The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that healthy adults should get 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise every week. The CDC also recommends strength training your major muscle groups twice weekly. Although you can exercise outside, either joining a gym or buying a home gym is usually the most convenient way to meet the CDC's recommendations.
Cost
If workout variety is your highest priority, join a gym. But if you can make do with -- and have space for -- one cardio exercise machine and a modest set of free weights, or a compact home gym for strength training, working out at home will quickly pay for itself. Once you make the initial purchase, you won't have to pay any extra fees, beyond a bit of electricity when you plug in the elliptical trainer, exercise bike or treadmill. If you purchased a self-powered model, you won't even have to pay for electricity.
Commute
Having a home gym doesn't just save you the cost of a gym membership, it also saves you the time you would have spent commuting to a gym and any money you would have spent on gas or mass-transit fares. If you shower and dry your hair at the gym, you could be wasting anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes on top of commuting time. On the other hand if you work or care for children at home, going to the gym may be a welcome change of environment.
Privacy
If you feel self-conscious about working out in public or around members of the opposite sex, a home gym allows you the comfort of privacy. You can wear whatever you want to work out and don't have to worry about wearing flip-flops in the shower. You also don't have to put up with other peoples' sweat on your equipment, listening to others work out, or tolerating music you don't like blasting throughout the gym.
Other Services
Although a home gym is the clear winner if cost, time and privacy are your primary concerns, gym memberships also come with a set of perks you can't easily duplicate at home. Many gyms offer group fitness classes and secondary spa-style services, like massage therapy. Although you can duplicate the group fitness classes at home -- to a point -- with exercise DVDs, you don't get the energy boost and companionship of an intense workout among peers. And some group fitness classes require extra equipment, such as a group cycling bike, that represents another significant purchase if you try to duplicate it at home.
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