It also depends on what your present and future goals are. If you want to gain that impressive muscle mass than those results can be achieved at home, even with a limited amount of equipment. Thousands of guy's train at home, with very good results, and would never think of enrolling in a gym. So much of the home equipment is near the state of the art now-a-days. It's a self motivating venture with home training and most success will depend on the serious intent of the person working on their own.
Working out in most cookie cutter commerical gym's can be a real buzz buster. Too crowded, too noisey and too many socially challenged people, who seemed to have forgetten any hint of good manners and gym behavior (put the weight back, reset the machines, wipe the benches after use, do not ask to work in when someone is only halfway through their sets, a squat rack is just that, meant for squating only,etc). I visit a few commerical gym's from time to time and see too many people loitering (taking up space) rather than working out. My own rule of thumb for a halfway serious gym is one that does not have a juice bar/lounge or sells those really Kool head, wrist and arm bands.
If anyone takes the desired to get really big (ambitious enough be enter a few local contest or more), beyond the the abilities of a home gym and training alone, than hooking up with a gym atmosphere more geared towards prime time BB'ing would be first choice. These are usually smaller places which limits the membership. My rule of thumb for this is the clanging of heavy weights (I love that sound), the thud of DB's hitting the floor, grunts & groans, and bent Olympic bars (sometime these are the best bars to train with). Most of these guy's will help any new member ( you can get hands on training from men of experience..not any of that T&A mag creative writing stuff) adjust to this wonderful world of real weight lifting. This is training with serious intent, at it's basic core. Good Luck.
