❌ Why I Canceled My Gym Membership

In this week's P.O. Box:

I cancelled my gym membership this week.

The last time I didn't have one was exactly one decade ago.

In the lead up to my wedding in August 2013, I decided it was finally time to stop coasting on my early twenty-something metabolism and shed a few pounds before slipping on the suit.

Here's a pic of chubby-cheeked Pete (sounds like something Trump would call me in a Presidential race) in the spring of 2013, for reference:

Since then, I've regularly gone to a gym a few times per week. I've cycled through different training programs, gotten into boxing and yoga, optimized for different things (like out-benching CMC.), and took advantage of tons of different Cross Fit-esque & HIIT training classes.

But the combination of moving to an area where there are no good gyms nearby and the birth of April have forced me to re-structure my approach to working out.

When I factored in the commute and locker room time and everything else, I realized I was needing to budget a full additional hour of time for every workout. This was ballooning my workout blocks to almost two hours for each session.

That was not sustainable whatsoever with my time-strapped schedule (and also how I arrived at doing "Prison Workouts" in the months after April's birth).

But my prediction from that post two months ago has come true:

I have, indeed, reached my breaking point. I need something more beyond pushups and pullups and bodyweight exercises (at least until Laird stops dodging me on the 5-10-25 challenge).

And that's why over the past couple weeks I've been working on building out a gym set-up in my garage so I don't have to commute to a gym and watch naked old dudes clip their toenails in the sauna.

My squat rack and bench recently arrived, as well as a bar and a bunch of bumper plates. I have aspirations to add a bunch of stuff (would love to get some fun stuff for Underdog Cardio Club, like an assault bike), but I'm just going to chip away at it slowly but surely.

In researching equipment and set-ups, I've gone down the "garage gym" rabbit hole on YouTube and I never would have guessed how deep it goes. It makes sense, though. I'm a few years behind most people who used COVID and the lockdowns as an excuse to build out home gyms.

But I'm excited about this next evolution of working out from home. If you got any equipment, or set up, or programming recommendations, hit me up. I'd love to get some more ideas and inspiration.

I'll post some pics when I finish.

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