Are Gyms Stupid?

It's a small workout device that allows you to work out a variety of muscle groups. Basically a cylinder with a spring, cable, and handles. A quick search on youtube is best, kind of tricky to explain in text.

But it's main advantages from memory;
- uses isometric exercise to grow mass
- allows cardio
- light and easy to carry
- cheap compared to buying multiple workout machines, or continuing your gym membership

 

I like cardio outside in nature . Forest trails and hill sprints . Weight lifting at home is better than the gym long-term . Short stints in a commercial gym are good for motivation but overall are very boring overtime . Music sucks . But the equipment is too notch . Long-term the drive there and back 5 days a week is a major pain .. I appreciate being able to walk into the spare room with a bench press a back machine a shoulder press bench . A curling barbell bench and in future I will be building a squat rack and a cable machine for butterfly curls and pulldowns . Spend an hour in there 3-4 times a week is more than enough . Then shower and do whatever I want . Its a daily task for me which I don't wish to drag out going to the gym plus I can play music undisturbed . And not have to wait or be distracted . So definitely home gym plus it's handy for days you can be arsed going out in the cold for a 20 mile onslaught . So the treadmill is handy to have plus in the evenings in winter .

 

Gym is a tool for fitness. It's not the only one either. If somebody misuses it, then the onus is on them.

 

In terms of cleanliness, I often saw people laying down towels and wiping up after themselves at my local gym. But once I am able to, I'm setting up a home gym. Public gyms have numerous problems in my experience, including:

• Terrible music.
• Obnoxious people. (at my gym, there was this one dude who'd talk on the phone whilst on the treadmill and practically the entire gym could hear his conversation)
• Women in triggering clothing.
• Triggers social anxiety and the feeling of being judged. It's irrational, but that's what I dealt with at the time.
• Can be crowded on certain times.

I only really went with my dad 'cause we'd talk about a ton of things during, but when he stopped going, I lost interest and switched to working out from home. I'll continue doing so until I can afford my own place and then set up a gym there.

 

I've found that having to travel to a gym REALLY makes me not want to go.

The coronavirus lockdown in my country made me realise that I could just stick on my running shoes and go outside for a no-wasted-time-travelling workout, I don't need to be pumping iron all the time. A kettlebell and my back patio are really working for me now.

I don't think anyone needs a gym, but if you want to lift really heavy weights then they're there for you.

The other things gyms have that you don't at home are other people! Classes, specifically boxing, are the only real fun I've found in gyms.

 

Almost all professional sports use gyms to complement their particular type of sport.

Strength and hypertrophy are essential for a well balanced body.

The gym has many equipments that can isolate and work in a compound way the body. All the equipment make the training more efficient and you can spend less time working out like if you do the same with body weight or calisthenics.

I fond also people watching you make you more focus and serious about your workout.

You home alone can procrastinate more easy.

 

You're not wrong, but I can't deadlift a tree trunk.

 

This Milo guy seemed pretty intense. Eating bulls and tearing tree trunks.

 

Not necessarily. For me, I've been working out in my house with calisthenics and a homemade dumbbell. Of course, the option of joining a gym is on the table for me but is not a priority right now. It depends on the situation, a gym offers a variety of machines you can use at a low cost per day/hour (depends on the gym), people that can train you and motivate you, a shower, parking lot, etc.

 

I think the cleanliness arguments are moot because lack of cleanliness and potential exposure to whatever is the case anywhere you go, unless you don't go anywhere else this should not be a big issue in my opinion. Even if there were rules that made people clean regularly people won't follow the rules.

There are a lot of good points in this thread.

 

I've never been a gym person, mainly due to me living in a rural area and working manual labour. If I lived close to a gym and worked in an office all day I can see myself wanting to us a gym more. Sometimes I do get the idea to work with some sort of trainer to help teach me to take better care of my body.

 

I prefer to run on a trail. We have good ones in my area, but lately I've been just running around my neighborhood for the convenience. We have a lot of hills, it's in a pocket so there's not any through-traffic, and a circuit usually takes me about 18 intense minutes.

I also might use a pull-up bar in a city park. Sometimes they're around. I suck at those, and don't do them consistently enough to improve, but whatever. It's just a thing to do. More typically, I'll do push-ups with a backpack stuffed with books. Do some ab work, there's tons of ideas on the Internet. Squats with the same backpack.

I'm introverted, though, I don't like to see women in the gym for trigger reasons, I don't like to compare myself to other men, which I will inevitably do if I see them, I like fresh air, and I hate, hate, hate over-stimulation so the music on top of the visuals and the workout is too much for me. I'm a specific person, I work differently than other people, and I'm happy with what I found and I'm totally good with people finding their own happy in their own way. Some dudes like the camaraderie, community, motivation from the gym, they like to use the equipment, they like the gains. A gym is absolutely the best answer for them, I grudge them not their taste or their methods. They aren't "doing it wrong." They're doing it in their best way, which is different from my best way.

Parkour sounds fun, but I know I'd feel like an idiot. Wouldn't want to be that 30+ year old guy getting caught hopping around guard rails and down steps.