[Do it yourself] machine emulation.

[xlucasx]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only broke ass one around here and I ran into some tips on how to do excercises around the house using everyday items, I liked that a lot. Using a door to do chin up excersises was a good one, I don't know why I didn't think of that one (although I do fear for my door's hinges).

 

I wonder what a good round-the-house way would be to invert the focus of some dumbbell excercises, pushing the weight down in stead of bringing it up. In a Side Lateral Raise or with a Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl. In the last excercise for example, I figure the focus will be on the triceps rather than the biceps when you invert the gravitational pull.

 

I guess I should tie a rope around my dumbbell on the one hand side, hang the rope from the ceiling or around something standing up, and then pull the weight down on the other end of the rope in any way that would benefit the targeted muscle group. The question is: how. My ceiling isn't that great and I don't have a barbell suspended anywhere. I was thinking my hatstand maybe haha. As long as it wouldn't tumble over.

 

The other one is a bench. For the purpose of Dumbbell Bench Press for instance. All my chairs are useless because I can't really lay down on them and my bed isn't much either because you can't reach beyond 90 degrees. Tables I did considder but most of them are too big in width. Plus I would like to confine my excersises to my room so draggin a hatstand in and out of there is acceptable maybe but a whole damn wooden table, that's just too much. Any idea's? Any other ways to emulate otherwise expensive equipment?

[Daywalker]

You need some basic movements in your workout, triceps extensions and bicep curls are not among them.

 

Push ups for example train the upper body well and are superior to doing dumbell bench press with 4kg

 

So, i'd suggest doing push ups and crunches on the floor (everybody has a floor ).

 

Then, you need to get a barbell and plates. With that, you can do a lot of good exercises without need for more equipment, for example deadlift, barbell rows, pressing movements, cleans, and many more.

 

Leaves legs and pull ups. Legs are hard to train without proper equipment (= a rack). Best thing i can think of are sissy squats, lunges with dumbells, and trying to manage one leg squats (which are very hard).

Pull ups are a great exercise. See if you can find a bar where you can do those.

[xlucasx]

Whaha I hope my nickname won't get to be '4kg'

 

Yeah push ups and crunches, indeed because of the fact that I am blessed with a floor haha, I do too.

 

Perhaps I should look into getting a barbell and adjustable dumbbells... but, as you already guessed, that does involve some $$$ unfortunately. Oh well, I suppose some investment is required if I really want to take it seriously, even if it be a financial one. Plus, next to free is my other good friend: the second hand store!

 

Those leg excersises seem good for now. Let's just hope that by the time I get beyond the limits of the domestic my bankaccount will have some more zeroes to show for (with a '1' at least in front of them ofcourse).

[willpeavy]

I think chinups and pullups are better than anything for strengthening biceps (as well as back). If you're able to come up with about 10 or 15 dollars you can get a chinup bar that installs in your doorway

 

Just like Alex mentioned above, you can really get a good tri/chest workout with pushups. Do them with your arms slightly wider than shoulder width to focus more on chest, or do them with your hands right next to each other to focus on tris.

[crashnburn]

door gym or everlast multi functional door gym

 

im using it now,, add remove from door frame in 2 seconds.

 

29 $ shipped on amazon

[Kathryn]

Tricep dips (at various levels, with feet on the floor, feet on a chair, one foot in the air) work the triceps quite nicely and only require a chair or two. 'triangle" push-ups (hands held so that first fingers and thumbs are touching, so when you look down, the opening between the hands is in a triangle shape) work the triceps as well.

 

I wonder why you are thinking of making up new exercises (the "reverse" of bicep curls and delt raises) instead of using exercises that already exist? But, if you want to, then get a heavy resitance band ( www.power-systems.com sells heavy resistance) and either wrap it around a tree limb or an overhead bar, or use a door attachment (www.sissel-online.com sells sturdy ones ) that can go in the top of a closed door, kneel down, and do the exercises that way.

[finbarrio]

I do dips at the corner of my kitchen counter: chest facing into the corner, hand at each side, dip, repeat. I do it at work too - same way - my computer is in the corner, so I just take my hands off the keyboard, place one on each side of the desk next to me, kick my chair back...and dip.

 

There, I just did 10.