» By: Kyle Battis

The home gym is an amazing resource that you should be taking advantage of. Between hectic schedules to the non-sense going on in most commercial gyms, home gym training is the safe-haven for people looking to train in a manner that actually produces results. There are many reasons why you should have a home gym and I encourage you to read on as one of these reasons could be very pertinent to your individual situation.

1. Life Gets In The Way: How true is this statement? It is always a good idea to have a contingency plan for those little things that always seem to “pop-up.” Despite our best laid plans, life gets in the way and unforeseen obstacles can interrupt your training schedule. Having a home gym that you can rely on will ensure that you can fit in your training sessions and stay on track despite the uncertainty of life. This has been one of my secrets to making continued progress despite my crazy schedule.

2. Home Gym Training Fits Your Schedule: If you have a home gym you don’t have to worry about driving to the commercial gym and fitting training into your schedule. Quoting Coach John Davies, “It doesn’t make sense to drive 40 minutes to the gym, workout, only to drive another 40 minutes back home!”

Having a home gym can save you a lot of time in your daily schedule and give you hours of your life back. By training at home you can also completely avoid the busy times at the local “fitness center.” Having your own home gym gives you the freedom to train when you want to train and gives you more of your life back.

3. A Training Environment That You Enjoy: A key benefit of having your very own home gym is that you get to set up a training environment that you enjoy. No need to worry about dropping the weights on the floor a little too loudly and scaring the people doing the machine circuit.

There is also no need to suffer through Britney Spears signing “hit me baby one more time” while performing Squats (unless you are into that kind of music) and no need to stifle your primal yells during your next set of squats so as not to offend others.

In your home gym you can play whatever music you like at whatever volume you like. You can put up posters and pictures that motivate you and set up your home gym in a way that is conducive to your training style.

4. Focus: One key benefit of having a home gym is to avoid the distractions found in most chain gyms. I recently interviewed Coach Dan John and he said the following, “Look Kyle. I could train at a chain gym in Las Vegas so that I could look at all of the beautiful girls “working out” but if I really want to get something accomplished during my training session I will continue training in my garage gym so that I can achieve the results I am looking for.”

As someone who is looking to achieve real results you need to focus on the task at hand and training in your own home gym can help you keep your mind focused on hard training. Once you try home gym training you may never go back to training in a commercial gym (if you can help it of course).

5. Privacy: If you have your own home gym you can train how ever you want and invite whoever you want to train with you (no day passes needed!).

You also don’t have to worry about dress-code and you can train barefoot without being yelled at. It is also nice not to be stared-at the entire training session and to avoid people hitting on you every time you go to them gym (some people are shameless at some of these commercial gyms!).

6. Save Money On A Gym Membership: Let’s face it. Gym memberships can be expensive. I encourage you to calculate how much you spend on your gym membership every year. For some people this total approaches a thousand dollars/year! Now fast forward ten years and total up how much you have spent on a gym membership.

Wow! That total adds up to a staggering number for some people! The great thing about getting into training that works is that when you develop an in-depth understanding of the key training concepts that knowledge allows you to achieve phenomenal results from the simplest and cheapest equipment. You could conceivably save yourself many thousands of dollars by slowly building up your very own home gym over time.

7. Train with Intensity: Once you learn how to train in a manner that actually produces results you will become very familiar with intensity in your training. Unfortunately, most commercial gym goers are not.

Training with Intensity in a chain gym can lead to disapproving looks from fellow patrons, disruptions in your training plan while waiting for the 14 year old boy to finish performing his set of biceps curls in the power rack, and of course, the thing that bothers me the most is when the local “trainer” comes over and tells me that I should not perform Snatches or Cleans because they are “dangerous!” These annoyances can be completely avoided by training in your fully-equipped home gym.

There you have it. I have provided you with seven compelling reasons why you absolutely should have a home gym. Once you get set up, your home gym training will allow you to train in a manner that produces results and allows you more versatility in your training.

Kyle Battis CSCS, ATC, NSCA-CPT

Kyle Battis owns and operates Professional Fitness Coaching based out of Concord, NH. Kyle specializes in body transformation programs, athletic performance enhancement programs, and home gym training. If you want a collection of ideas to add some variety to your training please visit http://www.HomeGymSecrets.com. You’ll have access to some amazing audio interviews Kyle has done with top-fitness professionals such as Josh Henkin, Charles Staley, John Davies, Mike Mahler, Dan John and many more. You will receive a Free Special Report, “The 7 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Building Their Home Gyms” just for visiting.