Fitness experts spend so much time thinking about how to motivate people to go to the gym that often the fact that not everyone has a good gym to go to gets overlooked. Rather than drain your wallet and clutter your home with exercise equipment (that might just end up collecting dust, anyway), Peter Walsh, author of Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight, with Liz Davis, MS, trainer, bodybuilder, and exercise physiologist, say you can create your own gym with items you already have at home.
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Replace your dumbbells with milk jugs, filled either with water or sand. Best of all, you can easily adjust the weight to your ability level. Davis recommends using them for bent-over rows:
Stand with one foot in front of the other, feet about 2 feet apart, while holding a milk jug in one hand. Use the other hand to support yourself by placing it on your thigh. Keeping your knees slightly bent and your upper body straight, lean forward at the hips roughly 45 degrees. Extend your hand down toward the floor at chest level.
Slowly pull your elbow back behind your body, bringing the object in your hand up to the side of your chest. Squeeze your shoulder blades together during this motion. Lower the object back down and repeat as necessary. Switch sides and perform the exercise on the other side.[/su_box]
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While we don’t recommend eating out of cans, they’re a great size, shape, and weight to use as fitness equipment. Davis suggests using them for shoulder presses:
Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart. You can do the exercise empty-handed or hold a soup can or other object in each hand. Begin with your hands up even with your ears, with your elbows bent at roughly 90 degrees. Press your hands up and over your head until your arms are straight up but your elbows aren’t locked.
Lower your hands down until your elbows are once again bent at roughly 90 degrees. As you do so, squeeze your shoulder blades together. Repeat as necessary.[/su_box]
