shrug To each his or her own, but I find that having to go out to the gym is more of an impediment than a motivator, especially if it is at a busy time. Being able to work out at my convenience without having to put a bag together or spend fifteen minutes driving eliminates the mental objections about not having enough time. It is also helpful to be able to just put in a short or sporadic workout, like kicking out five pull ups on rings every half hour throughout the day rather than feeling like if I have to go to the gym I need to put in a full hour. And I have all of my gear the way I like it without having to wait for someone to get done using it or clear a space, and then I can finish up with post-workout stretching and foam rolling while catching up on e-mail or taking care of some voicemail. That’s especially true when I travel; if I don’t have to be reliant upon their being a gym nearby or the almost always inadequate fitness facilities in the hotel, I can stick to a schedule better. I personally find it far more convenient to not have to rely on the facilities of a gym, and in fact the only reason I still have a membership is to use the pool and sauna.
Just find what you will keep up with, do it, and then gradually aim to make progressive gains.
Is that best in a gym or in a class or in your basement or outside or with a personal trainer or with apps, best doing the same routine regularly or hardly ever doing the same thing twice in a month? Yes.
As the early advocator of classes in this thread I do think the sentiment here is great, though I’m going to nit pick just a little.
Spin is terrific - really great, especially if you want to burn big calories in a group or ‘team’ environment and in a low impact way. The music kind of varies but maybe that’s part of the experience. However … if you go straight into a class from scratch there’s a very good chance it will put you off for life - to enjoy Spin rather than endure it, you do need a base level of activity. That can come from other bike machines in the gym. Build up over a few sessions there and then hit the class.
One thing it might do - as it did for me - is educate me on just how hard women work out. It’s deceptive because they weren’t built to sweat like men but they work it real hard. When it comes to intense cardio in the gym, I’d put the average female up agains the average male gym bunny any day.
I’d say that was the best route into class culture. Once you feel comfortable with that gender ratio, and see the benefits, other classes will seem more accessible.
We don’t do a gym, we go to the pool. But that have many things in common as well as some differences.
People come in all shapes and sizes. Everyone is used to it. No on cares what shape anyone is in. People are either generally very friendly and chatty or just keep to themselves. No personality issues.
And that’s with a pool with people wearing swimsuits. In a gym with the ability to wear significantly more clothing, the concern about appearance would be even less.
Most people take classes: water aerobics, water zumba (whatever that is), etc. That’s a really good way to ease in.
One difference between our public, county-run pool and a private gym is that the gym might have more of the “all muscle between the ears” braggarts and crap talkers. Test out a gym, if that’s the ambiance, find another place. Most aren’t like that. Y’s are usually good in this respect.