While it may not be exactly earth shattering, one of the lingering questions of the pandemic (for me, anyway) has been whether or not to continue a gym membership or to lean into the home gym idea.

With my memberships (I have two which overlap: 24-Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym) both expiring within a couple of months from now, I had to make some kind of decision soon.

I’m happy to report I’ve made a decision, and that in itself feels good: For now, I’ll be all in on the Home Gym.

Why Home Gym?

What factors influenced my decision?

Convenience. That’s a big one. During the pandemic, I discovered that I was apt to be more consistent with my workouts at home than I ever was with jaunts to the physical gym in the Before Times.

Having my equipment, such as it was – a chin-up bar, a dip bar, mats, and a slew of exercise bands at my side or in the next room was a tremendously easier slog than the alternative.

Also, in the categories of what you might call “accessories” are items like exercise attire and tunes for atmosphere. At home, I didn’t have to dress in anything special (or anything at all!) and I got to listen to my own iTunes playlists. Again, with the “equipment” – there was never a wait. It was all, always available.

The Alternative – going to the gym – involved this, at least for me: costuming for the gym; corralling hydration; driving (and fighting traffic) to gym (or biking, each is about a mile from my home, in different directions); parking. Once you entered and locked up your car keys and what have you, you’d find your first exercise and inevitably the apparatus would be in use by another. So you wait or do something else on your list and come back to that exercise later. Which I didn’t like, and found stressful, both the anticipation of the crowd and then trying to remember what I had done and still needed to do for my routine, which always followed a specific order. Which I didn’t/don’t like to deviate from.

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So, correctly, you could also add Control to my influence factors alongside Convenience and Consistency. What about other c-words, like Cost, and of course, Cruising?

Let’s talk Cost – some of it seems to be merely absorbed into the overall Jim budget – when pandemic arrived, I already had the chin bar and various mats, as well as all the electronics for music and (exercise) videos. I bought the dip bar thing and the slew of primo exercise bands from Amazon (yes, I am guilty – like all of you) which maybe cost a total of around $150? Whatever it was, it wasn’t much. I’ll talk about the new investment vs. the cost of gym membership in the next section.

As far as Cruising — well to be honest, at 66 years, this is not the priority it once was, where the gym was actually one of the best places in town to meet guys. I’m sure it sill is, for some – but also back then (I’m talking about the 80s, 90s mostly) there weren’t smart phones. Today, practically everyone, it seems, connects with their smart phone between sets, either texting or finding music or Instagramming – or something else which I haven’t yet imagined. What used to happen between sets, kids, is that people used to majorly check each other out and IDK, perhaps even say “hi” to each other. I don’t see that happening much from my own observation but I have noticed the love affair with smart phones only increasing over the years.

What I Bought for the Home Gym

Which brings me to the investment I have made into more equipment.

First, I live in a one bedroom apartment and am going to put the Gym in a corner of my bedroom, so there isn’t much space. Second, I do many things for fitness, many of which are outside aerobic activities, including walking, hiking and biking – so resistance training is only a part of my exercise routine, not the major part. I’m not looking to increase muscle size as much as I am to tone and remain strong enough to avoid the injuries one can face from normal aging.

So, I’m starting out conservatively with the new stuff. I’ve purchased a solid weight bench (needed for many dumbbell exercises) and a pair of adjustable dumbbells (which apparently go from 5 lbs. to about 50 lbs. apiece). The cost for both came to about $700, including shipping and tax. I normally spend about $400 a year on a gym membership here in the L.A. area, so to “break even” I’ll have to commit to the home gym idea for nearly two years.

It doesn’t seem like that would be an issue – I’ve already done 14 months out of necessity. But we’ll see – I could miss the traffic, the parking, the crowds, the unusable equipment, the shitty music on the PA system, the inconsiderate mask-averse patrons and be dying to go back to the gym. Who knows? I’ll report back and let you know how it’s going.