Training At Home or in a Gym?
I started training at home mostly because of the convenience after a hard day at work. After I trained at home for several years I tore my rotator cuff in my left shoulder. It was from benching and I didn’t have a spotter. I tried training through the pain but it wasn’t really do-able. I let off of training for a month or so until the pain would let off. The first chance I got I’d start lifting again. The pain would be a little tolerable but after a time when my bench weight would start to climb again the pain level was right back to where it was. This went on for several years going through massage to deep massage or rolfing hoping to try and fix the problem this way instead of surgery. I just wanted the pain to stop.
I finally had an MRI done that showed me that I had torn my rotator cuff. Surgery was my only option. The quality of life I experienced with the pain was depressing to me. I couldn’t do the the things in life that I enjoyed. So in 1997 I had surgery on my left shoulder. After several months of physical therapy I was back to work at my job but still not able to lift. It took two years to get my strength back to where I was before the tear occurred.
I tore my rotator cuff in my right shoulder in 2004 at work not even weight lifting. Again I needed surgery. After the surgery it was right back to where I was before. I was doing physical therapy for several months before I could go back to work. Another two years before my strength would come back to where I was in 1999.
I just recently joined a gym again for the first time since 1993 after training at home mostly off and on due to injuries through out the years. I’ve got good equipment at home but the atmosphere in a gym can drive you to push yourself past what you might at home. I’m still training at home sometimes depending on what time I get home from work.
Who else trains at home and why? If you had the room at home what type of equipment would you want?
October 4, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I train at home also, no lines, everything is ready and available and at a fraction of the costs it’s paid for! It pisses me off to see anyone sitting around bull shitting and taking up benches and equipment not there to lift. I know ocassionally people will stop for a few min. to explain an excercise or a plan to a spotter but that’s gym related. Plus you get the new years resolouters flooding the gym at the beginning of the year for a month or two. I saw a ton of teenagers in jeans and polo type attire do a couple of lifts and then talk to chicks or their friends do another lift jaw jack and so on grrrrrrr. So I said screw that, for what I pay there should be some policing of the gym to keep things going.
I’m in my gym at 4 or 5AM depending on the day of the week and I only walk 20 feet to get there and back. The feeling of pushing iron, tunes and my inspirational pics keep me going just fine!
October 7, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Hi Triverson,
Thanks for the comments! I know what you mean about people showing up to sitting around and talking about things that have nothing to do with training. No lines. No one hogging up the equipment.
It’s really about convenience for a lot of people.
Do you feel you get the same kind of workout training alone vs. a training partner? Growth is another issue. Do you grow as much at home as you would in a gym with others that you could train with… if you could find a good training partner?