One of the barriers to many workouts is the first step: rousing yourself out of bed and getting to the gym. That barrier, along with several others, no longer exists if you set up your own home gym. In addition to choosing equipment and routines you can fine tune for your own needs, working out in a home gym offers some other weighty benefits.
Convenience
Convenience may be the top benefit of working out a home, Health Status and ACE Fitness note. Rather than getting dressed to leave the comfort of your home, you can throw on your gym clothes and start working out. This is especially vital if you happen to live far from the gym or in a town that doesn't even have a gym. If it's a long drive, you could have finished three workouts in the time it takes to even get there. You can also work out any time you like, even in the middle of the night when many gyms are closed, and don't have to wait or compete for the machines.
Privacy and Focus
A room full of toned, muscular and half-naked people can be a bit intimidating, even for those who are equally as toned, muscular and half-naked. Your home gym is your personal sanctuary with complete privacy. You also avoid the gym's brand of music,, and can instead get down to your favorite band. Other distractions are also out of the picture, like other customers who like to chitchat, rather than pump iron. Your home gym lets you focus on your workout, not the nearby man on the treadmill babbling about the weather.
Money
Gym memberships can cost a pretty penny. You also have to include the cost of gas and your time getting to the gym, as well as your fancy workout clothes, if any, that you choose to wear in public. While home gym equipment can be quite an investment, with some home gym machines costing upwards of $1,000 in December 2010, the investment will pay off in the long run if you use the machines regularly. You can also opt for the bare minimum and still get a good workout, "Fitness" notes. A kit that consists of less expensive gear like resistance tubing, a stability ball, lightweight dumbbells and sliding disks costs you less than $50, as of December 2010.
Health
If sweaty machines, random hairs left on exercise benches or something that looks like spittle on the treadmill console is not enough to gross you out, perhaps some of the other public gym health hazards are. Athlete's foot is a risk at public gyms, especially in the locker room, as is contracting other viruses passed along in a public setting. MRSA, a bacteria-related skin infection that often results in oozing boils, is another threat in the gym. Mayo Clinic reports people can pick up MRSA from touching contaminated items, like towels or weight-training machines and equipment.
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