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[rydra_wong]

A lot of strength training involves equipment. Which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself (my yearning for a clubbell, let me show you it), but it can be off-putting if you don't have the money to spare, or don't want to have to invest money before you try something.

So I thought we ought to start pooling tips on strength training options that don't require any expenditure. I am nothing if not predictable, so to get the ball rolling: linkspam!

If you happen to have a sledgehammer lying around, you could try Shovelglove, reviewed in this comm here.

(If you've got a sledgehammer and an old tyre, you can really rock out: just Google "sledgehammer workout" for an amazingly wide range of ways to hit the tyre with the sledgehammer. I suspect this also has therapeutic value.)

Stumptuous offers No weights? No problem!, a guide to strength training with things that you may have around the house (or be able to make from things around the house), including tips on making your own sandbag or medicine ball.

ETA: I was reminded by yeloson's comment -- if you've got a mop or broom handle, then as well as the exercises he suggests, you can also put it across your shoulders to practice squat form, not to mention using it for "shoulder dislocations", and doing broomstick twists to work on spine mobility.

About.com's Exercising on the Cheap has some ideas on making your own weights.

Then there are the time-honoured bodyweight exercises. Some people only ever do bodyweight exercises, and get ridiculously strong that way (gubernatrix demonstrates a pretty hardcore bodyweight workout).

There are a huge range of possible exercises (Exrx's directory lists bodyweight exercises for many body parts).

But someone who's building a basic routine could start by thinking about:

push-ups (including knee push-ups or wall/counter push-ups)
"horizontal pull-ups" (a.k.a. inverted rows -- try doing it lying under a sturdy table and grabbing the edge; to make it easier, bend your knees and put your feet on the floor, so you're getting some assistance from your legs)
bench dips (using a bench or a chair or a window-ledge or a countertop or a step on your stairs)
planks (elbow planks, side plank ...)
bodyweight squats (if you get bored or it gets too easy, check out 18 Bodyweight Squat Variations; me, if I want to kill my legs with bodyweight only, I work on Bulgarian split squats)

Okay, your turn. What are your favourite resources/recs/links/exercises/re-purposed household items for free strength training?

Comments

[green]

Thank you so much for putting this together! I'm looking forward to the comments, too. :D

[sanguinity]

Two bodyweight exercises from my martial arts days. Both require some linear floor space, the first more than the second.

Slug: Lie prone on your stomach, reach your arms forward past your head, palms down. Dig your elbows into the floor, and rotating your palms upward as you pull, pull your body up to your elbows. End the motion with your elbows tucked against your waist. Repeat. A very nice pull-up/lat substitute, but a lot more manageable for raw beginners than a pull-up is.

BTW, carpet is tougher than tile/hardwood/linoleum. While it's natural to repeat until you've completely crossed a room, you can also just do a couple strokes forward, back up, and do a few more strokes forward, etc, if you've got limited space.


Spiderman Crawl: Know that iconic wall-crawler pose of Spiderman's? Do that. Only things touching the floor are your hands and toes; suspend your body as low to the floor as you can manage it. (A hand's-thickness clearance is a good goal.) It takes a fair amount of strength just to hold yourself at that height; to actually move forward requires a lot more strength, plus lots of interesting coordination and stability and shifting from one set of muscles to another.

[gchick]

Not entirely free, but may already be readily available where you are: Water cooler jugs. The standard US size is 5 gallons, which comes out to a little short of 20kg/44lb when full. At the simplest level, take every opportunity to be the one to change the jug in the cooler instead of pretending not to see that it's empty until someone else comes along.

If the situation allows it (i.e., this may not be the best idea if the water cooler is the one at your very formal office!) you can do a lot more -- hug a water jug and do squats. Or squat and hold (30 seconds? 90 seconds? to failure? totally up to you...).

Walk your water jugs up and down the room -- holding and carrying heavy things is great training and very different from lifting while standing still. Try holding a jug out in front of you instead of hugging it close to your body; the arm and shoulder work is very noticeable. If you get the water jugs with handles, try farmer's walks with one in each hand.

Not quite so recommended: throwing exercises. Unless it's a very hot day and you're outdoors and willing to sacrifice a few bottle deposits. Just saying.

Bonus: hydration is readily at hand after the workout.

[zennish]

So this is kind of like... a mix of free-ish cardio/strength, so. YMMV, and all that.

Stairs: I'm a big fan of stairs - walking, running, sprinting, prancing, whatever, so long as you get from point A to point B. If you're lucky to have a bunch of stairs near you, in a park or in a stadium, or even in your very tall apartment building - walking down/running up the whole stretch four or five times is an excellent workout (plus, in case of fire, you'll be the first one out the door). If you feel like you really need your butt kicked that day, you can fill a running/cycling backpack with bottles filled with water, sand, or wet sand (note here that metal weights will drag significantly on your shoulders, while you can pack/strap down bottles so the weight is more distributed on your back) and run sprints/walk up a stretch of stairs. It's much more leg-muscle involved than you'd think, and if you focus on flexing the calves when you go up (using the front of your feet on the step, slow and controlled, instead of the whole foot), your calves get one heck of a beating (a good beating!).

Playgrounds - you just have to go when there's no little kids around so you don't look crazy. The monkey bars are pretty awesome for pull-ups. If you're not up to full flat-out pull-ups, most monkey bars tend to be pretty low to the ground, so jumping pull-ups would be a good start (feet on the ground, hands on the bar, jump up and pull). If there's a wooden bench around, you can do box jumps - jump up/down, and if you want you can do it for time. This one I've never tried in a swing, but I've done the movement on the ground. Sit in a swing, grab the chains at chest height. Lean backwards while extending your legs so you're parallel to the ground. Pull legs and chest in so knees and chest meet - like a crunch, only you'll be wobbly and swinging, so it'll make it harder.

Burpees! I hate these and actually gave up on the 100 Burpee Challenge, but these are awesome at working your upper body, lower body, and endurance in general, moreso if you do it for time. Essentially squat + pushup + explosive bounce into standing position.

Band squat: If you have a resistance band, you can tie it around something sturdy at chest height, grab it in one hand and drive it violently down behind you while squatting, like pulling the starter cord on a lawnmower, only... squatting, and down.

Tabata squats. Twenty seconds of squats as fast as you can, ten seconds of rest. Repeat eight times for total of four minutes. You will hurt. (For that matter, Tabata anythings. But Tabata squats... oy.) If you really want to die: do these wearing a backpack with weights.

tl;dr squats, squats, squatty lower body squat squat squat.

[laurashapiro]

Nifty! I want to bring some of these into my workout -- as soon as my damned shoulder is better. Harrumph.

[lyorn]

That sledgehammer and tyre thing reminds me of my favourite workout back at home: Chopping wood. Did wonders to my mood and upper-body strength.

These days, the sturdy table, the super-solid hardwood chairs, the 20kg bags of cat litter (hate them, in fact. But in a good way), and the metal bars of different height hiding in the park behind the playground. With the latter I have to wait for rainy days, though...

Not to forget, the living room rug, which is better than any exercise mat. Doubly so in the heat.

At the moment, I (well, sometimes...) do toes-and-elbow planks, the "superman" pose, horizontal pull-ups with the table, bench dips on the sturdy chairs, chest-in-the-hall push ups (getting ahead there, but my shoulder is unhappy when I go too deep), and vertical leg crunches. And carry cat litter bags up three flights of stairs...

Today, something unexpected: I had to walk two bicycles home for 3 or 4 km, half of that on gravel. Hi there, arm muscles!

[yeloson]

1.Bricks

You can usually find a couple of loose bricks almost anywhere.

Any exercise you do with bricks is almost guaranteed to do something for your grip strength since they're not exactly built for good carrying.

A common martial art trick is to hold the bricks, do forms that have your arms out wide or above your head.

You can hold the brick lengthwise and do curls -just- with your wrists. (be careful if you tend towards RSI/Carpal tunnel- more work might aggravate it).

2. Pole training

Broom, mop, long bamboo. Whatever. Hold it with one hand forward, almost like a spear. Adjust your grip towards the center if it's heavy, or as far back as possible if it's too light. Now draw circles... slowly.

The second exercise is keeping the far tip in the same place, while making circles with your gripping arm.

Both are pretty intense.

[stultiloquentia]

Just wanted to duck in and say thank you SO MUCH for putting this together!

[urbanoceanix]

Nerd fitness has a beginner and advanced bodyweight circuit.