Why I Don’t Work Out In Commercial Gym

Years ago while I was still in the military I joined a commercial gym because my brother had signed up for a gym membership with his work and needed someone to go in on it with him, and got a discount if a family member joined.  I liked what the gym was doing for me.  I love to lift weights and love the elliptical trainer and the gym had Tae-Bo classes that were taught by a beautiful female bodybuilder.  Months after I started going, she sold the gym and I stopped going because the gym had lost its luster.  

                About a year later, I was discharged from the military for medical reasons and went to work for the sheriff’s department.     I needed to get ready to go the academy.  In order to get in I needed to pass the physical fitness test so I joined another gym to get ready for the test.  With the help of a personal trainer, I passed the fitness test.  After I graduated from the academy, I continued going to the gym for a few years until I left the department five years later.  I felt that I could get just as good of a workout at home and I could work out anytime I wanted without having to leave the comfort of my basement.  After I bought my current home, I bought Olympic weights, a bench, and a squat rack to start.  I already had a heavy bag.  As time went on I bought equipment at garage sales and online.  My current gym now has a power tower for dips, pull-ups, push-ups and ab work, a pulley machine that attaches to the ceiling of my basement, more Olympic plates, and an elliptical trainer.  I love what I have built and I will tell you why:

1.  Convenience:    My gym is always open and I’m the only person that uses it.  The only person I have to worry about disturbing is my wife early in the morning.  I usually workout after work or later in the evening.  If I go to the gym, I have to get my workout gear along with my workout music, get in the car whether it be rain, snow, sleet or shine,  and go workout.  Now all I do is change my clothes and walk down to my basement and workout for as long as I want.  I don’t have to share equipment, worry about offending anyone, or wear whatever I want.  I can work out naked if I want to.  (I don’t, but I can)
2. No Dues:  The only dues that I pay are the sweat and tears that I put in when I do my workouts.  I already pay for the lights, water, and rent for my building.  I just have to keep up with the maintenance and keeping it clean.  If something breaks, I find how to fix it on YouTube or find the manual.   And the only person I must justify buying new equipment to is my wife who lets me have it after I give her gifts and such.
3. Safety:  I know lifting heavy weights by yourself is not safe.  But I know my limits and I only lift what I can handle. 
4. No Distractions:  I see a lot of social media who have women wearing very small outfits that show off the “fruits of their labors.  Don’t get me wrong, I love women that workout just as much as the next guy.  It shows a woman’s self-confidence and her sex appeal, but someone who is not 100 percent focused on what they are doing in the gym can get seriously injured or killed.   I do one thing in the gym.  Work on me.   If I want to watch a women workout, I’ll ask my wife or watch it on YouTube.  There is no judgement in my gym either.  There is no poking fun at people trying to improve themselves.
5. No Hogging the Equipment:  When I would go to the commercial gym, I would try to get a few sets of cable crossovers for my chest development.  I would encounter the teenagers who would be done with the movement.  I then would ask him if I could work in with them and they said “no” and I then asked how many sets they had left.  They would reply that they had ten sets left.  Cable crossovers are a finishing movement and don’t require that many sets.  I complained to the management but they just shrugged and walked away.  In my home gym. I don’t have to worry about people hogging the equipment.  I’m by myself so I can do as many sets as I want.

I made reference to music, cleanness, and dress code.  I can listen to whatever music I want.  I am responsible for the cleanness of my gym, and I can wear whatever the hell I want.  The main reason that I love my home gym is that I can go there when I’m happy, sad, angry, depressed, and anxious or any more of the other human emotions that we have.  I can go there to work on me and not to satisfy anyone else’s impression of my success or failure is me.