The gym has never been my thing. I’ve always wanted it to be, but I just don’t feel comfortable there.
This “gym fear” of mine, most likely stems back to a bad experience I had back when I was overweight and joined a gym in an attempt to do something about my habits. The classes were filled with fit women who had rhythm and I was the polar opposite, so I never attempted a class. I would go and walk on the treadmill for awhile before going over the machines to try and figure them out.
One day, I was on the treadmill doing my thing and I noticed a few of the ladies looking and me and snickering. I began to feel self conscious and with good reason. I lowered the music playing through my headphones and heard this group of ladies making fun of my weight. I was absolutely mortified and couldn’t wait to get out of there.
You would think the fact that I was at the gym trying to correct my weight would be commended, but that was not the case. Looking back I hate that I let these shallow ladies get to me. I allowed their close mindedness stop me from ever returning to a gym. As a matter of fact, I drove to the grocery store on my way home and bought a container of ice-cream to drown my sorrows in.
However, the silver lining to this story is that I eventually returned to my mission of getting into shape…but this time I did it all at home!
Here are my top 5 reasons why I prefer working out at home:
1. You don’t have to deal with shallow people who will judge you. When you workout at home, it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a neon green polka dot sports bra with striped leggings. No one will snicker that your hair looks like a squirrel made a nest in it. Hell, you can wear your pajamas if you want to. All that matters is that you show up and focus on your workout.
2. When you’re done with your workout, you can lie on the floor like someone just shot you and curse all you want. Well…as long as your children aren’t around for that last part. I can’t tell you how many Insanity or leg day workouts I completed and then just collapsed onto the floor and stayed there for awhile. You can’t do that at the gym. You’d be in people’s way, you’d get stepped on and if you cursed like I do during some parts of my workouts, you’d probably get thrown out.
3. You don’t have to clean anyone else’s sweat off of the equipment before you use it. Let’s face it, people are rude and don’t always think about the person who will be using a machine after them. Despite complimentary towels and signs everywhere telling people to use them on the machine and to wipe them down when they’re done, most don’t listen. Working out at home means you only have to deal with your own germs….unless you workout with your spouse, but that’s a totally different circumstance, right?
4. You never have to face the bitter cold early in the morning or get soaked by the rain. I don’t know many people who want to leave their warm bed, get into workout clothes, scrape off their windchill and freeze their ass off in order to go get their sweat on. If you do enjoy that, hats off to you…you’re my new hero. When you workout at home, you can’t use the weather as an excuse. Ever.
5. Class schedules don’t dictate YOUR schedule. This is hands down my main reason for working out at home. When you workout at home, your schedule is just that, YOURS. You don’t have to check with the gym to ensure the class you’ve been wanting to do is still on. You don’t have to wake up extra early to do it because it’s only available at a specific time or worse yet, put your workout off all day because the class you love is only offered at night. Let’s not even get started on gym hours. Why do they close early on weekends?! Bonus reason: If you’re a mom, you can fit your workout in around your child’s nap time and not have to worry about gym childcare and what germs may be lurking in there.
I know that my gym experience isn’t the case for most people and many love going and feel very comfortable. This is just my experience and as bitter as I may sound about it at times, I’m actually really grateful it happened. It allowed me to try something I always felt skeptical about and completely changed my life.
If it wasn’t for my experience at the gym, I may have never tried P90X or any of the other programs I went on to complete. I may have never lost over 100 pounds and decided to become a personal trainer, as well as an on-line accountability coach. My life took a path I never expected it to take and it may be because of that experience. Who knows! All I know is that everyone has a fate or destiny in life and we are introduced to it in many different ways.
Have you ever wanted to try an at-home fitness program but didn’t know where to start? If so, I would love to speak with you more and help you find one that would be a good fit for your goals.
Comment below or shoot me a message on Facebook and I’d be more than happy to help you. I host monthly accountability groups to keep you on track and I’ll also guide you through making a meal plan, too!
getfitwithnikki.com 