Ask anybody with a home gym if the investment was worth it and I bet you 99.9% will say it was the best decision they have ever made. As a proud owner of an incredible garage / home gym myself the answer should be obvious too, right? Not so fast! I want to dive in a little deeper before giving you a simple “YEAH it’s awesome, dude!”.
Before I ordered my garage gym I made a pro and con list. Yes I’m one of those people. I wanted to make sure that the investment is worth it and I’m not wasting time, money and space in my garage. If you’re debating if a home gym is worth it, here is a list of benefits that come with it.
BENEFIT #1
SAVING TIME & MONEY
The main reason why I wanted a home gym was to save time. The closest gym was about 15 min South of where I live which means a one hour workout session actually would cost me 1,5 hours. Additionally you need a car or public transportation to get to the gym which also costs money. With a home gym all I have to do is open the door, do my workout & close the door. This was a HUGE factor to why I in the end got the gym.
BENEFIT #2
PRIVACY
Now this can be positive and negative at the same time. Let me explain. The positive part about owning the gym is that nobody can tell you what you can and cannot do. As you can imagine I shoot a lot of fitness content which sometimes is an issue at public gyms, which I understand. Not everybody wants to be filmed when working out. Anyways, with a home gym you can film all day long with nobody complaining, which for me is a blessing. I can record videos, take pictures, record my form to analyze technique and much more. So what are the downsides to privacy? Well, let me state the obvious. You are by yourself in your own gym. Nobody is looking, nobody is grunting, the cute girl / guy isn’t there to impress, in short no external motivation – it’s just you. Again for some people that is amazing and the best thing that could ever happen but for other people it could be an excuse to finish a set early or don’t work as hard. Don’t underestimate the power of external motivation. Your inner motivation got you to the gym and now there are a bunch of enthusiastic people at the gym working really hard to achieve their goals. If that’s not motivating enough to work your ass off, then I don’t know. So you have to decide for yourself if you’re capable of going all out when nobody is watching.
BENEFIT #3
CLEAN / ORGANIZED GYM
Being the only one working out at your own gym is amazing. There is no-one else to blame but yourself if some dumbbells or weights are not re-racked. The same goes for sweaty machines. If you find a sweaty / smelly equipment at your gym guess who didn’t clean up after?
Yes a couple of you might say that this is a downside because you have to clean your own gym. I personally see that as an advantage because it forces you to be accountable. All it is, is discipline! If you can be disciplined enough to re-rack your OWN weights you’ll find it easier to find discipline in other parts of your life.
BENEFIT #4
LIMITING EXCUSES
When owning a home gym you’re always 10 seconds away from potentially having the best workout of your life. This also kills a lot of excuses you might tell yourself to why you can’t go work out today.
“Oh I can’t go right now. It’s rush hour, traffic is horrible …” – NOPE
“The weather is nasty, I don’t feel like driving …” – NOPE
“The gym is so crowded, I’d have to wait too long to get my workout done …” – NOPE
“I had to work late, I don’t have time …” – NOPE
I think you get the idea.
I frequently just go to my garage gym to do a couple sets of pull ups or use the ski ergometer to free my mind from working. I’d never do that if I had to drive to the gym.
BENEFIT #5
NO MONTHLY COSTS
This is a tricky subject because a home gym costs a lot more than a $20 gym membership but let’s see what we can do here.
So obviously depending on where you live you have different options of gym memberships ranging from $20 up to $200 / month. Let’s just go with an average of $50 / month. If you took $50 / month for 3 years you’d have $1,800 to invest into your own garage gym. At REP FITNESS, which is the brand I used to equip my home gym, you can get an entire setup for $2,000.
Home Gym Setup: http://bit.ly/repfitness
So within 3 years you’d start saving money on a monthly gym membership. The great thing about it is that you can upgrade your gym whenever you have some extra money. You don’t need to buy everything at once.
CONCLUSION
I’m sure you were able to get the vibe of this article and I’m a huge proponent for owning your own home gym. For me personally the benefits outweigh the disadvantages by far and I couldn’t be happier with the decision I made.
