[kscherer]

I almost bought a Bowflex home gym, but I decided to give an actual gym a chance first. Membership for my wife and I is $65/month, where the Bowflex would have been $85. Granted, the Bowflex would get paid off in 18 months, but the Y has so many more possibilities in the weight room. So far—a month and a half later—I have used it M-F and only missed 1 day when I had a dentist appointment. I've been far more motivated to go (because I'm paying for it and don't like wasting nickels) and I'm seeing good progress in terms of progressive lift-capacity is concerned. Working out at home is convenient, but I didn't think I could reach my goals as readily.

There are things I just cannot do in my house without modifications (proper pull-ups and such). Also, I am transitioning to full-body workouts which are just not possible without free-weights. Things like squats, anchored squat-presses, dead-lifts, and power-cleans cannot be done with cabled home-gyms, and my dumb-bells max out at 55 pounds each. All of the free-weight routines I'm doing are all well above that.

Also, pure cardio is not the best way to burn fat in a sustainable manner. Building muscle is. More muscle mass = higher metabolism and more purely natural fat-burning capacity. I'm transitioning to cardio for what it is: Building cardiovascular endurance. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying cardio doesn't burn fat. But, I lived in the cardio world for a very long time when I was cycling, and during that time I never had any muscle growth. Even though I had very strong, well-shaped legs and I could ride uphill for hours, I couldn't bench-press a small potato and I always had a gut hanging around.