Do you "need" a gym to be fit??

I've been preoccupied with fitness lately, can you tell?  Hehe, just feeling very pumped up lately.  Doing new workouts & a whole new rotation of workouts does that for me.  That's what keeps me going over the long haul as it were.

My stepson started working out a couple of years ago.  He's observed me over the years & knows that I workout very regularly.  He has seen firsthand that I know how to achieve what I want with my body/fitness.  Of course his goals are very different than mine--he wants to be "buff", he is more about the looks & a man's fitness routine will always differ from a woman's in my opinion.  Our bodies are just made differently.  We do talk about working out & what we do etc, from time to time, but we both know that we have different goals.

A week or two ago my stepson got a one week free pass to a gym from a friend of his.  He normally goes to the community gym here where we live & he also uses some of my equipment in the garage & he has a few things of his own.  He was soooo excited about going to this gym.  He couldn't believe how huge it is & how many machines they have, etc.  I did enjoy asking him what they had & hearing about it.  But it got me thinking about myself & the fact that to this day I have never set foot inside of a gym.

My stepson says that as soon as he gets a job (which will be very soon) he wants to get a gym membership.  Now most of the time when people tell me that I actually caution them against it.  And that's simply because most people never go.  The money keeps getting sucked out of their bank accont every month yet they never go to the gym.  They are simply wasting their money.  But my stepson is one person I won't caution like that, which is rare.  I know that he loves working out, he makes it a priority & he will definitely go & get his money's worth.

Back when I first started working out, nearly 21 years ago, I thought about joining a gym.  But I know myself VERY well.  And I knew that if I had to get dressed & drive there that I wouldn't do it.  I loved getting up, brushing my teeth, working out, showering, & then getting on with my day.  No wasted time out of my day to dress for it & driving time.  Back in the early days I didn't wear fitness shoes (I don't advise that, although some people argue that it's better that way) & I honestly just worked out in my pjs!!  As time went on & I got more serious & more knowledgable I acquired fitness shoes & clothes.  And once I got married I went from working out in my bedroom to the garage gym that my hubby set up for me, which I love (the only thing better would be to have the gym inside the house so I'm not exposed to the extreme cold & heat that I am in the garage sometimes).  Having my gym in the garage has also enabled to be able to add on a few things that were too big to squeeze into my bedroom.

And as the years passed I occasionally stopped & considered the possibility of joining a gym.  Usually this would happen when I would hear others talking about the subject.  But it's a considerable amount of money & again, I know myself very well.  I really enjoy working out with DVDs in my own home.  And like the saying goes: if it aint broke then don't fix it, right?  Plus, I would rather spend money on a piece of equipment & put it in my garage & be able to use it whenever I want than to pay for a gym membership & have to go there & sometimes wait on that particular piece of equipment.

And by now, after working out for nearly 21 years & being as fit as I am, I am actually proud to say that I have never set foot in a gym.  I am proof that you don't NEED a gym to be fit.  At this point I don't WANT to go to a gym, just so I can continue to say that.  And I also like to encourage others who can't afford a gym membership & think they can never be fit because of that. 

I remember a co-worker of mine many years back was telling me that she had once had a membership to a gym & she also paid for a personal trainer.  She was telling me that her trainer actually told her to skip the machines & he just had her doing regular old fashioned push up, lunges, free weights, etc.  And she said that she was amazed because she got the best results & was the most fit she had ever been in her life from that personal trainer.  She eventually dropped the gym membership, planning to continue what she had learned from the personal trainer on her own at home, but that she had quit working out altogether eventually.  It's just funny to me that so many people truly believe that you can't get fit without a gym.