You can make weights to increase physical strength and fitness with many common items around the house. Milk jugs, cans, and various items you use every day can help you stay fit. Here's how to save money and keep a fit physique at the same time.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Building Homemade Lightweights
Step 1. Use a milk container
Fill a clean plastic tank with water, sand, stones, or concrete. Make sure the tank has a handle; you will have to use it to complete the reps. Use the handle to raise and lower the tank as you would a normal weight or dumbbell.
With these weights, you can do bicep curls, triceps exercises, and shoulder raises
Step 2. Lift canned food
Canned foods that you can hold are great makeshift weights. This tip is especially useful if you are a beginner and are looking to build muscle slowly. Use larger foods like heavier weights or medicine balls.
Step 3. Make dumbbells out of plastic bottles
Instead of disposing of plastic bottles of water and soft drinks, fill them with water, or with stones or sand. When filling them, be sure to weigh them so that you have two dumbbells of the same weight. Lift the bottles as you would a dumbbell.
Step 4. Make arm weights out of plastic bottles
Instead of using water bottles as dumbbells, this method involves tying multiple bottles to your arms as wristbands. Before tying the bottles, fill them with sand. For heavier weights, add water after filling the bottle with sand.
When you've filled the plastic bottles, use tape to tie them to your forearm. The tape must not touch the skin; he'll just have to hold the bottles together. Squeeze the bottles just enough to keep them from slipping off your arm
Step 5. Make a medicine ball out of a basketball
Take an old basketball and dig a hole in one of the black stripes. The hole should be large enough for you to insert material with a funnel. Put the funnel in the hole and fill the balloon with sand or rocks until you reach the desired weight. Use a bicycle tire repair kit to fill the hole (you can use packing tape if you don't have that kit). Now you can use the balloon as a medicine ball.
Step 6. Make cuffs out of socks
Fill some clean socks with dried beans. Alternatively, use pebbles or small stones to gain weight. Sew or glue the open part of the sock. Then, sew the two ends together, or sew a velcro strip to open it easily.
- Use a scale to adjust your weight. Fill the sock to get the desired weight, then cut off the excess fabric. If you want to increase the weight but there is no space inside the sock, use a larger one.
- When choosing a sock, make sure it is long enough that you can tie it around your wrist. If the sock is too long, fill it to the extent necessary to wrap around the wrist, then trim the excess fabric before closing it.
Step 7. Use packs of rice or beans
These packs are great as mini weights if you are a beginner. You can use them straight from the pantry for bicep curls and other simple exercises.
Step 8. Cut the bicycle tire tubes to get hand weights
Take the inner tube of a bicycle and cut it into equal lengths. Secure one end of the tube with tape, then fill it with sand. Also close the other end with tape. You can leave them flat or fold them in a circle until the two ends touch and then tie them together.
This is a great way to create different sized weights. Start with 0.5 or 1.5kg. You can also try 2, 5, or even 4 kg weights. Use a scale to weigh the pipes before closing them
Step 9. Make a weighted jacket
Get a fishing jacket or one with many small pockets. Fill plastic bags with sand or cement and put them in all pockets. Run, do some pull-ups and push-ups, or go for a walk in the weighted jacket.
Step 10. Use paint cans
Hold them by the handles. Most paint cans are slightly heavier than plastic bottles or food boxes, so you can use them when you have more muscle. The handles allow you to use the jars as dumbbells.
You can try using the jars as a kettlebell as well
Method 2 of 3: Create Heavier Homemade Weights
Step 1. Use 5 liter buckets
Fill them with sand, stones, concrete or water. Use them for curls or tie two to a bar or board and use them as a barbell.
Step 2. Make a barbell out of water bottles
Take 2 packs of 6 bottles and use tape to tie them symmetrically to an iron bar that you can grip with ease. You can use this makeshift barbell to replace a real one, for exercises like lifts and presses.
- If two packs of 6 bottles weigh too much, do not empty the bottles halfway to make them lighter. The water from half-filled bottles will swing from side to side and cause the bar to vibrate. Instead, tie individual full bottles to the bar.
- If two packs aren't enough, use four or six packs of bottles tied to the rail. Alternatively, tie individual bottles. First line them up horizontally along the bar, side by side, then stack them on top of each other. Make sure you leave enough room for your grip.
- The tape must be used functionally. Wrap the bottles horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
Step 3. Find some old tires you have in the yard
Tires are used in many training and bodybuilding programs. You can add weight to regular tires when you train, or you can visit a junkyard and find tractor tires. Turning them over and tying them to a rope to drag them are two exercises you can try with tires.
Step 4. Build a slosh tube
These are long plastic tubes filled with about 20 kg of water. But the real training these weights offer comes from the distribution of water, which forces your muscles to work harder to try to keep the water in balance as it moves from one end of the tube to the other. You can make one with a PVC pipe. The tube should be approximately 10cm in diameter and nearly 3 meters long. Put a cap on one side, then fill it halfway with water and close the other end as well.
Step 5. Use a duffel bag to make a sandbag
Sandbags are similar to slosh tubes, because they are unstable weights that require more intense use of the muscles. To make a sandbag easily, fill 20 or 25 liter freezer bags with sand. The final weight of the bag must be around 25 or 30 kg. Wrap another bag around the first one so it doesn't break, and then close them with tape. Put the bags in the duffel bag. Close the bag with the zipper and you will be ready to train!
- An alternative method of making a sandbag is to use an old army backpack or canvas laundry bag. Use industrial garbage bags and fill them with gravel. You can fill them with 5, 10 or 12, 5 kg. Fill 5-6 bags with gravel, and close them with tape. Put them in the bag until you get the desired weight.
- Add and remove sand or gravel bags to get different weights. Use a scale to gauge how heavy the bag is before starting your workout, and to remove or add weight accordingly. If you don't want to change the weight, you can add sand or gravel directly to the bag. However, it won't be easy to remove or add weight if you use this method.
- Make sure you leave some space in the inner bags to allow the material to move around.
- If you are adding a lot of weight, use a sturdy duffel bag.
Method 3 of 3: Making Homemade Kettlebells
Step 1. Use a can of milk or juice
Fill a clean 5-liter plastic can or a two-liter water bottle with water or sand. Make sure the tank has a handle; it is important to complete exercises that involve the use of a kettlebell.
Step 2. Use dumbbells and rope
Another technique for making homemade kettlebells is to wrap a string around each end of a dumbbell. The thicker the string, the more you will have to work in the grip. Grab the rope in the center so that the dumbbell hangs right under your hands. Now you can swing and lift using the kettlebell effect. When you need to adjust the weight, simply use a different size dumbbell.
Be careful when swinging a dumbbell. It will swing and fly more than a normal kettlebell. Be careful not to hit yourself with the dumbbell
Step 3. Make a kettlebell out of a sack of potatoes
Buy a lot of potatoes, rice or sugar, which you can find in most stores. Fill the bag with sand until you reach the desired weight. At the top of the bag, make a bow for the hand. Use string or ribbon to secure the bow so it doesn't come off. You can reinforce the sides and bottom of the bag with tape.
You can use this method to make multiple kettlebells of different weights. Use a scale to measure how many pounds you are putting into the bags before tying the top
Step 4. Use a PVC pipe and old basketballs to make a kettlebell
Buy a PVC pipe that is 2.5 x 60 cm in size, tape one end of it and fill it with sand. Insure the other end. Put the PVC tube in the oven at 230 ° C for 10 minutes. You want the plastic to become soft, not melt. You will need to give the tube the shape of a kettlebell handle. Look at the tube carefully.
- Remove the tube from the oven and fold it into a handle, joining the two ends. Use tape to secure them. Dip the hose in cold water to help secure it.
- Cut a basketball to insert the handles. Put the handles in the ball to make sure you have drilled holes of the right size.
- Mix some cement in a separate container, then pour it into the ball. Add the handles at the end. Let the concrete set for two to three days before using the ball.
Warnings
- Test homemade weights carefully before using them in intense workouts. You should make sure that the tape is well secured and that nothing can fall out and hurt you.
- If you are using a homemade barbell as described, make sure you are not training alone but with a helper. This is especially important for bench presses, where muscle failure can lead to laryngeal damage or worse.
- Be careful with homemade kettlebells; if your wrists hurt after your workout, stop using them and buy real kettlebells.
- Always consult a doctor before starting an exercise program.
