If You Can Handle a Little More than Water Bottles...

EDIT:  Oops.  Posted without putting anything here.

 

If you're weight-training at home, how should you lift if you want to gain strength?  I know I can handle a heck of a lot more than water bottles or soup cans in lifting routines, but I don't really have the money for any "real" weight-lifting equipment.  Does anyone have ideas?

You can't afford some dumbbells?  A 5 lb dumbbell is only ~$5.99.  You don't have to buy a whole set -- just buy individual ones of the ones you need.  It's a good purchase -- they don't break and you'll have them to use forever!

gallon jugs filled with water is what, 4lbs ? I need to do that too.

Check yard sales. It is amazing how many people get discouraged and sell their equipment after it kicks around not being used for a couple of years.

Thank you for the suggestions, everyone!

 

Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other big books might be helpful too for lifting, but a little more awkward to handle.

Check my gallery for a picture of the "weights" i started with - a plastic bucket takes some careful handling to not spill the contents, but fill it with sand and you've got a prety heavy weight.

 And you can adjust it in small increments as well - start using a particular weight and then add a small shovel each time you train, pretty soon you're going to be lifting plenty heavy :)

Original Post by mrsdagle:

gallon jugs filled with water is what, 4lbs ? I need to do that too.

 8 lbs

You know I originally put in 8 lbs and then edited it to say 4?  [/sigh]

<puts kick me sign on back>  not a math major

 

You can get adjustable dumbbells at Dicks that go up to about 40 pounds for ~$50-60 I believe.  I know you say that you can't afford "real" weights, but I just want to make sure you know that it doesn't have to be one of those hundreds of dollar setups like bowflex. 

But like melkor said, buckets of sand are always an option.

There's also a couple of exercises that you can do without any weights at all like dips, pull ups, variation of the push up, squats and calf raises at the end of stairs. I wouldn't attempt some of the traditional exercises like dumbbell press or skull crushers with a homemade weight. If I were to attempt some exercises with a home made weight I would probably use my two year old nephew

Ooh! I just pasted this link so I still have it handy. Ladies at Stumptuous know all!

Sweet!  Thanks Spirochete!

...what would we do without duct tape?

 

Wow, never realized how much you could do in life with sand...

*runs off to go find sand*

Check out Craigslist in your area.  I did that recently to see if I could buy some slightly used equipment for a new home workout room and was amazed at how much good stuff I found.  So many people buy equipment and then don't use it, it's almost brand new but much, much cheaper!

Original Post by ren01:

There's also a couple of exercises that you can do without any weights at all like dips, pull ups, variation of the push up, squats and calf raises at the end of stairs.

 EXCELLENT SUGGESTION! All of the above are harder than you would ever think and will not only tone but give you functional strength....add crunches for abs (core) and static squats - put your back against a wall and slide down it until your legs form a right angle-now hold. If you are a beginner or have weak quads, dont go as deep into the squat.  

Also check out Freecycle - it's amazing how many former optimists are giving away the iron they bought for their new year's resolution about now :)

Resistance bands are cool.  You can do a wide variety of things with them and increase the resistance to and extent by shortening them.  You can also look into isometrics.