Home Gym – Disadvantages of Working Out at Home

You have made up your mind. You will get serious about getting in shape and building muscle to get that physique that you have always dreamed of. So now you think to yourself, “Should you invest in a home gym?” Well there are home gym advantages and there are disadvantages of working out at home.

In this article we will tackle some of the disadvantages of working out at home.

Immediate Costs

The immediate cost of a home gym is clearly a disadvantage when it comes to working out. Although it may be cheaper over the long term it can be a struggle to come up with the $400 – $1000 to purchase a home gym outright.

This can be more difficult than paying the $30-$40 per month costs of a gym membership. You can try to alleviate the cost of a home gym by searching for used equipment in the classified ads or garage sales. But it still may be more cost effective over the short term to purchase a gym membership.

Lack of Variety

Another obvious disadvantage of working out at a home gym is that you are not going to have the variety of equipment that you will find at a fitness center. So you are going to have to make do with whatever equipment that you have on hand and try to get the best workout possible at home.

You will usually find better equipment at a gym. This is especially true for isolation exercises when you begin looking to tone your muscles after you have already built up bulk.

Distractions

This third disadvantage may not be a hindrance for everyone but can be for others. Sometimes just being in the home can make you feel lazy. We often think of the home as a place of relaxation after a hard day’s work.

So if you stay in that mode when working out it can be too easy to take a break every few minutes to check out the game, grab a bite to eat, or get something to drink. Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with breaks. You need breaks between sets for most workouts but sometimes you can go overboard.

When working out at the gym, on the other hand, you can feed off the energy of others around you and even be motivated by the people in the gym that are where you aspire to be.

The reverse can also be true, though. Sometimes people are distracted at the gym. Those people are the ones who spend more time socializing at the gym than working out. So this one can go both ways.

So deciding whether you want to invest in a home gym is not a clear cut answer. There are home gym advantages, but there are also some disadvantages of working out at home to consider. Immediate costs, lack of variety of equipment, and distractions at home are a few to keep in mind.