Home Workouts: Are They Really Worth It

The DVD is loaded in the player, you have the TV turned to just the right angle for viewing, you have a cold-water bottle strapped to the side of your exercise bicycle, and you're ready to begin your home workout. But can you really gain as much benefit from workouts at home as opposed to working out at a gym or with a personal trainer?

Opinions differ widely on whether there are any real benefits to home workouts or if there might be some benefits, but not what you would find by working out at a gym or with a personal trainer. Those who stand to profit from the sales of home workout items such as books, exercise videos and exercise equipment are understandably quick to offer up reasons to support the assertion that there are benefits to home workouts. While others, dispute most of the claims made about the benefits possible with home workouts.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two schools of thought on whether home workouts are just as beneficial to physical health as gym workouts or those done under the guidance of a personal trainer. There are advantages and disadvantages to home workouts.

You can work out at home when it is convenient for you to do so, day or night. Gym workouts and working out with a personal trainer are subject to the gym's hours of operation and your personal trainer's work schedule.

Inclement whether doesn't normally interfere with a home workout. It can however, prevent you from being able to get out and travel to a gym or to meet at a designated place with a personal trainer.

The camera angle on an exercise done in a video or the illustration of how to do an exercise from a book may not be as clear as it needs to be for you to perform the exercise correctly. This places you at risk for sustaining an injury. With gym workouts, you have fitness experts who can guide you on how to properly do an exercise to avoid injury. The same is true with working out with a personal trainer.

Books on home workouts may contain outdated or even incorrect information about what types of exercises you should be doing to benefit your health the most. The experts at a gym and the expertise of a personal trainer can guide you to the exercise workouts that have the most health benefits.

With home workouts it may be hard for you to find the motivation to continue with home workouts on a long-term basis. Working out in a gym or with a personal trainer provides you with the encouragement you may need to stick to an exercise routine long term.

With a home workout you can exercise in your underwear or in the "buff" if you like. Most gyms do require you to wear a shirt, shorts, or pants, and shoes. A personal trainer is not likely to want to see you in your birthday suit either!

A home workout is much better for your health than no workout at all. If you balk at joining a gym or hiring a personal trainer and use that as reason not to workout at all, by all means workout at home!

Well-rounded health workouts include: gym workouts, instruction from a personal trainer, and workouts that you can do at home. Home workouts: are they really worth it? The answer is yes and no. It depends on how often you do home workouts, whether you're performing exercise correctly, and whether you supplement your home workouts with other workouts.