Gyms: to go or not to go, you decide

Posted in Balanced Body | October 31, 2008 | 1 Comment

 Tweet 

Many people go to the gym because they think that it’s the only way they can get a good workout. I would agree that for most people this is the case but what if you cannot go to the gym for some reason? Should you be missing all of your workouts? Should you forget about having a fit figure and great health? Well you can but there is really no reason you should. I want to tell you about several ways that anyone can exercise at home no matter how much time he or she has.
I am a mother of two wonderful 7-months-old twin girls and that means I usually don’t have a lot of free time. Right now I do not work but I still have to keep the house, cook food for the family and do a whole ton of other things. The gym is one of the last things that I can think about right now but it does not mean that I have to forget about my workouts and keeping my weight down. I exercise at home EVERY DAY and I can proudly say that I almost regained my pre-pregnancy shape (I am not speaking only about weight, I am speaking about strong muscles and good stamina as well). If you want to know how I do it then read the rest of this post and hopefully it will help you to boost your own fitness experience.

First of all I would like to mention several pros regarding the gym:

1. You are in an environment of people who have similar goals and it helps you to stay motivated all the time.
2. When you get to the gym you usually don’t want to look stupid standing in the corner and doing nothing. Whether you want it or not you will exercise at least a little bit.
3. If you are going to group classes or working with a personal trainer then you have a person who corrects all your mistakes and who makes sure that you will not get bored during your workouts.
4. If you are new to fitness then you simply do not know what to do. A fitness instructor will help you choose the right exercises or classes that will help you reach your goal.
5. There is nobody to distract you from your workout. Your children are not running around, your cat does not think that you invented a new funny way of playing with him when you are doing your crunches, you do not notice a piece of dirt in any corner of the house or under the couch that must be cleaned immediately and you are not thinking about the stew on the stove that is about to burn.
6. Going to the gym is type of going out so you can see other people and maybe even get acquainted with somebody.

If a gym is so great then why should you not go there? – this seems like a fair question. Below I would like to give you several ways how you can make your at-home workouts equal or even better than gym workouts. Each of the gym pros can be counterpoised by at-home-workout pros:

1. You do not need any time to get to the gym. You do not need to hire a babysitter to stay with your babies while you exercise (I personally don’t feel safe leaving my babies in the gym childcare when they are so little); you do not have to think what time you can go to the gym. You can easily exercise when your babies are asleep and if you need to cook supper then you can exercise while your chicken is in the oven and your potatoes are still boiling on the stove and you are guaranteed free 20 -30 minutes.
2. Exercising at home does not require any monthly fees. This fact is so obvious and I am not even sure that it’s worth mentioning.
3. You are free to choose yourself what muscles you want to work out and how intensive you want to exercise.
4. You won’t be ashamed because you don’t have the perfect butt or because you look like a roach on its back when you try a new exercise. You can try as much as you want until you master a particular move or routine.
5. If you have babies then you can enjoy staying in shape while including them in your exercise routines. I love exercising with my girls and it’s so much fun for both (three) of us. I am sure that when my girls get older we will be doing all of our exercises together which will be good for them and for me.
6. If I have to choose between running outside and running on a treadmill or elliptical machine then I will definitely prefer the outside. When you run outside you meet people, you can look at different houses, trees, gardens, buildings… You can pick a new route every day that will be good for your brain and memory (Recent studies showed that with the age our brain cells stop growing and even start dying which causes bad memory and in some cases even Alzheimer disease. The reason why our brain cells do not grow is that we stop learning new things and we do the same things day after day for the rest of our life. Running in a new neighborhood, trying to use your left hand instead of your right hand (if you are right-handed and vice-versa if you are left-handed) will help you grow new brain cells and keep aging problems far away from you). If you are not sure if running is for you then check out Running every day keeps aging away: a complete list of running benefits
7. I am a big fan of Pilates and I can do Pilates at home. Most gyms do not offer a lot of Pilates classes and Pilates studios are usually very expensive ($70 for a private lesson and $20 for a group class) that is why at-home workouts are most suitable for me.
8. You do not have to smell gym’s smells. No matter how clean the gym is some people still smell this specific odor that can be quite unpleasant for them.
9. Today you can find any workout you can only think about on DVD and very often gyms cannot offer such a big selection of fitness workouts. Just get a bunch of fitness DVDs and you can forget about boredom and don’t forget about the fact that only you decide when you want to exercise.

There is just one huge con for at-home workouts: you need a lot of WILL POWER to exercise at home and most people give up even before they start. If you can gather all your will power and make yourself work out at home then I promise you that just in a month at-home workouts will be as simple and natural for you as brushing your teeth.
Lastly I would like to say that in this article I gave you some reasons why you should go to the gym as well as why you should not go to the gym. I did not write this article to give you an excuse not to exercise at the gym. I just wanted to show you that whether you have time and money for the gym or not you can still exercise and still have a great body and good health. I personally go to the gym 2 to 3 times a week but besides the gym I do my EVERY DAY workouts at home and the combination of these two approaches keeps me motivated and interested in exercise as well as gives me a fit body and great stamina which I need.
If you do not know where to start with your at-home workouts then you can read my article Easy Ways to Fight the Flab: Simple Routines to Stay Lean and Mean

Keep it balanced!

P.S. I know that some people might not agree with some of the points that I gave here so I would really appreciate if you could tell me what works for you more; gym workouts or home workouts and why. Thanks for your feedback.

 Tweet