Join a gym or buy my own equipment?

I am gathering information on whether I should join a gym/ymca or if I should go ahead and buy some of my own equipment (like a tradmill and/or bowflex) to use at home. 

Any thoughts?

I am due to have my surgery on this thursday.

My opinion is that a gym has an energy that can't be duplicated at home. Even though I have a treadmill at home, I have not used it in years. I either hit the road or hit the gym. If you are the type of person who can motivate at home than go for it but for my money, I'll take the gym.

Most people don't end up using their exercise equipment they buy for the home for very long. They get bored with only having one thing to do. Also, if you are new to exercise, you don't know what you like yet. If you go to the gym, you can try a lot of things until you know what your "go to" equipment is. Then, you can buy that.

Put me in the minority!  I love my treadmill and I love my pilates machine.They are available 24 hours a day.  I have never been a gym person. I don't want to see them, and I'm sure they don't want to see me. I HATE the idea of wasting time getting to or from the gym or working it into my already busy schedule. I love getting out of bed in the morning and running on the treadmill while watching the morning news. I have my coffee as soon as I'm done and get on with my day. In the evening I can get home, make dinner and use my pilates machine while watching trashy TV shows. Perfect in the winter when it gets dark early. In the summer months I like to do pilates in the morning and run outside after work.

Good luck with your surgery!

Choose whichever one you will utilize the most, and stay committed with...

Like Dan said, It really is about what you will use, but for me I agree with what Scott & Marie had to say as well.
I have had stuff at home, and I just don't use it.  Maybe because it's never as nice as the stuff at the gym, or because it's much easier to be lazy at home.  I'm only a few steps away from sitting on the couch.  If I take the effort to go to the gym, I put out more effort than I do at home.

I make going to the gym part of my day.  Usually first thing in the morning before work.

Scott

Have to agree with Dan and Scott.
I don't even go to the gym. I am doing the C25K program since I don't have either a gym membership or home equipment. Plus I can't do any harder work out then walking (even the slow jog I had to get approval from my surgeon).

I'd be sure to ask your surgeon what his take on exercise is before purchasing big ca****ems.

Good luck and get active which ever way is best for you hun!!
*big supportive hugs*

It's no question in my mind.  Stick to the gym and the streets.  It's kind of like diets before the surgery.   You can stick to something for awhile, but unless you have a little variety, you are bound to fail.
Rob

 personally, I thought  would do better, given my busy work and family life, with having my own elliptical and weights at home. I did use the elliptical a lot early on, and I love being able to lift whenever I want.  

We have a planet fitness here which has a 10 bucks a month plan... I thought I would take it and just mainly use it for the treadmills and the assisted pulllup machine.. I can honestly tell you its been about 2.5 months since I got on my own elliptical, and I only use my own weights for maybe 1 workout a week.  I love going to gym to workout - the variety and ability to learn from others is unmatched.  

I have a dumbbell set, curl bar and olympic bar/weights at home and use them often when I run on the roads and don't want to drive into town - or when I know I only need to do a limited workout (like shoulders).  I'm expecting, as the spring and summer comes on, that I won't be going to gym nearly as much.  and, I may still sell the elliptical and buy a treadmill for home use when the weather sucks, only because there are times when getting to the gym is not possible given my work requirements (and you can't just cut your workout short to take a call at the gym, like you can in your home office :)  )

In other words.. this was a long way of saying I want both :)  

If you do get stuff for home, I wouldn't go bowflex or similar expensive machines, but just a cheap used set up dumb bells.

My best friend and I opted to join the gym after my surgery. She and her husband have a basement full of equipment, and neither of them really use it, their family members use it regularly. We find that going to the gym together motivates us. When I feel like I'm going to quit, she gives me that "look" and I push myself to go that much further. When one of says"I don't want to work out today", the other gets in her truck and makes the other get in and we go! I now take my youngest daughter with me(our memberships allow us to bring a guest as many times as we like) this is getting her in the habit of working out regularly as well and she has a variety of different equipment to try out as well. If you can, get a trial membership at a gym(so you're not locked into anything) and see how you like it- it usually takes a week or two to really know. If you like it, go for it. If not, maybe invest in a good treadmill- get the cardio going, and go from there.  You can also look into taking classes, lots of places have beginners classes and many instructors are patient and offer lots of helpful hints and advice. A great class that's also easy on the joints, water aerobics. Good luck on your surgery, I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Hope that helps, best wishes,
Adrienne