In this post, I’m diving into my specific health considerations for how I structure my personal workout philosophy and why I chose to have a personal home gym as opposed to a gym membership. I can make the case for why having a high-priced gym membership is the best case or why having pricey home gym equipment is the best case. And I’ve done both at different times. Honestly, I regularly go back and forth.
I think for most Americans it really makes more sense to have a gym membership. Assuming you live where there are many gym options. There are social benefits to gym memberships and you can find one that has exactly the atmosphere that you want. However, there are reasons why you should have your own gym as well. I’m going to break down my personal journey and thought processes in this post.
Young Adult Exercise Philosophy:
My first gym experience was in high school PE. I think this is probably relatable. Being female, weight rooms were not, except once, ever an option. My female gym class got about a week in the weight room and I was in heaven! I quickly discovered that I build muscle fast and could outperform my classmates by over double the weight loads.
Farm girl here, so this was the first time form mattered. It wasn’t until years later, I think with reformer Pilates that I started to learn how bad my lifting technique was. After all, we had zero instruction and were left to read diagrams on the equipment. Then we only had a few weeks. I wouldn’t have dreaded PE so much if it involved more weightlifting.
I forgot about lifting for a long time as I leaned into yoga. I played tennis through high school and a bit into college. Later in college, I signed up for a personal training session to help balance my right and left sides as my right had become far overpowered through tennis. I’d managed to destroy my wonderful backhand with a slice, so I wasn’t using the left-side muscles or even positioning my body as a whole very well.
The personal trainer had me doing so many reps of sit-ups, which I had honestly not thought possible, but I did it. Then he had me play tennis left-handed and that was insane! Serving with your recessive side feels so weak in every way. I digress. There was very little weight lifting or gym involved in this personal training session either. It was a great experience and I don’t know how well I stuck to it though I believe I showed up and even felt better after.
I did the tiniest bit of rock climbing in college as well. I loved it, but couldn’t find people to go with. Tennis was the same way. These kinds of activities are wonderful but the lack of availability of people and resources makes them unreliable long-term workouts.
Adult Lack of Plan:
I had dropped any type of regular exercise by the time I was a sophomore and didn’t pick anything up again until about two years after I graduated. Don’t get me wrong, I’d play tennis with friends occasionally and I did yoga occasionally but there was nothing on the calendar for it and no specific training.
I believe it was maybe Jenny Craig that had me convinced I should join a gym. So I looked around at the gyms near me or on my work route. I knew to look for ones that had activities that I’d historically enjoyed such as tennis, swimming, a track, etc. It came down to two, and the big difference was indoor tennis courts! Oh, my word, these were beautiful tennis courts and there were group classes and all kinds of benefits. I immediately signed up for personal training as well.
This whole thing is a blur because I was experiencing crazy health problems around that time and we had a million scheduling issues. In the end, I think I only attended one class and paid for the biggest membership package for about six months before giving up. I don’t actually recall using any of the equipment. I do believe I went there once and walked the track, but parking was a huge issue and the gym was very crowded. Of course, I’d signed up in January just like everyone else. I also stopped showing up after January, just like everyone else.
This is a stark contrast to a later experience which I’ll get to.
Running without a Plan:
Somehow a few years later my sister convinced me to do a 5k with her. I believe it was the Girl Scouts one that was done in a blizzard. We literally got lost because we were the only ones walking and there were only ever 12 people in this one. Since we walked it, it was okay.
This built momentum. It had been timed, so we now had goals! Goals are dangerous. We’d walked the 5k in something like 1:03 because we got lost and looped a block or two off track. So then we kept finding more that we could get times on. My sister wanted to push. She wanted to run more segments. So did I. Who doesn’t want to beat their time? However, I’m desperately prone to side stitches. After only 1 block of running, I was so cramped up that I couldn’t go further. We started by running the last block. Then trying to loop in two running sprints.
This went on for a few years with NO training in-between. Zero. I walked 5k every day for quite some time because I was trying to improve my nerve health. Walking and water. I did not have a gym membership during this time and didn’t really even do yoga. I had an elliptical at home. I think I acquired that after giving up on the gym. It turns out it aggravated my condition and I sold it a few years later. You can read my breakdown on home gym equipment here.
Then I moved. We were only able to find obstacle course 5ks after that or ones that weren’t timed and it took some of the fun out of it.
Trauma and Discovery:
Only a few months after I moved, I was in a car accident. T-boned on a highway from the right side of my body. They determined there to be no structural damage but my right side muscles weren’t engaging naturally. The left side compensated for everything. I didn’t even know this was happening until after I started getting dry needle therapy. The Physical Therapist had to push and wiggle the muscle before I could get it to engage.
This is why I joined a gym again. I joined a small class of reformer Pilates. I had to pay for the full membership and the classes on top, so it was several hundred dollars a month. But it worked. I had become so crooked and weak. The reformer bed allowed me to drop the weight requirements much below body weight and work up to normal levels. I was on far lower weights than my classmates when it came to my arms and I learned that I had to drop below what I could technically do just because it would trigger migraines if I were working with my body weight over my shoulders with the arms over shoulder level. I learned so much about how my body was working or not working and consistently went to a weekly class. I felt physically better after class and slept better as well.
The small class of five was exactly what I needed to push me and hold me accountable. We joked one day that we each had been relying on the other to count, so none of us actually knew if we were doing enough reps and actually ended up with at least two extra reps.
Recovery:
I mentioned before that I had other health issues at the time I joined the first gym. I learned, Nearly 10 years later, that I had MCAS. Workouts do trigger it. It took a while to find the literature to point to the mechanism. Essentially, as muscle temperature increases more histamine is released which triggers localized reactions that can spread. So the elliptical heated up the area right above my knees so quickly, and without treatment at that time, the histamine triggered mast cell reactions causing the muscle to turn red, inflame, and burn to the touch.
Since reformer Pilates is more resistance training than weight training, with short reps, and setups between activities, my muscles weren’t getting very warm and I was able to build strength as well as stamina and help my core and posture correct itself. It explains why weightlifting as a whole has always gone better for me.
Walking has caused problems before, but typically when dehydrated or hot. I was able to do it when I did because I was being treated for the reaction to histamine as well as drinking 96 oz of fluid each day. It was my goal to flush my tissues, and I did this for six months every single weekday. The consistency of water and walking helped me avoid overly hot muscles. I was also able to choose cooler times of the day. I have been told by neurologists that there is no way to reverse or improve nerve function (small fiber neuropathy) but my nerves did seem to function better so I’m going with it.
I’ve had to have nerves killed (RFA) out of my cervical joints C2-C6 due to pain and I was warned that the nerves would grow back and they are. I cut my hair because the weight of it pulling on my crown was too much (C2). There are a lot of things that are forever changed, but the thing that has become abundantly clear is how important movement and strength training are to simply function.
From Gym to Home Gym:
During COVID, my gym was open with new rules but the entire Pilates department was obliterated because the director retired early and my instructor went to start his own gym. I couldn’t go with him because he didn’t have enough slots (aka equipment).
Later I switched but never got a timeframe to work. After that, I switched my gym to Planet Fitness to save money because all I was using at that point was the cable machine, track, and rowing machine. I did manage to get to the gym several times and January was the busiest, but after that, it was tons better in the gym but not for the cable equipment. I was having to stall for 30-40 minutes to get in to do my routine, even with switching the order. It was uncomfortable to push in and no one made room. The equipment was limited.
While I was trying to do this, my job offered a free online Physical Therapy program that could be designed to support me with my neck and shoulder injury. They were trying to keep people from needing surgery, which is good. All I could have done was RFA again but that was painful for weeks after. I couldn’t afford to miss that much work, so I began this program.
It is foundationally stretching. Then added some strength to the shoulders. It’s been great to add these into the day, even on top of workouts to keep my posture in check and help stretch out any crunching up from the workout. I’ve learned that deliberately contracting and releasing these injured muscles give them the best chance at relaxing but they don’t want to do that without specific concentration.
Home Gym Plan:
Due to my need to build up a tolerance to cardio workouts and the struggle to get the equipment for my strength training workouts, I opted to dedicate a small room in my basement to exercise.
I did buy a AeroPilates reformer but I use it upstairs, not in the gym, due to the space required. I can roll it out and roll it back away.
My gym includes the TreadClimber though I opt for walking outside for as long as I feel well to do so (if I have anything that doesn’t just loosen up immediately I turn around and go back). I have a park across the street for just this reason. If it’s rainy I don’t go out but I have clothes to help with the cold. Walking is my warm-up or off-day cardio.
I recently purchased a spin bike because I enjoy biking but can’t ride in the winter, so this is often my weight-lifting day warm up and I’ve been working to build up my cardio tolerance on it as well. I’m only at 10 minutes right now. The bike was on sale when I bought it and the least expensive of the three. I had never taken a spin class so adjusting the resistance is still strange and I’m still learning the riding positions. Leaning forward on my arms is not well tolerated yet.
I have loose resistance bands for the PT which I travel with and use upstairs later than my workout for the PT program. Then in the gym, I have the set that works with the doors. It’s taken a bit of finagling to figure out the position and weight comparison between the separate cable machines and the common resistance band. Some things were too light and others too heavy.
The only weights I use right now are the three segments of the weighted Pilates bar. I do still have those 3 lb weights though. I added an inflatable ball for two of the exercises.
Components of my workout plan:
Walking is a daily habit. I don’t time it or aim for a distance. It’s about getting out and relaxing in the fresh air and sun, so it’s a nice relaxed walk/warm-up. Then I’ll do meditation & lymph drainage (meditating with my legs up the wall).
At most, three times a week I add my strength-building plan. Though I realize I somehow managed to forget that crunches were on there. Oops! I may substitute it for reformer Pilates if I feel sleep deprived or too weak to do it correctly.
I consider the PT to be a daily requirement though I do often get busy and forget. However, if I make it a daily habit, more often than not, I remember. I’ll adjust the level based on current restrictions and build back up again if I have an actual injury. I can consult the software team if I’m questioning how to adapt to accommodate an injury. I had a recent thumb and index finger tinnitus injury that I’m still building back up from.
Most importantly, I don’t kick myself for missing or falling short in anything. It’s all about having fun and maintaining muscular support and posture. Still, I have quite a ways to go. The accident didn’t make my bad posture, but it made my bad posture worse and the pain from it worse, so now I have to work to keep it from getting worse. Hopefully, with time it will actually improve as well.
Exercise Philosophy:
There are a lot of people that feel that they should work out. It’s vague and undefined or it’s about losing weight or a vague “getting healthy”. A friend asked me recently if having a home gym makes me work out more. The truth is no. Having a clear reason helps me work out. Having the home gym gives me complete freedom as to when and how long I work out.
I refuse to regret spending money on my health, but I have certainly spent loads of money on my health, both with medical, healthy food, supplements, gyms, and gym equipment. The bad decisions come down to passing the buck. I expected doctors to have answers to questions I didn’t know how to ask. I expected equipment to make me understand why I was even wanting to work out. I expected weight loss to make my medical conditions go away.
All of these were wrong. I learned a little something from each mistake. I’m also treating the mental side of it now too. Generating stress when there doesn’t need to be any. I also don’t expect that having a home gym will always be an option for me. It makes sense in my house right now, but if I had to haul it back up those stairs….that Treadclimber is staying!
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