Monday, May 16, 2011

At Home Or At The Gym - Where Should You Exercise?

By Chris Scarborough


An important decision you need to make is where you will exercise and a number of factors can influence this. Your choices need to be evaluated in order to make the decision that will suit your needs best, allow you to plan your workout, and achieve the best possible results.

Exercising at home has many advantages. The biggest concern will be in the finance department. You need to add gym membership fees to parking fees and gas prices. Some gym memberships may not suit you because they tend to be long terms and contract based arrangements. Your membership pays for services such as child care and a swimming pool that you may not need - or want to pay for.

You need to keep in mind that even when you exercise at home, you still need to spend some money. Whatever exercise you plan to do, you will need the equipment to do it. Even if running is the only thing you're planning, you still need to get some good quality running shoes. High quality home gym equipment is also required if you want to prevent injury and have a good workout. Exercising at home does have an advantage such as not having to pay every month once you've bought the equipment.

Not everyone at the gym are in designer gear or are slim and trim but a home workout may be better for you if you are self-conscious about exercising in public. It doesn't matter what shape you are in at home and you can wear whatever you're comfortable in. But a good motivator is going to the gym and seeing the results of regular exercise all around you.

When it comes to whether you should exercise at home or at the gym, a big factor affecting your decision is time. Gym workouts require an hour or an hour and a half not counting the drive in traffic to get there and busy schedules don't always accommodate this. It may be better if you exercise at home if your schedule is likely to mean that you skip more gym sessions than you attend.

When you exercise at home, then your choices will be limited. At the gym there are many types of equipment, different classes, a swimming pool and other services that can make your exercise routine more varied, more interesting and easier to stick to. Exercising at home can often lead to boredom because you'll be using one type of exercise on the same equipment each day.

When deciding whether to exercise at home or at the gym, it should be based on your goals and personal preference. You will need to make the most important decision and that's determining the type of environment you want to be in and how you want to achieve your fitness goals.




About the Author:



No comments: