a 2600 square foot house with an attached sunroom (not included in the official square footage).

There is a room downstairs off the family room that we had no actual use for. First it was my “man cave”, but we’re really not party people and it went mostly unused. So, we sold the bar and the neon signs and gave the foosball table to an in law.

I built a platform out of plywood and shop flooring then bought a squat rack and adjustable bench. I already had 4, 45 pound plates laying around so i got an olympic bar and some 5, 10, 25 pound plates. Since I have the rack, I can do pull ups and other hanging type exercises. I already had some dumbell bars with standard weight plates from years back.

I have my road bike mounted on a trainer in the sunroom right now since riding in the rain sucks, sometimes I ride rollers on my mountain bike in there.

My wife bought a cheap but functional rower. And we’ve accumulated some other stuff along the way (yoga balls, push up paddles). If i get bored working out at home, I have access to the fitness center at the school where I work.

Injuries only allow me to run 150-200 miles per year anymore, so its really nice to be able to supplement on my own time and not have to try and squeeze into an unoccupied machine at a gym.