Which is better, home fitness or gym?

There is really no absolute good or bad. I have been practicing for 7 years. I went to the gym for the first 3 years and practiced at home for most of the next 4 years. I have experienced results, injuries, and quitting halfway through both routes. To put it bluntly, it depends on whether your conditions and desired fitness goals can match the corresponding scenarios.

My previous preparation partner, Akai, competed in the men's fitness group of the provincial bodybuilding competition last year. He went to the gym 6 days a week. Heavy dumbbells, Smith racks, Hack squat machines and other equipment are not even available for ordinary people to buy at home. He tried the 180kg leg press limit last time. If the coach next to him hadn't stretched out his hand, he might have been directly crushed by the equipment. The atmosphere of the gym is also unique. When you reach exhaustion, someone shouts two periods next to you. The energy can hold you for two more sets. If you like group classes, let alone battle ropes, trampolines, and Pilates equipment. These items are simply impossible to achieve at home. I used to have a colleague from Sheniu who went to the gym for three months and met half of the partners. He even found his partner in the gym. For him, the gym is simply a second social place.

But if it were me, I would really be too lazy to go to the gym now. I now work in Internet operations and often work overtime until after seven o'clock. It takes 20 minutes to drive to the nearest gym from my home. During the evening rush hour, I am stuck on the road. By the time I change clothes and enter the training area, my energy to warm up is almost exhausted. After practicing, I take a shower and pack up before I get home, which is almost 10 o'clock. I have to get up early to go to work the next day. I really can't afford the trouble. Now I spread a yoga mat on the open space in the entrance hall, bought a pair of adjustable dumbbells, a stretch band and a 12kg kettlebell. The total cost is less than half a year's membership fee at the gym. I can practice whenever I want, even if I only have 20 minutes to spare when I get home from get off work. Doing a few sets of shoulder and back activation or kettlebell swings is not a waste of time. The mother who lives downstairs is even more amazing. Her child has just turned 1 year old and cannot live without people. She takes advantage of the 40 minutes of her child's afternoon nap to do postpartum recovery training by following the video. She doesn't have to find anyone to watch her child, and she doesn't have to worry about the hygiene of the public area of ​​the gym. For her, home fitness is the only option that can persist.

Of course, both options have their own drawbacks. I applied for a two-year membership card at a gym two years ago. After just three months of use, my boss ran away with the money. More than two thousand yuan was wasted. It was even more annoying during the peak training period. I had to wait for three waves of people to practice bench press. It was common for the sweat on the equipment to be wiped off and used dumbbells to be thrown all over the floor. The problem with training at home is also obvious. It’s easy to get lazy when no one is watching. When I first started training at home, I couldn’t help touching my phone as soon as I did two sets of squats. I slumped on the sofa and half an hour passed. No one corrected my movements. I didn’t notice that my waist collapsed when I was deadlifting. I had backache for half a month, and I finally corrected it after I asked an online coach to help me watch action videos. If you want to lift heavy weights, it is basically impossible to do it at home. You can't just install a bench press rack in your bedroom just to practice bench press. Not only does it take up space, but the safety is also not guaranteed.

There are many friends around me who practice in between. They work out at home for 40 minutes after get off work on weekdays, and go to the gym to lift heavy weights when they have time on weekends. In fact, it is really not that important which one you choose. The most important thing about fitness is never where you practice. It is the choice that you are willing to move and can persist for a long time, which is the best choice.