Home Exercise Equipment and Why We Don’t Use It

Did you buy the Perfect Pushup so you could "get more from your workouts without having to leave the house?" You probably had every intention of doing push-ups every day and getting ripped, but now the rotating handles are collecting dust under your couch. What went wrong?

According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, it's that our expectations of our behavior often don't generally match reality.

In a series of studies, researchers Robin J. Tanner (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Kurt A. Carlson (Duke University) asked participants to idealize how often they would exercise in the coming week. They then asked them to provide a second, more realistic estimate of how often they would exercise.

When asked in that order, turns out they were more realistic than they were idealistic.

On the other hand, when researchers explicitly told the participants not to be idealistic, they were actually less realistic about their estimates. The study also found that more decisive people tend to be less realistic.

In the home exercise equipment market, that's bad news for the buyer and the seller.

"Unrealistic optimism by consumers may have negative consequences for both marketers and consumers," the authors explained. "For example, if a consumer holds unrealistically optimistic beliefs about how often they will work out in the future, then they may overpay for home exercise equipment."

I'll be the first to admit I bought the Iron Gym few months back but hardly ever use it. But that's because I hit the gym six days a week and include pull-ups and chin-ups in my training regimen. I do, however, feel comforted by the thought that I can do pulling exercises at home should the need ever arise.

The gym is an important factor for me because I've never been incentivized to work out at home. There's more accountability there: if I skipped a workout, my fellow gymgoers would never let me live it down. I also have a fantastic workout partner! We keep each other in check, which helps in every aspect of our workouts.

And although I've never used my bands, medicine ball, and ab wheel at home, I do get good use out of these exercise gadgets when I tote them to the gym. That said, I consider myself to be realistic with a smidgen of idealism.

Why does this matter to you? Because understanding our tendencies to be overly optimistic about our future behavior can help curb our appetite for home exercise equipment we'll hardly use. When it comes to exercise, be realistic about your expectations and configure a regimen that fits your personality and lifestyle. Remember, you know yourself better than anyone!