Look up body weight exercises - they're very effective and you just use your own weight plus some common household items. I have used "You Are Your Own Gym" and liked it.

I work out at home. I have a power cage & free weights but dumb bells and body weight exercises can do a lot. Kettle bells are pretty effective, too. I did a 19 minute KB hiit workout that turned me to jelly yesterday.

A power cage is a big metal contraption that you can squat, bench, do pull ups and many other lifts in. If you google it you will probably recognize it. As far as transforming your body, it's all about what you put into it. Lift heavy, progressive lifting. Compound lifts, like squats & deadlifts are great and can be modified to use DBs. If you want to challenge your body. Kettlebell workouts are very challenging. I just moved up to a 20lb KB from the 12 I had-hoo boy, that was tough! It sounds like you have no other option so give it a shot! You need a safe place to swing a KB, though. I keep my workout room door shut so kid/pets can't come in while I work out.

Anything you have will work given the correct intensity and time. Look online, bodybuilding.com, Pinterest for body weight excersise. Chairs for dips you can work on pull ups with a cheap chin up bar. You can use that same bar or a hook in a ceiling stud ( in the garage maybe) and pully system for cables. Look on garage sale sites for extra weights, people sell them cheap Find something about 20 lbs for thrusters. Burpees. Box jumps. Dang, all the hard stuff isn't even using weights! Buy some bands. They give a lot of resistance and are cheap.

Personally I'm much more accountable being in the gym so I applaud you for being able to do it at home. I previously did p90x and you didn't need too many things to do that and I recall it being pretty hard. One day my daughter was sick and I had to reroute to pick her up at school. I was ready to go to the gym so I looked up CrossFit (I think it was #14) They have names for each different WOD and people online were talking about their WOD that week. It was alternating thrusters with burpees counting down 21,17,14... something like that. It totally kicked my butt. Maybe you can do a little research on some of the crossfit routines that don't require equipment. Not all of them do and they are designed to really work.

ambsnic17 wrote: »

Benowell-Have you seen results? I have done workouts that incorporate weight training. Ive used YouTube for a lot of them. I just feel Dumbbells aren't going to cut it!

You Are Your Own Gym uses progressive workout routinse, so if you follow the daily workouts you will see results - the author emphasizes progression in the amount of resistance for each workout, which is how you increase strength. I followed it for several weeks as a complete newbie to strength training and I did see results. I ended up joining CrossFit because I like having someone telling me what to do and encouraging me - it pushes me harder than I would myself. But the book had good info and effective methodology, I thought.

It is challenging and definitely shows you can do some serious weight training using your own body weight.

Whatever you do, progression is the key!

Btw, look on Craigslist or a similar site in your area for used equipment. I got my power cage (power rack), Olympic bar & weights on Craigslist. I see dumb bells listed all the time.
I work out much more at home than I did when I had to find time to go to the gym. Part of that, though, was I was following a program where I needed to work out 3x/wk or deload. Kept me consistent for a year!

I have dumbells going up from 8 lbs. all the way to 60 lbs., and they're all I use. As long as you're lifting heavy, you will see changes!