Unifit
Why do I have to go to the gym?
The gyms have been closed for almost half a year. Many have organised themselves in some form of home training. Isn't that enough in the long run?
To make it perfectly clear: No. That's not enough. We have to go to the gym.
At least that's what the operator says. But is he wrong just because he is the operator? - University sports didn't set up Unifit out of economic calculation, but out of conviction: We are responsible for our bodies. And we can best fulfil this responsibility in the gym. A university should definitely offer its students and employees the opportunity to do so, because training at home is not enough. But why not?
A lot of things can actually be done at home these days. What we all have at our disposal is our body and the floor. This is one of the most effective equipment combinations there is - but also one of the most challenging, and certainly not suitable for everyone as a starting point. If our own bodies are too heavy for us at first, the market still offers resistance bands in all physical and aesthetic variations. If we have a little more space and money, we can sometimes get dumbbells, barbells and maybe even a whole rack. Even good cable pulleys are available for relatively little money these days.
Once you have the equipment, all you need is the knowledge. There is plenty of it on the internet. You can learn a lot from BroSep, Liebscher & Bracht and many others and apply it to your own training.
But even in the case where we are well equipped and even have access to the knowledge, we know: This is not enough.
First of all, very few people have access to the full equipment at home that a gym offers. It's not just about the "big" movement patterns like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses or rowing, but also about the small, mean elements of the movement and support apparatus that can hardly be achieved with conventional means and for which special loading angles and curves are needed. Cable pulleys with plenty of space and isolating strength equipment are the tools of choice. They offer many more progression possibilities than resistance bands and one's own body and are simply necessary in the long run to progress in the big movements.
Secondly, the knowledge transfer outlined above is largely a one-way street. Feedback is missing, i.e. the eye of an experienced professional who gives you feedback on what you are doing, what you should actually be doing instead and how exactly you should perform the movements so that exactly your body can cope with them. Training planning, exercise selection and, above all, exercise execution require a highly individualised adaptation that you can't do on your own. That's why even the best in the business have a coach.
Third - the ritual: the anticipation. The way to the studio. Where you will be. Who you will meet. What you will do. How you will feel.
Perhaps this third point in itself is enough to answer the initial question.
(Stefan Bertling - Manager of Unifit)
