Too poor to join a gym, gimme advice!

FledNanders

Hi,
I'm a student and can't afford to join a gym but have been doing DIY workouts at home for the last while with push-ups, sit-ups, pull-up bar and I have a couple of free weights. I also cycle about 6-8 miles a day pretty vigorously, play a bit of footy and am seeing some decent results. Any other homemade tips for a cheap-skate like me looking to tone and build up some bulk?

P.s. not bothering with supplements either. Can't afford 'em.

Khannie

Whey is actually a very cheap way of getting protein into your diet. Much cheaper than meat.

Anyway....to answer your question: Have a look on rossboxing.com. As far as I remember there are some decent workouts on there that don't involve equipment.

one of things I've done: home made medicine ball - plenty of examples of this online. Cost me absolutely nothing as we had a burst football out the back. I cut it open, filled with sand down at the beach and used tape to (really properly) seal it up. Lots of uses for this.

Dips are good too. You can use more or less anything for these.

Plank is good for your abdominals.

There are plenty of exercises around though. I'm sure others will come up with better ones.

Pugsley

Some pretty extreme body weight excercises you can, been having a fair bit of success with them recently.

http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm

Progress through them bodyweight excercises, keep up your weights routine and current excercises (remember to push yourself every workout), and eat right. Shouldnt be too long before you bulk up a bit ('too long' being relative, will probably take months regardless of how hard you try to get noticably bigger).

rubadub

Check the link in my sig. Some great DIY equipment. The first link shown on the list is the best. I would highly recommend making some rings, should cost €10-20 and they are fantastic, I no longer use my bench. You already have a chinning bar so can use them on that. There is also DIY ab slings and lots of other stuff. You might even have enough stuff lying around to make rings for free.

A good way to improve grip strength is to use thicker bars. I have 2 loose 6inch long bits of 40mm diameter pipe on my chinning bar. These can be moved into place or to the side on the chinning bar, so use them when you want. I pulled on some mountain bike inner tubes over them for grip. I also have inner tube on the normal part of the bar too.

If you have trouble finding any stuff to make the stuff then drop me a pm, or just post here, I am good at sourcing stuff, and might even want to go splits on the postage of some.

Once you can do more than 12 chins or pullups or dips then you might want to get (or make) a dip belt, then you can use your free weights. Rings allow a full upperbody workout, I no longer use my bench at all. Still use weights for deadlifts and squats though, and military pressing, but once I can do handstand pushups I will ditch the military press.

Protein is cheap as mentioned. It is dear in some shops in town (ripoff shops, some are good). The cheapest I found was on www.bulkpowders.co.uk

FledNanders

That's great lads, cheers for the tips

Edwardius

Here's some equipmentless stuff

r3nu4l

If you want to help with endurance, stamina, coordination and speed while giving your heart and lungs a good workout, invest in a jump rope (sounds more manly than 'skipping rope' doesn't it? ).

Of course, if you are so poor as to be unable to afford a jump rope, just jump up and down on the spot moving your wrists in a circular motion while making "Whoosh, whoosh" noises!

BossArky

r3nu4l wrote: »

If you want to help with endurance, stamina, coordination and speed while giving your heart and lungs a good workout, invest in a jump rope (sounds more manly than 'skipping rope' doesn't it? ).

Of course, if you are so poor as to be unable to afford a jump rope, just jump up and down on the spot moving your wrists in a circular motion while making "Whoosh, whoosh" noises!

LOL x 2

OP, what uni / college are you at?

Back in the day my uni gym was about 65 euro per semester. This seemed like a lot at the time, but was probably just a week or two's alcoholic funds looking back. Invest in your future!

davyjose

r3nu4l wrote: »

If you want to help with endurance, stamina, coordination and speed while giving your heart and lungs a good workout, invest in a jump rope (sounds more manly than 'skipping rope' doesn't it? ).

I'd agree with this - do a hundred in a row and the lungs will be terrorised. Brilliant exercise.

r3nu4l

Forgot to add, make sure you avoid skipping on concrete to save your knees and ankles. Invest in a gym mat and trainers to help protect yourself.

Shouldn't cost you too much.