For some, training is simply kata in the hallway and some push-ups and crunches on their bedroom floor. For others, it needs at least $5,000 of Zebra Mats, and a nine-foot tall squat rack. For me, it is somewhere in the middle - a wrestling mat base with some gymnastics tumbling mats, a heavy bag, a cheap squat rack, several olympic bars and several hundred pounds of weights. Being reasonably mechanically-inclined, if there's something else I don't have, I can probably make it myself.
Home can be anything from a single-roomed dorm space to the proverbial palace. If you're lucky enough to have a garage with an overhead I-beam and don't mind leaving your vehicle outside, then you pretty much have all the space you need.
A common theme for doing some fraction of your martial arts and fitness workouts at home is simply time management. If you need fifteen minutes each way to get to the gym, and you spend fifteen minutes waiting for the barbell curlers to leave the squat rack, then that same forty-five minutes could have given you a tremendous workout. While I'm no fitness expert, I've gotten good mileage with variations of the following:
20 minutes of circuit training - several sets of squats, chin ups, overhead press....followed by
10-15 minutes of kata, then
10-15 minutes of heavy bag/pad work
This is a hybrid of strength and conditioning work - for me, this is a good bang-for-the-buck way to maintain several attributes at once. You young single guys may disagree, but those of you with a full-time job and several small children will get what I am saying. On the virtues of bang-for-the-buck training, just read anything by Dan John. He has been training longer than I have been alive and has probably forgotten more than I will ever learn.
Of course, this doesn't factor in the socialization factor; some folks like to workout and chat with their friends. Also, there are many grappling techniques that you just can't practice alone. But, you would be surprised what you can do with so little.
Finally, this is definitely not some way of saying that training at home is somehow better. If you are lucky enough to have a great dojo or gym close by (and you have the time), then by all means take advantage of it. But, if you work 9-10 hours a day, commute for an hour, and spend the remaining time paying bills, changing diapers, bathing children, etc., give Garage-Ryu a try.
