Exercise to Reduce Tummy: 5 Reasons Why Exercising At Home is Better than The Gym

Do you think exercise to reduce tummy is more effective at the gym than it is at home?

There’s this guy at the gym, James (not his real name), who has been working out at the gym for the last two years. Last week, he came to me and asked, “Hey Daniel, how long does it take to look like you? I’ve been training for awhile, but I’m still like this…”

Not one who likes to openly point out people’s mistakes, I shrugged and said, “Just train hard, eat well and rest more dude.”

Eat, Train, Rest.

While this sounds like a variation of Julia Robert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” movie, these are the three cornerstones that make up the success of all weight loss and fitness regimes.

While I’m not sure if James is eating well and resting enough to allow his body to burn fat and build muscle, one thing I do know for sure is that he needs to take a look at how he is training at the gym.

Learning from James’s mistakes, here’s a list of the top 5 reasons why training at home can be better than training at the gym:

1. No hassle, No Fuss:
There were times where James only worked out once a week because he’s either too exhausted after work (read: lazy) to come to the gym or it happened to be raining or he just overslept. Working out at home saves you the travelling and preparation time that you usually need to get to the gym. So your time is all spent on exercising and not on commuting or getting all “dolled up” for the gym.

Especially for us corporate workers where time is scarce, if we can save 30 minutes travelling time, it could translate to more time for ourselves or our family.

2.  Distractions, distractions, distractions
One major problem I’ve noticed about James whenever he comes into the gym is he spends more time working his mouth than he does working his muscles. There is nothing wrong with socializing at the gym. But do it after your workout is over! He takes five minute rests in between sets to catch up on senseless gossips and sometimes even goes out for a smoke break with other gym users during his workouts. How can your workout be productive with this lack of discipline?

On the flip side, you may not be as distracted when you are working out at home. There is no one to ask you out for smoke breaks and certain no long lost friends to catch up with in between sets. All you are focusing on is getting your workout completed.

3. Self-Consciousness
One common question I usually ask my fellow gym mates when I see them is what body part they are training today.

There was once James told me he was training his chest. As he approached the bench for the Olympic bar bench press, he looked around and noticed a group of bigger guys around the area. He then took a detour and proceeded to the smith machine instead.

There is nothing wrong with being self-conscious. Not everyone can have that indifferent “to-hell-with-the-rest” attitude and just focus on their training regardless of how many people are watching them. But if the workouts were done at home, you wouldn’t be concerned about whether your fats are jiggling when you are running or if you are sweating in all the wrong places. Instead of worrying about whether others are looking, laughing or talking about you, you can focus on your exercise and grunt, shout and swear all you want.

4.  Sharing of equipment
Between the 7pm to 9pm on weekdays is when almost every gym in the city is at its most crowded. To get your workouts in less than 60 minutes during this time can be quite a challenge. The ladies make a beeline to the treadmill, stationary bikes or any kickboxing classes going on. The guys flock to the weights area with a large majority of them hogging the bench press, lat pull down machine or the preacher curl machine.

To use the equipment you want, sometimes you’ll have to share with others in between sets. I sometimes find myself sharing with four other people for the bench press. (Which is why I now have my chest workouts on weekends where there are lesser people)

Conversely, when you are training at home all the equipment you have are yours. Even if you lack the fancy equipment at the gym, it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get an intense workout. Fancy equipment doesn’t necessarily equate to making you stronger, faster. A lot of athletes such as gymnasts have gotten very strong by doing purely bodyweight exercises. By putting together the right combination of  bodyweight exercise to reduce tummy, you will be able to see similar if not better fat burning results

5. Nothing is free
Unless you are given a corporate membership, most of the bigger and fancier gyms out there charge quite a lot for their gym memberships. While most of us corporate workers can afford that gym membership, let’s face it, a lot of us simply do not make full use of our gym memberships. You are better off working out at home and saving that monthly expense to fancy gym XYZ which can be better used elsewhere.

Working out at home can be more beneficial than going to the gym, especially for the beginners. Other than the reasons stated above, working out at home can help you build a strong fitness foundation. When you have established that foundation and bodyweight exercises are no longer a challenge to you, that’s when you can fully make use of the heavier gym equipment to take your fat burning to the next level.

All you need is the right combination of bodyweight exercises to ensure that your home workouts are intensive and designed for fat burning.

To save you all the guess work, my 10 Minute Corporate Fat Loss Plan provides you with seven power packed bodyweight workout videos that is specially designed to help you melt away that stubborn belly fat and reduce your tummy. Best part is, you can perform these exercises at the comfort of your home.

To check our my 10 Minute Corporate Fat Loss Plan, click here