Top 5 Reasons To Do 10-Minute Home Workouts Rather Than Join A Health Club

How many times have you joined and quit a health club?  I don't like 'em and here are my top 5 reasons you should never join a health club and should do 10-minute workouts from home instead.

By: Ed Scow, NSCA-CPT: Certified Fitness & Nutrition Expert to the True Superheroes - Busy Moms & Dads and author of Fat Loss To Go

There’s no mystery to my feelings on health clubs and gyms.

I haven’t used one for close to 10 years (except a hotel gym while traveling and that’s even rare given my feelings for bodyweight workouts).

I really, really don’t like them and luckily more parents are sharing my disdain for health clubs and giving home workouts a try instead.

But to illustrate why I think health clubs and gyms are worthless, especially when you can get better workouts done at home in a fraction of the time, I’ve come up with a little “Top 5” list for you.

Reason #1 Why Health Clubs Are Worthless - The sweat pools, unclean weights, bars, dumbbells, cardio machines, etc.

When was the last time you saw someone taking some sort of disinfectant to the handles of all the dumbbells?

How often do you see people leave a sweat pool on a bench after they’re done using it?

That’s just disgusting! In my limited outtings to health clubs I have seen people pick their nose and wipe it on the bench, sneeze into both hands before grabbing the handles on an elliptical machine and pick scabs. People often freak out about public bathrooms, but I think health clubs may be worse.

At least from home it’s your filth that you’re touching, not someone else’s and everybody knows your own filth is much cleaner than anyone else's ;)

Reason #2 Health Clubs Are Worthless - People who stare.

These stares can be direct or indirect. I don’t know which is creepier, the person who doesn’t try to hide their staring or the person who uses the mirror to catch a glimpse of the hot lady doing squats in her tight short shorts.

This really weirded me out when I used to workout at health clubs and it’s the main reason I do all my workouts at home or from my private training studio.

Reason #3  Health Clubs Are Worthless - People who hog equipment or don’t put things away. This is a big pet peeve of mine anywhere, whether it’s at home or at the gym.

If you use something, put it back when you’re done. Put your weights away, strip the racks, replace benches, etc.

It’s a total lack of respect to everyone else when you’re that selfish turd doing those things.

If you're using the squat rack or bench and someone wants to "get in" while you're taking a 10-minute break, then let them. If you have a barricade of dumbbells surrounding your bench for your gigantic circuit, and someone wants to grab the 25's, let them...you can make do with the 20's or 30's in your collection.

Sometimes health clubs are like daycare where one or two kids try to hog all the trucks and when someone else plays with one that's not in their collection, they non-chalantly wander over, grab it and yell "Mine!!!"

Reason #4  Gyms Are Worthless - Cardio bunnies. This one has a couple different viewpoints. On the one hand, you have the women who are addicted to cardio who look very nice. They’re the ones all the other women are striving to look like, even though these women are usually in their early 20’s and have no issues with weight to begin with.

The cardio queens I’m talking about though, are the ones who you will find day-after-day on the same piece of cardio equipment doing moderate intensity cardio for hours…and their bodies never change, and some even gain weight.

How could this be? How can so many ladies do so much cardio and not get results and even regress with their weight loss?

Moderate and low intensity cardio done for that long is a very inefficient way to lose weight.  Your body gets used to the same type of exercise and doesn’t burn as many calories anymore.

You can still do cardio at home, but stop with the long workouts because they don’t work as well as you’ve been lead to believe.

Better yet, stick with 10 minute workouts that use only dumbbells and your own bodyweight and you’ll get far better results than the cardio-addicted ladies at the gym.

Reason #5  You Should Stay Away From Gyms: They waste waaaay too much money. Initiation fees, monthly dues, and all sorts of “extra” fees just to use a building and their stuff. And the sad part is you don’t use 90% of the “stuff”.

Do yourself a favor and quit the gym, and then buy some dumbbells, resistance bands, a stability ball, a good bench and maybe a few kettlebells and do your workouts from home.

You’ll be much happier, save lots of money and frustration plus you’ll have more time to spend doing the finer things in life - like playing Scrabble with the neighbor lady or spying on your neighbors.  

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