Working Out at the Y

I'm picking on the Y, but it could be any fitness facility for me. Working at the Y gave me a free membership and Jan a discounted rate that made it quite affordable. Before Jan got sick for about 5 weeks she would come and exercise while I worked.

But I only used the Y once for exercise and that was because our treadmill at home needed to be repaired. I discovered something about myself, I like working out at home. We have a nice Body-Solid weight system that can be used for at least 12 different exercises. Our treadmill is working again. Our road bikes are on trainers. We have a television (with color cable!), and a radio/cd player. We own around twelve bicycle training tapes, most of them from Spinervals. We have a rack of dumbbells and a curl bar. All of this is in our basement. We have a chin-up bar in the garage.

Magically I have ten reasons to exercise at home;

1. I don't have to worry if the person before me cleaned their icky germs off the equipment (this is really a huge reason for me).
2. It's free, at least after the initial investment. We have owned our treadmill and weights for years.
3. We don't have to drive anywhere.
4. I can look like a slob, sweat up a storm, and no one cares. Well, except when Jan comes downstairs to use the washing machine and tells me I made the whole basement stink. But I take that as a compliment for how hard I'm working out.
5. I can get up at 5:30am to bike or lift weights and just walk down the stairs with my fresh cup of coffee.
6. There's always a bathroom nearby. I can take a break from whatever piece of equipment I'm using and not worry that someone else is going to start using it, or that I need to clean it right then.
7. I can play any music or watch any television show I want.
8. If I want to grunt while lifting weights I can without being judged.
9. It feels more life-like riding my road bike over an exercise bike at the gym.
10. I can turn off the heat, turn it on, have a fan on, it's my choice.
Oh, and number 11, I can easily shower, all by myself, without using a locker for my stuff. 

Of course some people can see advantages to a fitness facility;

1. More variety of equipment with hookups to online motivational "games".
2. Group exercise classes.
3. Meet new people, a social outlet.
4. Learning the correct way to use a piece of equipment or set up a weight program.
5. New equipment that you don't have to worry about repairing.
6. No going into a possibly dingy basement or room to workout.
7.  People watching.

Only 7 reasons. Unless readers can come up with more. I guess I'm a homebody.