Lifting without gym equipment

ande1560

Hey guys,
I'm pretty new here and I'm almost done with my first round of Insanity, which I'm absolutely loving. I'm a college student who just came back from spring break at home where I also just began lifting with my brothers. We have a weight set in the basement and my brothers taught me the correct form of a few bicep, chest, back, and tricep exercises.

Unfortunately, I do not have a gym pass for my school's gym (they charge us $80 a semester and it's always full) and I'm a little shy, especially as a lifting noob, to go and get a pass somewhere else. I live in a house and we have water buckets that actually are a good heavy weight for me to do a few reps when I fill them halfway, but have any of you guys ever gotten creative with other household objects?

Curious for ideas. Obviously I don't lift a ton of weight, but I would really love to further tone my arms, chest, and back if possible. Insanity has me doing lots of push-ups and I've love something a little different!

jaz050465

Look at body weight exercises buoy can get 'you are your own gym' as a book or an app.

psych0kitty

For my "dumbell" rows, I started with a 5 lb bag of flour in a plastic grocery bag (handles!) and now I'm at a 10 lb bag of evaporated cane juice in the same plastic bag. But that's part of a whole body weight routine.

You can also use milk jugs filled with different amounts of water or sand or luggage filled with books as simple examples.

Reza151

I've seen exercises in magazines that say you can substitute water bottles. When I first started out, I squatted with Harry Potter books

NormInv

For upper body, you can try doing push ups. You can do a variety of pushups to work not just the chest but also the arms.

- regular stance pushups
- wide pushups
- military style push ups - will work your triceps
- decline push ups
- incline pushups
- chair dips to work triceps
- side leaning tri-rise to work triceps

In addition to that you can buy a set of dumbbells from walmart that would probably cost you $20. You will probably get used to them soon but I think the above should get you through 6 months.

Look for used adjustable weights on ebay. You can probably get those for $100 used. They will last you or years.

matt2442

bodylastics resistance bands go up to 142 lbs of resistance...you could get in some good lifting routines with that

Mummyadams

Have you looked into TRX type training? Uses only body weight. Google it - it's very versatile and you only need the TRX bands - no other weights or equipment.

samb330

bump

ande1560

Thank you for all the ideas! It's late here, but I'll check them out tomorrow after class.

rybo

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you are your own gym