With the spread of the Covid pandemic, the idea of working out at home has raised the eyebrow of many, and has become a subject of debate regarding its convenience, efficiency. A new fitness trend and lifestyle seems to be emerging even though training in this form has been around longer than anyone could remember.
With this short article, I’d like to rant a bit and popularize home workouts listing 10 advantages that are hard to argue with.
Organized and regular exercise, fitness, and idolized physique can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks. However, gyms in the form we know today only began to spread in the 1900s, especially from the second half of it, under the influence of pioneering bodybuilders and strongmen like Eugene Sandow or Jack Lalanne.
With the increase in living standards, the luxury of exercising (i.e., non-necessity-driven movement and “waste of energy”), has become more and more an available option for people as a leisure and recreational activity.
The trend has been further strengthened by professional sports becoming a business and entertainment opportunity, as well as fashion, film industry, and sex symbols.
From then on, it was quite clear how fitness would evolve into a serious industry we know today and how gyms would become one of the central institutions of our lives, due to the stereotype that beautiful and strong people call it their homes.
This is how it came to be that the original meaning, tools, and methods of fitness are now being born in a whole new interpretation guided by marketing goals. People associate fitness with equipment and pre-workout shake images, and instead of internal motivation, are driven by compliance compulsion.
Don’t get me wrong, certain gyms have their special atmosphere, cohesive and motivating force. Seeing others break a sweat creates a special bond and makes us feel we’re not alone. Gyms being recognized as a place for sober socializing, and with their ability to build a healthy community we have no right to question their raison d’être. Especially at times when technology threatens the bases of human interaction.
However, if Covid had a good side through home office, it is that it confronted people, there is life without a gym and often more serious development through home workouts.
Here are 10 advantages of home training
- No gym fees! (No unused gym passes.)
- No travel time! (Save time…and the environment.)
- Train in your underwear. (…)
- Home office compatible. (Got 10 minutes? Grease the Groove!)
- Use your own bathroom. (Post-workout whistling adds 5% more muscle!)
- Sterile, no exchange of sweat.
- No waiting in line for equipment. (No more plan B, exercises will come in their planned order.)
- No more listening to annoying music. (Gyms have a special skill to this.)
- No more hiding…Introverts are in luck. (No more small talk, just lifting.)
- Less equipment = higher exercise proficiency. (Repetition and frequency is the recipe to master a skill. The less exercise you try to juggle with the more likely they are going to stick.)
+1 You are alone, you are forced to stay focused on form. You’re forced to learn...
As a closing thought, the most often heard downside of exercising home alone, the biggest dealbreaker is procrastination. Staying home you always have the option to delay your workout to the next hour and so on.
While it is a serious concern there are ways to overcome procrastination of training. Once you manage to stick with regularly exercising at a certain time, you’re well on your way to create a habit and that’s where home workouts really shine.
