First off I have no clothes you’d ever wear to a gym. I wear jeans and a t shirt pretty much daily (think Hank Hill). Second, I don’t get what you do there. I hated gym time in school (workout gym, not like throwing balls and running around gym, thats fun) and I don’t get what you do. Run on a treadmill and lift some weights? I feel like I could do all of that at home. Gym memberships are insanely expensive. Are home workouts actually effective? Does one even enjoy gym time?
I’ve seen plenty of jeans at my rural gym. Just don’t wear them on leg day.
Otherwise, you might exercise too hard and end up like The Hulk.
Run on a treadmill and lift some weights?
Yup.
Gym memberships are insanely expensive. Are home workouts actually effective?
They can be. Depends in your goals and all that. Home gyms require space and money up front.
I’ve been following this routine for a while at home. It’s been pretty good. I initially started with their 3 day a week dumbbell exercises.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/6-day-dumbbell-only-workout
I’ve also probably spent over $1.5k on a quality bench and adjustable dumbbells. A far cry from what you can use at a gym, but it’s good enough for me.
You can probably buy some cheap weights to start out and then move on from there.
Also, don’t expect immediate results. Give it a solid 3 months.
With good knowledge of anatomy, dumbbells and a bench cover every single muscle in your body.
You do not need much at all what so ever to exercise every muscle in your body. Believing otherwise is rather ignorant and only provides more pull to gyms, which are not necessary for 99.999% of people!
Yea, I would agree with that.
You could even get away with not knowing much anatomy if you can find a good routine and make sure your form is right. At least I feel that’s how I’ve gotten as far as I have.
The hardest part for me with working out at home is getting heavier weights. They get real expensive real fast and take up more and more room.
I assume there’s some kind of social aspect to going to a gym as well. I have no idea because I prefer the opposite, lol.
Yea… I haven’t explored the variety of “adjustable” weights outside of the classic bar + plates, but if any are reliable enough to run a routine with, 10-50lb adjustable dumbbells would cover like 95% of peoples’ needs with two items.
I originally had some plate dumbbells that screwed on, but it was such a pain in the ass to change them.
I eventually used the core home fitness dumbbells for about a year before upgrading to the Nuobell dumbbells.
My healthcare plan reimbursed me for most of the cost, which was very nice.
That’s a lot of questions, but I’ll try.
What do you do at a gym? Use dedicated equipment to lift weights and build strength, work with a coach to help set workouts, and workout with other people who have the same goals.
A gym membership can be a way to meet other people and build community. If you see the same 5 people regularly due to similar gym schedules, you might build some friendships.
Primarily a gym can become a place where you are expected to exercise, so you’re more likely to do it. If you have a treadmill and some dumbbells in your bedroom, your brain might not give you the motivation needed to use the equipment. You might hop on for 5 minutes, but then get distracted and stop using it. But if you traveled 20 minutes to a dedicated exercise location, then you’re much less likely to stop and leave right away.
So what do you do? Well, depends on what your goals are. Did you want to get healthier? Some cardio where you get your heart rate up improves your cardiovascular health. Lifting weights, can help build muscle and bone health, which would make it much less likely to be injured, and much more likely to recover from an injury quicker.
If you can motivate yourself to workout at home, and if you can find a good routine that meets your goals, you can certainly do that all at home, even without much equipment at all. The problem is, are you actually doing what you need to do, or are you just moving around and wasting time with little actual effect? A coach that knows what their doing would be able to help you actually use your time.
Here’s another place you can ask !fitness@lemmy.world
Ah perfect, I should have looked for that
You have some very good answers here. I’m just going to add to this and say what you pay for a gym membership compared to what you wouldpay for decent quality equipment at home. It’s cheaper to have the gym membership because you have the maintenance and the upkeep on the equipment andthe replacement cost on the equipment if you own it. Where as at the gym you go there The stuff is working.
Given a lot of it, you can replace in a fairly low cost way. But you still have the upkeep and maintenance. And you also have the space needed.
Maintenance is an assumed cost. You do not NEED machines to exercise any muscle, and if you think dumb weights need maintenance beyond a wipedown/cleaning once in a while… then I have to question your knowledge or motives.
Wasn’t talking about dumb weights. Obviously those don’t have up keep costs.
As for the rest of my comment. It comes down to what the end user wants or feels comfortable with. Goes without saying you can exercise without machines. But that isn’t the point. Each person wants something different.
So why the need to attack me?
OP: “I feel like I could do all of them at home”
You: “Still have upkeep and maintenance”
Me: “No, most things don’t require tons of upkeep and maintenance, especially limiting it to things you’d ‘need’.”
Who do you actually agree with?
That and space, think of the cost of having an extra room in the house for all that stuff.
True. And you have to move the equipment around haha. But I wonder if I need more than some weights and an elliptical for winter time when I can’t bike
My advice, do a lot of research figure out a gym that is easy to join and easy to get out of the membership or I should say to end the membership.
Then go there try all the different weights. Try the different pieces of equipment. And take notes to what you would really need, what you would really want. That should tell you how much space you would really want or need, and also the cost
The first visit to a gym could be free. Or it can be a “a current member can bring one friend for free once a month” thing. You can just go and check what’s out there. Most people probably just lift weights or use the machines that they don’t have and don’t want to buy at home. There’s also the factor that if you’re at the gym, you’re there to work out. When you’re at home, you can be distracted by whatever.
Run on a treadmill and lift some weights?
Yes, that is exactly what you do at a gym.
I feel like I could do all of that at home. Gym memberships are insanely expensive.
Absolutely correct.
Are home workouts actually effective?
Yes.
Does one even enjoy gym time?
Yes.
Build one of these out of old pallets, concrete and other scrap stuff
Even just the full set of free weights at a gym is the price of an annual membership (more than some discount gyms), let alone the expensive machines.
Nah. Just silly short sighted thinking.
Are you only going to exercise for a year or two? Yes? OK, well THEN you might have a point about gyms being cheaper…
but even a full set of weights and some minimal equipment is maaaaybe 5 years of gym memberships, for the cheap gyms.
Are you going to work out for less than five years of your life? If you answer “no”, even financing some weights might be worth considering.
Sure, if “financing” didn’t involve interest
Sometimes there are no easy answers and you have to do something more than complain. Is it a perfect, convenient solution? No. Do you need a perfect solution before you fix anything?
I think it was like 150 dollars a month for a membership here which is what made me go hell no!
That’s not a gym, it’s a full on spa
It just depends on what your goals are.
Are you just wanting to burn off calories? You may as well go for a run in your neighborhood.
Are you wanting to build muscle? That’s what I used to do. The gym has a lot of equipment that I wouldn’t be able to have room for at home. All the variety of free weights, barbells, racks, etc.
They also have classes and trainers you can hire to help you reach a goal. There’s also basketball courts, tennis, and often swimming pools.
But really at the end of the day, you gotta have a goal in mind I’m order to plan an effective workout routine. Randomly running on treadmill or lifting whatever won’t do much.
Also I didn’t really wear anything special. Just a T-shirt and some sweat pants. I did pick up some shoes for the gym because my others were too squishy and causing me problems when doing squats.
Thats probably part of the problem, I hate goals (because it’s not possible to know what’ll happen in the future) but basically I figure it’d be smart to be somewhat in shape. I have an insanely fast metabolism that hasnt slowed down at all but I just would like to be able to lift heavy things and be stronger. And I don’t want to feel like shit when im old, that’s the biggest reason I figure I should start doing more.
First I unpack my tripod, mobile phone and water bottle and set them into position in the most annoying direction possible. Then i hit record. Pump some irons getting upset at each and every passer by as it’s obviously about me not them. All the while intermittently berating those stupid Nord, Beton and Thalmor wannabes as inferior chuds to my faithful Khajiit follower’s. Then I strike some epic posses, admiring my strikingly beautiful ears, furs and tail. Of course I check the phone to make sure my benevolent masses of one follower shower me with praises. Thanks mom!
This one is disappointed with Maiq’s use of pronouns.
I never liked gyms. I get great workouts at home with a little open floor space and a stationary bike.
I loathe gyms, they are usually full of smelly obnoxious people.
The alternate I found is putting on running shoes, headphones, and go outside.
As a person who never goes to the gym and doesn’t have a home gym either, are you trolling?
Honestly not. I just do not understand gyms or how people get into it
As someone else that doesn’t go to a gym, it is a combination of: they enjoy working out or do so for another reason, they don’t have the space for gym equipment at home, they can’t afford to buy and maintain the gym equipment they want to use, the gym they attend offers classes or personal training guidance, they enjoy the atmosphere and encouragement of working out with other like-minded individuals.
It isn’t something magical, it may just not be for you.
Gym memberships are insanely expensive
Wait until you see the price of weight plates and dumbbells.
You go to the gym to work out. You clearly don’t know how to work out, so go watch some exercise guides on YouTube.
I got a bench and all the weights and bars I could ever need for a couple hundred bucks on Craigslist after looking for deals for about a week. They even came with little bars so I can use the smaller plates as dumbbells. Obviously it’d be harder for someone in a more rural area, but exercise equipment is usually pretty easy to find relatively cheap second-hand. Way better than a gym membership so long as you’ve got a bit of space in your home for a bench. Paired with basic body-weight maneuvers and some running shoes, you can get all the exercise you need without all the fancy stuff at a gym.
