A lot of gym rats really slag on calisthenics, but there are several one-legged squat type movements that are quite difficult and provide more than enough challenge for most people with typical fitness goals.
For people who want to become especially strong, specialized weights and machines become more important, but as a percentage of the population this group must be vanishingly small. The "do a little each day" thing certainly lends itself better to calisthenics, which can be performed almost anywhere, than to a gym.
I expect a typical person would have better luck doing body weight squats 5 days a week at home than trying to stick to a gym schedule to do barbell squats regularly.
> I expect a typical person would have better luck doing body weight squats 5 days a week at home
I would think so too, but in practice it seems that gyms work for people because it's a whole function that's easy to compartmentalize unlike doing push-ups next to your bed. I think it's less mentally taxing.
e.g. I would wager that going to the gym to use the chest press machine is more realistic for most people than suddenly being able to do push-ups in their living room during a TV commercial or whatever.
These reflections come from my own experience trying to get friends to do body-weight exercises with me, and my own journey from going from a gym guy to the guy who is doing push-ups while waiting for my HEB steamables bag of edamame to cook in the microwave. For various reasons due to, I think, our human nature, the latter is a lot harder and requires more personal transformation. Doesn't seem like it should be though.
I think one way to begin thinking about this is: to everyone in these comments who is supposedly very opinionated on exercise and health, what stopped you from doing 20 push-ups on your apartment floor today? We have all sorts of reasons.
For people who want to become especially strong, specialized weights and machines become more important, but as a percentage of the population this group must be vanishingly small. The "do a little each day" thing certainly lends itself better to calisthenics, which can be performed almost anywhere, than to a gym.
I expect a typical person would have better luck doing body weight squats 5 days a week at home than trying to stick to a gym schedule to do barbell squats regularly.