Home Gym Versus Fitnessclub

[robblok]

Seeing fintness clubs are promoted here i will discuss an alternative: Training at home

I will give some advantages of both styles of training so people could make their choice

Home gym

Pro

- There are no rules (you don't have to buy the expensive drinks from fitness club, you can choose your won music, can train however you want)

- Its always open and you can always train when you want

- Transportation you dont have to travel far to get there

- You will never have to wait in line for weights or machines

- You aren't forced into long time expensive subscriptions that automatically renew itself

- You can train with free weights (many clubs don't even have a squat rack)

- Its cheaper in the long run (it will take some time years but its cheaper and many times good equipment has nice resale value)

Con

- Nobody to watch you so you better have some experience yourself

- There are always exercises you cant do in a home gym because you cant have the same machines as in a gym

- Nobody to spot you when your doing heavy sets (though with a power rack you can train safely)

- Its expensive to start a home gym (more so in Thailand but also gyms are expensive)

- You need to have some room (3 x 4 meters would be enough)

- It can be fun to train with others

If you really want to start a home gym i would advise people to buy a power rack and a cross trainer some dumbbells and a bench. It makes more sense to start a home gym when your living outside of BKK because usually space is expensive in Bangkok. There are nice places where you can buy fitness machines that they even hand make for you. I have had a power rack made for me and an rack to train my triceps with.

I started working out at home because the gym i was going to near my home did not even have a squat rack or a bench press both had to be done with a smith machine forcing me into an unnatural movement. I believe and so do many others the 3 best exercises are Squat / Bench press / Dead lifts these are compound exercises and wil yield good results a training without them is not really effective. Isolating exercises are proven to be a lot less effective. Many machines are isolation exercises, nice to do but nor real effective (there are exceptions of course). So not being able to do those exercise i decided to start my home gym in Thailand.

Whatever anyone would decide exercising at home or in a gym its better then not doing anything. I would only promote a home gym for those that have in the past trained in a gym so they know the basics.

Id also like to know if there are other people here training at home and what they are using as equipment. Who knows i might learn something new. So far i think my room is full and i cant fit anything new anymore.

I hope i have motivated someone to start exercising here in Thailand because i know how hard it is to keep fit here too much other nice things to do.

Edited February 7, 2009 by robblok

[ukme]

I trained in a commercial gym for years, albiet a spit/sawdust/hardcore one. The basis of my training was also the big 3 - squats, deads, bench press. I racked up some pretty impressive poundages too. I benched over 400 pounds and deadlifted over 600 at one point. I was huge too!

Problem was I abused low reps, probably overtrained, used questionable form and didn't periodize/cycle intensity. I got a way with it, at least for a while.

In my mid/late twenties I coped some pretty bad injuries - one of which required a MAJOR OPEN surgical repair. By the time I was 28/29 my body couldn't cope with the heavy training and I felt virtually crippled with pain for a good few years.

After the OP I attempted a comeback to the weights, but my body/mind just didn't want to know. The heavy diet was also becoming too much of a chore.

I now train exclusively with bodyweight exercises - pushups, dips,chins, sprint training, rope jumping etc Admittedly I don't have the size/strength which I once had but I'm over 6 feet tall and weigh a lean/hard 192 pounds with visable abs and hard 16 inch arms.

The beauty of this kind of training is that it can be done virtually anywhere! I prefer to train outdoors, preferably in nature. In fact, this is when I'm most at peace. It's my "high" if you like.

Even if I could safely lift weights again I don't think I would ever go back to that kind of training, but that's me.

I can put together/train with bodyweight drills that would give even your most hardcore weightlifter a run for his money, with little more than a floor and a few basic pieces of equipment.

I know of/use two extraordinary bodyweight exercises that are virtually unheard of that would turn you into a machine.

[robblok]

I trained in a commercial gym for years, albiet a spit/sawdust/hardcore one. The basis of my training was also the big 3 - squats, deads, bench press. I racked up some pretty impressive poundages too. I benched over 400 pounds and deadlifted over 600 at one point. I was huge too!

Problem was I abused low reps, probably overtrained, used questionable form and didn't periodize/cycle intensity. I got a way with it, at least for a while.

In my mid/late twenties I coped some pretty bad injuries - one of which required a MAJOR OPEN surgical repair. By the time I was 28/29 my body couldn't cope with the heavy training and I felt virtually crippled with pain for a good few years.

After the OP I attempted a comeback to the weights, but my body/mind just didn't want to know. The heavy diet was also becoming too much of a chore.

I now train exclusively with bodyweight exercises - pushups, dips,chins, sprint training, rope jumping etc Admittedly I don't have the size/strength which I once had but I'm over 6 feet tall and weigh a lean/hard 192 pounds with visable abs and hard 16 inch arms.

The beauty of this kind of training is that it can be done virtually anywhere! I prefer to train outdoors, preferably in nature. In fact, this is when I'm most at peace. It's my "high" if you like.

Even if I could safely lift weights again I don't think I would ever go back to that kind of training, but that's me.

I can put together/train with bodyweight drills that would give even your most hardcore weightlifter a run for his money, with little more than a floor and a few basic pieces of equipment.

I know of/use two extraordinary bodyweight exercises that are virtually unheard of that would turn you into a machine.

If you were had your operation because of training you are one of the few. I hardly hear anybody having problems like that, i do hear it a lot about soccer and other kind of sports. The thing is fitness / bodybuilding is actually really safe compared to most other sports BUT you have to listen to your body.

Body weight exercises is all nice and so on but you can only go so far with it. I use them too like chin-ups and dips although i have done both of those weighted down too.

Im older now and i don't have any problems probably because i listen to my body and don't overdo things too much. I do train hardcore but i keep in mind that my body needs to recover too. In the recovering phase you loose the weight or gain the muscles.

I could give you a run for your money too with weightlifting, you know why because your used to body weight exercises. Same as you can give me a run for my money because im not used to them. Your body adapts to the way you are training.

The downside to body weight exercises is that you cant always increase the resistance so either your routine gets longer and longer or you don't make progress.

I think both kinds are beneficial for a healthy body one just has to choose the one he likes.

[robblok]

In my first post i stated that starting a home gym was expensive but after i examined some of the prices of fitness clubs online and went to a few for real I now realize that a home gym could actually be cheaper in 1 or 2 years. The prices that some of those clubs ask is just plain crazy.

Before i never thought about that, but after making the post i decided to check some things out about the prices. I went back to the gym near my home and asked about the prices. Looked at some sites and called around. Prices of gyms are real expensive here.

If you compare those to my home country they are even higher here then there. While prices should in fact be lower here then in my home country. Location and personal are cheaper here and equipment should cost around the same price.

Just my 2 cents

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

I use a exercycle and stepper at home. Since it is boring to go for very long I pop a DVD into the player and go until my butt gets numb or the movie is over. Works for me. If I had to drive somewhere to do it, I probably wouldn't. Just trying to get the weight down.

[robblok]

I use a exercycle and stepper at home. Since it is boring to go for very long I pop a DVD into the player and go until my butt gets numb or the movie is over. Works for me. If I had to drive somewhere to do it, I probably wouldn't. Just trying to get the weight down.

Yes that is what i mean its one of the advantages of a home gym or having some training equipment at home.