Does this situation sound familiar: You’ve spent the past year or so learning how to become a different sort of home-bound human; you’ve gotten into an obscure hobby such as woodworking, sourdough baking, or building little ships in bottles; and you’ve developed some serious self-discipline. (Obviously, the discipline part came after about 10,000 unnecessary trips to the fridge, but hey, you got there.) Basically, you’ve landed on your pandemic-personality.

But now, things are starting to open up. At long last, those gyms and fitness studios that were such a big part of your life back in 2019 are becoming a real option again. So the question then becomes: do you keep doing what you’ve been doing in your casa, or suit up and make your way back to your church of sweat? When debating working out at home vs. the gym, we could take you through a multitude of pros and cons, but the truth is… do both! Combining a home gym and gym membership gives you the best of both worlds, allowing you the freedom and flexibility to crush your fitness goals. Here are some reasons why.

Expand Your Equipment

An obvious benefit of going back into the gym is the wide array of equipment at your disposal. A fitness studio will typically have tons of equipment that you probably couldn’t afford and wouldn’t have room for in your home gym. The downside is that you often have to wait for other gym goers to be done using your favorite stuff before you start. And that can lead to some pretty invasive stares as soon as they start scrolling through their social media account in between sets. When you have a home gym and gym membership, you can use your smaller, more affordable equipment like resistance bands and dumbbells at home, and save your super specific exercises for the gym!

Save That Green

Many larger fitness studios offer multiple pricing packages, depending on your level of use. When you’re going to the gym full-time, you’re usually stuck paying their full premium price to take advantage of all their bells and whistles. But when you’re reinforcing your workouts with some home fitness, you can elect to go with a cheaper, more sparse membership.

Vary Your Workouts

As we’ve said a bajillion times before, you want faster results — you’re gonna need some variation in your workouts. Our bodies always love to fall into routine, and when you shake up that routine, our systems react to deal with the new challenges, and that means fat burning, muscle building, and all the other good stuff we’re looking for. Combining home and gym fitness means you can do bodyweight workouts at home, and more intensive strength-training workouts at the gym. Keep your body on its toes, and you’ll get where you want to get, faster.

Exercise Around Your Schedule

A lot of times, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of our fitness is our schedule. Finding the time to hit the gym can be tough, especially when we’re facing responsibilities of our kids, our jobs, and well, just being human. Another great benefit of having the flexibility of both the gym and a home fitness space is that when you don’t have time, you can sneak in a quick 20-minute workout at home, and when you do, you can head into the gym.

Find Your Tribe

Before the pandemic, many of us had a tight-knit little workout group that we’d meet up with every week at the gym, for some camaraderie and encouragement. If you’re headed back to the gym, try and regroup with your pre-pandemic posse, or see if you can organize a new one with some friendly gym pals. But if you can’t seem to find your crew, have no fear, just find them online! When you sign up for a virtual workout platform, like Studio SWEAT onDemand, you get access to a worldwide group of members, who regularly motivate each other through a private Facebook group. So if you don’t find your fit-fam at the gym, you can still find them around the world!

Combining at-home and in-person workouts is a great way to kick your fitness into high gear. And guess what? We’re here to help you do just that! Sign up for our Free 7-Day Trial, and get access to our huge library of at-home streaming fitness classes, featuring passionate trainers, endless variety, and the tightest crew you’ve ever seen. Ready? Good, we’ll see you in the (virtual) gym!