Is it better to exercise at home or go to the gym?

There is no absolute advantage or disadvantage, it all depends on your current fitness goals, pace of life, available costs, and even your mood that day.

Don’t listen to the extreme comments on the Internet that either home-based exercise is perfect or that home-based exercise is useless. I have been working out for almost five years, and there are people around me who have achieved results through practicing both modes, and I can fill a lot of pitfalls. My former roommate had just given birth to a baby for half a year, and she had to pick her up and cook for her after work every day. It was past nine o'clock when the baby was put to bed, and it was impossible to go to the gym. So she put a 100 yuan yoga mat in the bedroom and followed the kettlebell class at Station B, 4 times a week. In three months, she lost 4 points of body fat, and her waistcoat line was vaguely exposed. The best thing about her is that she doesn't have to wear serious fitness clothes at all. She can just put on an old T-shirt that has been washed white and she doesn't have to worry about others looking at her postpartum belly that has not fully recovered. She feels very comfortable. But she has also been worried recently and wants to practice more glute bridges. The house can only hold a 20kg kettlebell at most. If it is heavier, it will bang on the floor. The neighbor downstairs has already knocked on the door twice, and the bottleneck is clearly there.

When I first started, I also encountered the pitfalls at home. I followed the video to practice deadlifting. I just remembered the barrage saying "straighten the waist and back". In fact, the core was not tightened and the anterior pelvic tilt was not adjusted. After a week of deadlifting, my waist suddenly slipped, and I lay down for three days before it recovered. Later, when I went to the gym to find a coach to adjust my movements, I realized that many details cannot be noticed by watching a two-dimensional video. Especially for novices, no one is watching to correct them. The risk of injury due to wrong movements is much higher than the probability of achieving results.

When it comes to the irreplaceability of the gym, my little girl who is preparing for bodybuilding has the best say. He goes to the gym for two hours every day. He does hack squats, gantry chest clamping, and high pull-downs. These movements are simply impossible to achieve at home. You can't move more than ten kilograms of equipment to a rental house of several tens of square meters, right? He said that the best thing about the gym is actually the atmosphere. When you reach exhaustion, the muscle friend next to you can give you a hand and help you push two more times, making progress much faster than practicing at home. But he also ran into a big hole last year, running away from the gym. He lost eight thousand yuan in personal training every year, and he still hasn't gotten it back. In addition, he had to wait 20 minutes for a bench press during peak periods. It was embarrassing to stand next to him and play with his mobile phone. He might have been suffocated on the spot, and his interest in training was completely wiped out.

The two groups in the fitness circle have indeed been arguing about this topic for several years. The minimalist group believes that the essence of fitness is to put appropriate load on the muscles. As long as the movements are standard, you can do it at home with two cooking oil barrels filled with water. Spending thousands to apply for a card is purely an IQ tax.； The Jinjin School believes that if you want to accurately stimulate a certain muscle or break through the bottleneck of muscle growth, the power trajectory of professional equipment cannot be compared with home-made equipment. At most, home training is to maintain basic health, and it is simply unrealistic to develop obvious muscle lines. Both arguments are reasonable. After all, the demands are different and no one can convince the other.

I'm in a state of dithering now. If I work overtime until 8 o'clock on weekdays, I go home and change my shoes and ride the elliptical machine in the living room for 20 minutes, and then do 15 minutes of core work. This saves 40 minutes of commuting back and forth, and my efficiency is maximized.； If I have free time on weekends, I carry a gym bag and go to the gym, specializing in training my glutes, legs and heavy weights on my back. Sometimes I can also communicate with muscle friends about the latest training plan, which is quite interesting. It was 8 degrees below zero last week. When I walked out of the company after get off work and the cold wind blew, I immediately put an end to the idea of ​​going to the gym. I went home and cooked a hot pot. After dinner, I did three sets of shoulder external rotation while standing and watching a drama. It didn't delay the day's training volume.

There is really no need to choose one. The core of fitness is never the venue, but whether you can persist for a long time. If you are socially anxious, have little free time, and have a limited budget, practicing at home is completely sufficient. ； If you have clear goals of gaining muscle and preparing for competitions, need professional equipment and guidance, and enjoy the atmosphere of a group of people practicing together, then the gym will definitely be more suitable for you. Even if you don’t want to go out today, just practice at home for 20 minutes, and tomorrow if you are in good condition, go to the gym to PR, whatever makes you feel comfortable - the best exercise is the exercise that you can stick to all the time.