7 reasons why an at-home workout is SO much better than the gym

Promoted Fitness

Is your gym membership more hassle than it's worth?

Sometime over the last ten years, society decided that if you didn't have a gym membership you weren't doing life right. But, it turns out that being a member of a gym does not mean you have it all figured out. There is a much better way to stay in shape, and I'm not talking about joining your local tag rugby team.

Working out at home is the easiest, handiest, most purse-friendly way to exercise and it's ten times better than dragging yourself to the gym.

• You can wear whatever you want

Have you ever gone to the gym in just an old t-shirt and transparent leggings from Penneys? Of course not, because you'd be shamed out of the place. Workout clothes are big business; the gym is why the 'athleisure' movement happened. Since most of us spend way too much time and energy deciding what to wear to work, to brunch, to pick the kids up from school, and we don't need that kind of hassle when it comes to getting fit.

Work out at home and you can throw on anything. Anything. You can work out in your pyjamas if you want. Then, when you've got good and sweaty, you can just whip your clothes off, bang them into the laundry basket and hop into the shower.

• You can work out whenever

When you're married to your gym membership, you're forced to go regularly. But unless your gym is right next to where you live, you have to assign a certain time, like, an hour before work, or after or during your lunchbreak. When you work out at home, you avoid that annoyance completely. You can get up and do a thirty-minute dance-a-thon, or hop on your at-home gym equipment (like this uber handy 2 machines in 1 hybrid trainer) before getting ready for work or getting the kids ready for school. Then you can do another half an hour later in the day. You don't have to be a slave to routine.

• You can avoid the weather

The thought of having to go out in horrible, cold, rainy weather just to work out is eliminated when your gym is a few feet away from your bed. In summer when it's way too nice to be sweating indoors with scores of other people, you can move your gym outside to your garden.

• Save time 

If this isn't the biggest and best reason why working out at home trumps gymming it, I don't know what it (ok, I do, and I'll get to it next). Like I said, you can just roll out of bed, rub your eyes, press play on YouTube and boom - you're already working out even though you woke up a mere two minutes before. Once you've finished, you can sprawl out on the floor for a few minutes, and then you can then make yourself your healthy breakfast smoothie, and have a shower in peace.

• Save money

Gym memberships are expensive. So is petrol (if you have to drive to and from the gym). So are fancy workout clothes. Avoiding all of this is the best thing about working out at home.

• Reject getting sick

But in case you're still not convinced, how about this. Gyms are full of other people's sweat and germs. Not unusual for a public place, you might say, but when it's cold and flu season, you do not want to be using an elliptical that has people's sneeze juice all over it.