Unfortunately in most of the Bay Area, even just the floor space to have anything remotely usable as a home gym would cost many hundreds of dollars per month.
This takes creativity. Gymnast rings cost ~$10 which you can hang from a tree branch. Someone gave me a barbell, but I had no weights. So I screwed rings into some heavy logs and am now deadlifting ~400lbs. I get to do all this in my bikini in the sun while maintaining my garden between sets. I look like a fitness model and spent about $30 on my yard gym.
The Bay Area is way bigger than SF, and it said "space", not "dedicated room". Obviously not everybody will have any room whatsoever but some folks in the Bay will be able to spare a bit.
I was going to say there is always used gym equipment available (used a handful of times), but then I never tested the market in the middle of the pandemic.
during the pandemic (and somewhat even now) the price of used equipment was extremely elevated. Even basic weights were expensive. Used plates in my area went from 50c/lb to $1/lb+. The prices of equipment similarly jumped. It was a bad time to build a gym, financially, but necessary.
This doesn't ring true to me; most people at the gyms I've been to don't talk to anyone. I think most people actually want the equipment, mainly the squat rack, bench press, and treadmills. I personally love bodyweight exercises but I still feel I'm missing something without heavyweight squats and deadlifts.
I'm sure you've already considered it, but move north were there are seasons and no pine trees :-/ The rain in Seattle tends to wash the pollen out of the air, too.
For me its grass. Even walking in grass with shorts on is a no-no.
Luckily none of them are that severe, but it’s just so many things… I got allergy shots for a few years in my teens which helped a lot, so it isn’t normally that much of a problem, but I’m also a bit asthmatic so exercise outdoors is a big trigger.
Sorry about that. I'd never jog if I had to do it indoors on a treadmill. Tried it a couple times, blech. Outdoors is so much better. Like I often stop to chat with a neighbor. Just today I found out one on my route had a hidden 57 Chevy, so I had to give him a ride in my Dodge :-)
I've been going to gyms for years. Have never spoken more than a single sentence to anyone there and 99.5% of the other people I see there are also training and not socializing. In fact I can specific remember one pair who were socializing in the gym once; I saw them about 10 months ago, it was very irritating and so unusual that I still remember it now.
Bodyweight workouts can't come close to the effectiveness or satisfaction of a proper set of weights.
