If you want to get fitter, one of the obvious ways to do so is by joining a gym. There will be any number of people whose current plans will involve making a New Year resolution to do just that, once the upcoming festive attack on their waistlines is over.

However, there is an alternative. Why join a gym in your local town when you could create your own mini version? By investing in the necessary equipment, you can do it without leaving the home.

This is not a new idea; almost a decade ago, the BBC posed the question as to whether a home gym is a better option and sought to weigh up the options and find out which was better. The questions posed then are still relevant now.

Pros And Cons

On the one hand, it noted that having your own home gym means you can save the time spent travelling back and forth to another venue and changing in and out of gym clothes, while you also have the benefit of privacy - whether that be as a woman avoiding over-interested men or simply feelings of awkwardness at being surrounded by fitter people.

However, it also noted that there is a potential danger; while some might be encouraged to keep going through the camaraderie of fellow gym-goers who may become friends, those who try to do it alone might lose motivation with nobody around to encourage them.

These considerations might say a lot about how you are motivated. To some, it may be the need for others to encourage you that ensures you don’t give up when it gets hard. On the other, it may be that the greatest disincentive is having to leave your home on a cold, wet night.

Finding The Right Space

Space may be an issue for some, but that is where equipment like a folding workout bench can come in extremely useful, ensuring that you can make the most of limited floorspace if you don’t have a room you can set aside as a gym and nothing else.

A suggestion in the BBC article chimes with this. Catherine Sabiston, of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, noted that many home gyms are in the basement, which is dark, windowless and perhaps the least-enticing room in the home.

However, she added, the flexible use of other spaces that are in regular use for other purposes will work better. “The more natural light, the brighter your workout space is, the better,” she remarked, observing that even kitchens and living room spaces can be used this way.

She added: “You might be able to create a workout space in your main living area. Also, many people have a guest room. But how often do you have a guest overnight?”

Money, Money Money

Clearly, then, having flexibility is a great asset when planning a gym at home. But, you may ask, what about the question of cost?

In these days of cost-of-living strains, gym memberships can be the first things some will cut back on. But if you have bought the equipment, it is there already. Once paid for, it won’t increase in the way a gym might hike its fees.

The value you get out of it is then up to you, but with a bonus: if you stop going to a gym for a while, for instance, if you are ill, get an injury, or are kept busy by some major life event, your membership fees will go down the drain. But if you have the equipment at home, you are not continually paying for something you are not using at any given time.

Ultimately, as Fitgenic has noted, a home gym will save you money. Quite apart from the relative costs of owning the equipment as opposed to paying a monthly fee to use it, there are various extra costs to consider.

Unless you live very near the gym, there is the petrol money involved, while the gym will doubtless have vending machines for which you may pay far more for a small drink than you would if you had something at home after buying it in a supermarket. And if you do walk, there is always the chance you may be tempted to pop into a shop along the way.

True, there will always be those who feel most motivated when they have left home behind and are, literally, in the zone for action. But a home gym means you can work out any time you are in the mood, providing flexibility that you otherwise would never have.