Going to the Gym vs. Working Out At Home

I have never wanted to go to the gym and prefer to work out at home.  I don't want to dress up, I don't want to look at other people who might depress me about how I look, I don't want to compare myself, I don't want to have others looking at me.

However, I can see how going to the gym might be more motivation.  First off you've got the fees you've paid, and you don't want to waste money, so you feel more obligated to go - if not for your waistline then for your wallet.

Still, even though, no, I admit, I don't excercise as much as I should do anymore, when I do workout I prefer it in my own home, curtains drawn, no eyes on me.

How about you?

when I go to the gym I don't worry about anyone else.  I don't care what I look like compared to them or what they are doing.  The gym is for me and me only.  I'm not there to flirt or to meet people.  Plus there are people of all sizes at my gym.  Yesterday there was a woman who was tiny, one built like me and one probably 2x my size...but we were all working out, doing our thing and then going to the shower and changing.  Are there people who clearly preen?  Yup - hate the women who sit nekked while putting on their makeup or stand there nekked admiring their new boobs...cause I just don't see the point.  But I just get on with my thing.  And hope that I get healthier by doing it!

Don't really have the money for a gym.  They're also not open at the hours I need them.  So every year at Xmas I get crackin' workout DVDs from the States as gifts.  Before I got so pregnant, I also walked to work - almost 5 miles - 3 or 4x/week.  It's uphill on the way in so it's an even better workout.  Much, much cheaper and more convenient than a gym.

I used gyms a lot in the States, but things are different here so I've adjusted for that.

Onetiger - you don't need to worry about people looking at you and "judging" you at the gym because you look great already!

But for those of us who jiggle in all the wrong places...

I used to walk (power walk) lot and jog a somewhat goodly amount when I lived in the States - walking for the sake of excercise exclusively, that is.  Oh, here I walk, and walk and walk and walk to get to where I need to go (don't have a car, not much choice, even when one has to walk to the busstop or train station), so I walk probably a lot more (in distance) than I ever did in the States; it's just simply a mode of transportation now - a have to - instead of excercise.  Even though, yeah, the time you spend not on the couch, moving around, would be considered excercise, I don't count it as such - if I did that I could count all the time at work, where I don't sit down except for my lunch break and where I move and tote large boxes of stuff (retail ~sigh~) as excercise.  I don't count the trek to and from work, simply because I don't try to walk fast and hard enough to work up a sweat and really raise my heart rate, like I would with power walking.  I don't want to look like a drowned rat by the time I get to work; at least not first thing, lol, after all, if it's hot, by 11:00 I will look like one anyway.

I used to really enjoy the gym and was never too bothered about how I looked v. anyone else.... But I really can't afford it right now. Besides, I hate the idea of having to travel somewhere to work out. My gym in SF was a block from my apartment, so that worked out great. I could walk to our local leisure centre and might start taking a few classes there at some point, though 'cause I ADORE yoga and pilates. I HATE working out at home. I actually find it harder to motivate myself to move the coffee table and suffer through some incipid DVD than anything else. BUT I do love to walk - I love getting the fresh air and getting out and about. I used to love to run, but I'm a bit too out of shape for that at the moment....

I exercise at home or outdoors walking or rollerblading. Have never tried a gym. It's just more convenient for me as a single parent to exercise at home or outside with my son. I like that I can exercise at midnight if I so desire without leaving home. I would like the idea of having more equipment and adding more variety to my exercise routine that a gym could provide, it's just not an option right now.

Yeah, there's also the point that I can't afford to go to the gym, and have never been able to afford to go to the gym.  But, I just don't think I could make myself go even if I did have the money.  It's sort of like my husband, he used to go swimming at the community centre here in Loughborough.  He loved it, and he really lost a lot of weight (it just fell off of him) doing it.  But then, they closed the pool for repairs and refurbishing - it's been closed for nearly a year already and looks like it won't open until sometime next year.  He would love to start swimming again and maintain staying in shape, but his only option for a place to go swimming now is the University swimming pool.  He says he can't go there until he loses weight; he doesn't want anyone there seeing him looking the way he does now (who says it's only women with these issues?).  He has to get in shape, he feels, before going somewhere public to get in shape...it's sort of like the fussy woman who cleans her house from top to bottom BEFORE the maid comes to clean up, LOL.  And, I suppose that's how I feel about the gym; I would have to be perfection (or closer to it) before going to the gym to be able to feel comfortable working out there.  Yep, I have issues - no, I have a whole subscription - but, at least, I admit it, LOL, and can laugh at myself about it, as well.  

We are all different.  I admire you ladies that have the confidence to not care what other people think and I wish I didn't care - or didn't let it bother me - what other people think (and how they perceive me).  Jamie wishes I could stop caring what other people think, as well.  One fine day, oh, one fine day!

We are all different.  I admire you ladies that have the confidence to not care what other people think and I wish I didn't care - or didn't let it bother me - what other people think (and how they perceive me).  Jamie wishes I could stop caring what other people think, as well.  One fine day, oh, one fine day!

I used to care about what people thought of me above all else.... And I still have my moments. But then I realized that I didn't care what other people looked like, and so maybe they didn't really care what I looked like. I started asking myself if I could say what someone on the street was wearing, etc. 5 minutes after I saw them and the answer was "no" - I think many of us have a perception that others are scrutinizing us and thinking about us much much more than they actually are. In reality, most people are probably too busy wondering what we think about them to notice us in great detail. LOL.

I have never even been inside a gym, but I know that I am a homebody type and mostly would much rather than stay in than go out. I, too, have the dread of comparing myself to others (I don't think they're looking at me necessarily) and feeling bad about myself. Who needs that!

I have found that I love my Firm DVDs and have stuck with them religiously for the last seven months. I don't think I will be getting tired of the Firm anytime soon and it fits so perfectly into my lifestyle. The instructors are fun and personable and the workouts are challenging and fun to do...so I definitely prefer working out at home.

While, as I said I like going to the gym, there were some years that I couldn't afford to go to the gym (and with higher rent/council tax/utilities this year might have to quit)...when that happened I walked with a friend.  We walked 3-4 times a week, 5 miles.  We worked on getting our times down.  And I lost a ton of weight doing it.  If I could find someone to walk with, I'd do that and just buy a few free weights for home.  But alas...no one to walk with as of yet...sigh.  It gets so dark early that I won't walk by myself.

I do power yoga videos at home.

I don't care how I look in front of people. However, I figure that the time I would spend traveling to the gym I could actually use for exercising, or doing something else constructive.

At home, I can exercise in my undies and I don't have to purchase exercise clothes. I also don't have to pay for a gym membership.

Also, if I confined my exercising to the gym, if I didn't feel like traveling to the gym (poor weather, for example), or if I couldn't make the time to get to the gym, work out, shower and get home, it would mean that I wouldn't exercise at all.  At home, even if I only have time to exercise for 15 minutes one day, at least  I've exercised for 15 minutes

I'm always amazed by people who drive from their front door to the gym so that they can pay to run on a treadmill.