I’ve been talking about home gyms this week on my Facebook page, so I wanted to do a blog about some of the home gyms I’ve had in the past. Then I came across these pictures of my firstborn son Javan and I playing in our yard in Lam Narai, Thailand in 2013.
In these photos, you can see some of the homemade gym equipment I had at that time.
The items in the bottom photo, from left to right, are:
- A ‘slosh pipe’ or ‘slosh tube’: PVC drain pipe half filled with water and capped at the ends. Creates an unbalanced load for carries, squats, presses, and other things you might do with a barbell if you had one.
- A heavy (200lb if I remember right) barbell made from a length of pipe stuck into a bucket of concrete on each end.
- Several large blocks of concrete with metal and rebar sticking out of them. I found these at a demolition site and brought them home because they were handy for various lifts and carries.
- A tractor tire for flipping, jumping on and over.
- A dumbbell and barbell, each made from a length of wooden dowel rod stuck into a flower pot full of concrete on each end.
- Several clubs made from chunks of concrete and rocks attached to wooden handles (mostly branches). I used these for clubbell training, which is worthy of a google.
- A massive ‘Bulgarian sandbag’ made from a tractor tire inner tube filled with rocks and weighing about 150lbs. It’s sitting inside the tires.
- A couple more tires for lifting, throwing, creating obstacle courses, jumping up on, through, or over.
- Some faux ‘kettlebells’ I made by filling flower pots or paint pots with concrete and inserting handles into them. These were good for KB swings and deadlifts, but not clean & jerks!
- BONUS: The kids in the background are playing a game called Sepak Takraw, kind of like volleyball crossed with soccer juggling. The ball is a woven of rattan or plastic and you can only use your feet in this game. We climbed over that fence to play with them almost daily.
I don’t know if this gave you any good ideas for your home gym, but at least it was fun to look back at the pictures and take a trip through the memories. If you need help setting up a home gym–either out of totally home-made stuff like this, second-hand equipment, or brand spanking new goodies–talk with me and I’ll set you on the right path.
SMART, FIT, AND CLEAN 