I like both home gym training and commercial gym training, but I definitely prefer training in my garage gym.
I hear this particular excuse about not being able to get motivated at home a lot, though.
Fact of the matter is this: if you're a disciplined person, you'll find a way to train. For me, it's non-negotiable and it's enjoyable. When I was in the Army, I would be out at a field training event sleeping on top of my tank and I still took the time to do pushups, squats, and lunges. Not ideal, but I was disciplined enough to do some work even though I lacked equipment, sleep, a climate controlled environment, and motivation.
Secondly, if you're disciplined and have a decent home gym, you never have to worry about being demotivated by other people.
For example, today I went to a big commercial gym and it was packed. Everyone was just standing around looking for some other exercise to do in some other part of the gym because the machines, benches, or equipment they wanted to use were taken.
I found a corner of the gym with kettlebells & dumbbells and did my workout there – all in about a 6x6 square foot area.
I STILL had to deal with the circus that runs hourly in all these commercial gyms these days.
I'm fortunate and have a nicely stocked home gym. I chose to go that route in 2018 because it was more convenient for my wife's schedule and I was getting pretty annoyed with the commercial gym shenanigans and getting my workouts interrupted when lifting in gyms where I worked.
The idea that showing up to a gym automatically motivates everyone to train harder is silly. I've worked full time in various gyms for 9 years as a trainer and I can tell you for a fact that MOST gym goers aren't working very hard. Most of them are looking around. Some people that I've worked with remotely have even informed me that working out around other people makes them anxious and prevents them from training hard.
When it's all said and done, if you want to make gains long term, you must develop that passion and discipline for training. You must be someone that eliminates excuses. If you understand how the body works, you'll understand how easy it is to train each muscle no matter what equipment you have at your disposal on a given day.
THAT is true fitness freedom. That is what will allow you to be successful in the endeavor of building muscle.
At the end of the day, most of us home gym rats want freedom to train how we want, when we want, and with the equipment we want. We don't have to worry if all hell breaks loose and all the broccoli heads and fit-fluencers decide to hog a certain area of the gym. We don't have to worry about a gym shutting down or selling out. We don't have to worry about limited holiday or weekend hours.
Learn how to train your body with any, all, or no equipment, then build out your home gym – whether it's just a small courage corner or a large basement gym – and you can make better gains than you would in an oddly lit commercial gym covered with more mirrors than barbells.
If you prefer training in a commercial gym, then keep at it! Your business keeps me getting paid (at least as of now). But don't come out and make blanket statements about home gym training being sub-optimal just because you or someone you spoke to couldn't be consistent with training. Odds are, if you can't be consistent with training at home, you'll eventually find reasons to not be consistent with a commercial gym membership.
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