People always point out the irony of driving to a gym to ride a stationary bike. But one of the primary reasons people do it is because they don't feel safe riding bikes on the road with all the cars. Its an onion of irony.

Bill Bryson wrote of this upon his return to the US from the UK where he used to walk lots of places. How his wife's friend drive 2.5miles to a heath club to walk 5miles on a walking machine, then drove 2.5 miles home.

Thankfully I get my cardio climbing stairs up and down from the Metro, and rack up 10-15k steps per day. I live in a city.

Fuck whatever I used to do. Car culture contributes to societal and cultural division

I did used to feel odd back when I would bike to the gym, because I realized I was already a little tired by the time I got to the gym, but just sucked it up and figured it could only make me more healthy. For years I biked everywhere, work, school, hangouts etc . . .And some peers would complain about back pain or odd health problems, and I'm thinking well maybe an active life is worth all the effort.

I’m all for biking if that’s your thing, but I’d rather take a subway, than to arrive at work all winded and sweaty, smelling like a locker room. Or, completely soaked because it was raining that day.

It's 100 degrees in Texas right now. And exercising in AC is a lot better

I have family who live in southern Ontario who do this. They live in rural areas so they drive 1 hour to the gym, workout for half an hour and drive an hour back. I pointed out to them that in terms of cost, it would probably be cheaper to just invest in a home gym, treadmill and exercise bike and do everything at home.

Personally, my wife is sick with chronic illness so I can't go anywhere any more. So I just invested in a good treadmill, set up a TV in front of it and watch all my shows just about every day while walking. An average show is about 45 min or an hour so I take that time to do my walk at home and never go anywhere. The cost of the treadmill paid off years ago.

Also, as another tip, buy your treadmill or exercise equipment in January / February. Everyone always buys exercise stuff for Christmas or New Years resolutions in December / November ... then forget about it all after the holidays and sell stuff off or the stores put everything on sale. I bought a $1,000 treadmill like this about ten years ago for half the price and have used it since every year without problems.

I ride my stationary bike at home. It was always the stupidest feeling for me to drive to a car park just so i could workout

Edit: I'll add if you have a bike already, they make basic stationary trainers for relatively cheap that you can attach your rear wheel to. Sometimes called bike training stands, they come in three styles:

• Wind (less common these days)
• magnetic (usually adjustable)
• fluid (more roadlike feel)

They can be between $30-100. And then if you end up liking it then they also have smart trainers that are even better but expensive up front.

For the bike trainer stands then if you like it get a training tire which is more durable than standard tires. And you're also going to want to find any fan and point it at you while working out.

If you miss the social aspect there are some apps like zwift, rouvy, etc that let you ride virtually with other people though $, and you'd also need some relatively cheap speed/cadence sensor hardware on your bike to send your speed/ cadence to send to those apps (this is not needed with a smart trainer). Because i hate extra subscriptions, I just watch TV or read a book (can be hard during a harder workout).

There's a lot more i could say but basically i started with a 30 year old bike on a cheap magnetic trainer. It wasn't the nicest set up in the world but it worked, and eventually i realized i liked it enough to just cut my gym free and save up for a nicer set up.

I always went to the gym on my bike (10 km one-way). Perfect warm-up and cvool down. I've seen It's true beyond believe. Only three biked and a full parkinglot. Everyone wants to park as close to the entry door as possible.

I had a colleague like that. It was a bit ironic because he's the type of person that wants to be perceived as manly, but he was going to run on treadmills at the gym. He said the gym alwas had the same climate and he didn't need to run in the cold or in the rain, which is true.

But then the pandemic hit so he started running outside year round and got used to it.

My schools gym is walking distance away from me. Its like 7-10 mins. I can't get to it safely without a car because there is a 5 lane road (suicide lane in the middle) with cars speeding 50 in a 30 mph zone, no side walks, no stop lights.

It is one of the most demoralizing feelings in the world to use a car instead of cardio just to work out.