• Home
• Archive
• About Us
• Contact
• Site Map

Fitness

With respect to fitness Health Club Membership vs Home Gym,these two variations can and do play an intrical part in your over all feeling of being fit It is my personal belief that the environment you work out in has an impact on the total outcome of fitness.

How should you decide which strategy is best to keep fit. Is a membership in a health fitness type club or creating one’s own gym at home the better way? Both have positive and negative attributes to be sure, but in the end I have discovered the choice comes down to four important areas of concern for maximizing ones' total fitness . These are budget, personal motivation, proximity and your health .

What still remains the most important in this debate though is the determination to adopt and follow through with a workout program, regardless of where you physically do your workout routine if you don't stay with it you will not realize improved fitness.

Budget , of course, plays an important part in the decision process as most health clubs seem to run between $30-150 per month for membership (depending on the amenities, etc.) and require one month’s deposit to start. Obviously, for some this is easily affordable while for others it becomes a sacrifice of something else in able to enjoy the club membership. For some , it’s a benefit of their employment and no cost to them, personally. Indeed, this group of members’ employers not only see this as a way to systematically lower their employee’s health insurance premiums, but also as a highly successful way to network and expand clientele. For the majority of us though, the financial commitment is our own whether it is to better our health (fitness ), increase business connections or just to enjoy a run on a treadmill.

Personal Motivation is a major factor in deciding what will work best for your success. If you need others around to present you a challenge or to encourage you along the way, then you’ll probably thrive in the health fitness club environment. Ask yourself this question, “does seeing other people work out stimulate you and get you excited about fitness ?” Do you like being impressed by the gym jocks who constantly display their bulging muscles so as to impress you? For some this truly becomes intimidating and starts having negative and self defeating results, as in “I’ll never look like that, so why even try!” For others , it might be just what they need to get motivated , start the fitness workout and stay with it through thick and thin (no pun intended). Conversely , if you find yourself shying away from the characteristics of the health fitness club due to the reasons mentioned above or others not stated, then the personal gym in your home or office may be the answer. However, your ultimate success and accomplishments in your home gym are directly related to self motivation. So be honest with yourself as to which way you’re motivated, is it internally or externally ? If internal motivation fits your style then you might be a good candidate for a home gym workout as a way to increase your fitness.

As equally important to this decision is the space you have available, can it be dedicated to a work out area? Is the space inside your home or in the garage? Of course, the inside location brings with it inherent features such as a controlled heating and cooling environment, as well as not having the typical garage clutter surrounding you and possibly crashing on you during your workout! Don’t laugh too hard , this has been my personal situation for two years as I lack the space to accommodate the Bowflex Sport within the interior of my home. I have actually come to enjoy “The Cave ” as I have affectionately named my workout area. As you can see "The Cave" really isn't that bad, put your favorite CD on and the workout time becomes quite enjoyable. In the summer months I use a portable evaporative cooler as “The Cave ” can easily reach temperatures of 115 degrees. Likewise , in the winter I incorporate the radiant heater so as not to freeze as the temperatures can average around 40 degree mark.

What ever space you claim, make it your own and make it enjoyable to spend the 5-6 hours weekly that will be required to obtain the results you’re looking for in becoming more fit . I find time flies by if I listen to a CD while working out, others I know enjoy the ipod so they can switch between songs or radio stations without leaving the workout bench. Get going on selecting your space and strategizing on ways to making it enjoyable and conducive to your fitness workout time. Proximity is of importance as well with respect to location and distance driven to workout. Obviously , one would assume the home gym would be the most convenient, but this will be dependent on two important factors: 1. Do you have a home office, thereby spending a fair amount of time at home enabling you to accomplish your fitness workout on your home gym on a regular schedule? 2. If you do work away from home, as many people do, does your schedule afford a built in flexibility whereby you could go in later or come home earlier?

If neither of these options exist and/or you just don’t have the free space to set up your home fitness gym, then you should enroll for membership at a health fitness club. If this is the case then the proximity of the club to your work becomes of significance. Indeed, you don’t want your club to be across town because if find you can carve a 2 hour period out of your tight work schedule to go to the club, you don’t want to use the time for commuting. In most Cities of 90,000+ population there seems to be health fitness clubs within a radius of 10 miles, so you should be able to locate one within a good proximity to your office/work.

You’re most likely wondering why I mention health as one of the four important reasons to be considered in the equation. Normally, I am a healthy person and only get a cold about once a year. However , upon enrolling at my local health fitness club some two years ago I mysteriously started coming down with viral infections about every two months. My normal routine at the club was to use their disinfectant spray bottles to wash down the machines before touching them. It was time consuming but I felt well worth it as opposed to catching illnesses. For whatever the reason, my theory wasn’t 100% preventative. Furthermore , if you calculate the hourly usage of people working out on the equipment and multiply that by the club’s usual 12 hour day of operation, it becomes quite evident as to why you can be predisposed to so much sickness. My personal opinion is that public workout equipment is an incubator for germs/viruses even with the usage of disinfectant sprays. I am not advocating to avoid the situation, but rather to use caution and be aware of the potential for increased risk. It might behoove one to take their own spray and towels with them to lessen the possibility of catching something.

An additional point of consideration with respect to a health fitness club is the possible waiting in line for workout equipment. Most of the time the weight machines are set up in a sequence order for you to follow so as to maximize the benefits. There is a potential for waiting though, especially at the larger, more popular clubs. I had this happen quite a bit when I was a member and it can easily throw off your workout if you get out of sync in the process.

The last area of importance to keep in mind is that of showers . Most health fitness clubs have this amenity, others do not. What are the possible draw backs? Well, if you want to go workout on lunch hour or mid-day and get all sweaty and you have no shower facility available, you're not going to be to popular with fellow business associates and/or clients, are you? These are obviously two more areas of concern when deciding which is best for you, home gym fitness or health fitness club .

In the end , weigh the aforementioned information and suggestions and put in to play a plan that works best for your particular situation. Most importantly , start a fitness work out program ASAP and stay with it on a regular schedule. You should start seeing amazing results within a couple of months. I've included some links below to Amazon.com in case you want to review their selections of Bowflex Home Gyms and other products I have incorporated in to my reinventing your health program.

16.03.2009. 17:45

Comments

This article hasn't been commented yet.