Home gym or gym membership?

[urbanlifter]

It's like asking which is the better dumbbell to own, Ironmaster or Powerblock. The answer is BOTH! If you can afford a cheap gym membership while having a home gym you'll benefit from some of the equipment you can't afford and it will enhance your programming. Fortunately for me I have access to a few gyms through work for free so it's a non-issue when I want to mix things up. Ultimately if you could only have one then a home gym is better IMO, for countless reasons as long as you have the money / space. But I wouldn't buy a home gym thinking you are going to save money, in the long run it will probably be far more expensive. Especially if you hang around here long enough LOL

[Michiganian]

But I wouldn't buy a home gym thinking you are going to save money, in the long run it will probably be far more expensive. Especially if you hang around here long enough LOL

I just crunched the numbers. For what I've spent on my home gym since November I could have paid for:

• Life Time Fitness multi-club single membership for six years.
• My last gym for sixteen years.
• The black iron gym nearby for twenty-three years.

Mind you: I now have a home gym in which the only exercise I used to do that I cannot is leg raises/extensions.

OTOH: This forced me off machines and into free weights, which I feel to have been a major net positive.

[urbanlifter]

My last gym membership was LA Fitness, which after pre-paying cash three years in advance it came out to about $20 a month (maybe a little less). If I bought all my equipment brand new it would probably be the equivalent of 30+ years of an LA Fitness membership. But for me it's worth it, the items I've hand selected over the years fit my body size/ergonomics perfectly. Where a commercial gym can be hit or miss with some things. Benches may be too tall, crappy knurling on the barbells, cable attachments usually suck, no monolifts for squats, then on top of that machines are often down for maintenence.

The things I do enjoy at the commercial gym are single use items that don't really make sense for most people to own, unless you have enough space to build a seperate facility in your backyard. Like dedicated calf raise machines, seated hamstring curls/extensions, chest fly machines, preacher curl benches, chest supported row machines, ect. But nothing beats waking up at 5am and being able to walk downstairs to a gym loaded with all your favorite stuff, with everything setup for your session the night beforehand.

This is the way... (queue Mandalorian music)

[BiGx5MurF]

For me personally, the biggest knock against commercial gyms, is the people. Mental health issues are on the rise, and we're often being socially pressured to affirm them. IMO, the pandemic really accelerated this phenomenon.

[twodog]

Time: Yes. Money? HA! I just totaled-up what I've spent on home gym equipment since I started this in November. Suffice it to say: I'm cuttin' myself off. Holy smokes! And, while I didn't buy much from the secondary market, rarely have I gone top-drawer on the new stuff I acquired, either. .

I too, have spent too much over the years, lol, as most of us have. I try to buy used as often as possible, and if I buy new because I can't find something, it's usually at the level of Body Solid. If I really like the machine, sometimes I trade up for something better if it comes along. Luckily, I'm limited in space so there's only so much that fits.

Most of the things that I buy new are bars, db's, some kettlebells, and now some oly stuff for my daughter ( kilo bumpers, change plates, and a bearing bar are on the horizon). This is because I can't find what I need locally.

[david048]

The home gym option is certainly the more expensive one, unless your gym membership is stupidly expensive. It's worth it, imo, if you have the space because of the travel time saved and the facts that you no longer need to compete with people for the squat rack, you no longer need to feel like you're being watched, you no longer need to think about what kind of juices the last guy left on the machine, you no longer need to worry about what you wear, you no longer need to worry about hordes of teenagers consuming all available equipment on summer vacations, etc. etc.. With a home gym, you remove excuses for skipping workouts and you can focus like you're supposed to.

[radrd]

Home gym eventually pays for itself after you stop paying monthly gym dues. Though mine would probably take about 50 years, assuming I never buy another piece of equipment.

[Michiganian]

... you no longer need to think about what kind of juices the last guy left on the machine, ...

This point is nothing to sneeze at

Leading into the 2021 Christmas season I finally got nailed by Covid-19. Since the vast majority of what little time I spent outside our home was in the gym I pretty strongly suspect that's where I picked it up. I was careful, too: Wiping-down before using anything, keeping my hands away from my face, washing my hands before leaving the gym, using a disinfectant before getting in the car, and washing again when I got home.

Then there's the story of a buddy of mine who ended-up catching a subcutaneous infection he almost certainly picked up at his gym that left him hospitalized for nearly a week on an antibiotic IV. When he was admitted the doctor told him if he'd waited any longer he might well have lost the finger--at least. I looked into it a bit at the time and found such things are not terribly uncommon. He'd had a small crack in his skin at the site of the infection, which is how it got in.

None of this discouraged me from my gym, but, it did give me another reason to build my own home gym.

[WWE-TicK]

Home gym eventually pays for itself after you stop paying monthly gym dues. Though mine would probably take about 50 years, assuming I never buy another piece of equipment.

lol ... you never stop buying equipment.

[radrd]

lol ... you never stop buying equipment.

Correct. I'm out of room but I keep finding ways to upgrade my equipment or make better use of my space to squeeze in more. Realizing I can hang specialty bars from the ceiling was a game-changer.

[WWE-TicK]

Correct. I'm out of room but I keep finding ways to upgrade my equipment or make better use of my space to squeeze in more. Realizing I can hang specialty bars from the ceiling was a game-changer.

I'm getting ready to upgrade to a Rep Fitness Ares setup. Need to sell my lat pulldown machine and existing rack to make room though.

It never ends. It's just too much fun shopping for new gym equipment. If anything, having a garage gym costs way more in the long run than going to a public gym. But I'm never going back to the public gym.

[urbanlifter]

Correct. I'm out of room but I keep finding ways to upgrade my equipment or make better use of my space to squeeze in more. Realizing I can hang specialty bars from the ceiling was a game-changer.

Haha, yep! Then I seem to go through minimalist phases once my gym reaches capacity, sell everything off except for the 'essentials' then repeat the cycle of slowly packing the gym again. NGL though, I do miss when my gym was packed with all that Nautilus equipment, should have just stopped then. But, there was no changing my mind LOL

[Michiganian]

... I keep finding ways to upgrade my equipment ...

Don't I know that tune

I went to a reasonable effort to find a bench that would meet my needs and budget. Mind you: I'm not unhappy with the bench, per se, but, after using it for five months I perceive its flaws:

• In some-or-another discussion bench height was discussed. At the time I didn't understand why that was such a big deal. My bench is higher than IPF Standard (20 in.). Not a big problem for me, because I'm tall, but, still... it doesn't "feel right."
• It's not nearly as good for decline crunches as I'd thought it would be and, now, doing other crunch exercises, instead, that wide seat with a gap in the middle for attachments (that XMark keeps promising but never appear) is as much a hindrance as anything else.
• It's got a wide footprint at the foot, which is great for lateral stability, but, it's a major tripping, toe-stubbing hazard and gets in the way of where I sometimes want to place my feet.

I will someday wish to upgrade that.

[TitusVI]

I have home gym. All i need plus sauna. Nevertheless I plan on joining a gym during summer. Just to see what its like to work out with others and maybe see the chicks that everyone talks about. I wonder what the experience will be like. And once it gets colder my home gym is waiting.