Can anyone reccommend anything that is strange, but that works?
Currently I am in possession of an old rolled up futon with weights imbedded in the middle.
It is good for throws and can be made quite heavy.
I find it is good to have an awkward object like this to lift when training, but it is not something that you find in a gym too often eh?
Anyone have any other strange tools for such work that you would reccommend?
1 Like
This is totally grandapab's area of expertise. He posted a great thread about this stuff. I wish we'd had admin powers back then to archive it.
I kept a copy of what I wrote for that thread, do you
want me to post again or email it to you.
Grandpa
1 Like
grandpab--might as well repost, and we can archive it, then.
Grandpab;
I would be greatful if you could post what you have. This particular subject has been on my mind for awhile and I would really enjoy the oppurtunity to hear the thoughts of others.
Thank you in advance.
Page 1.
Homemade Workout Stuff
This is going to be a fairly long thread so I am going
to post it in sections as I get a chance to write it or
to pull it out of old notes that I have written before.
Some of this homemade equipment I have used for a long
time, other stuff is fairly recent. I don't use all of
it all of the time. I constantly vary my workouts, and
mostly do bodyweight type circuit training, because I
get tired of doing the same old exercise program all
the time. I mostly workout in a little workshop behind
my house that has a concrete floor and doesn't have to
look nice so I can do whatever I want in it. Sometimes
though I travel and will occasionally give information
about how to rig homemade equipment in a hotel/motel
room without getting in trouble with the management.
First of all I would like to recommend some websites
that have a wealth of good training information:
SCRAPPERS WORKOUTS at www.webfects.com/hea/routine.htm,
U.S.NAVY SEALS PREPARATION WORKOUT
www.sealchallenge.navy.mil/WARN10.HTM, that may be
WARN01 and the "0" is a zero, PULLUPS at
http://www.testosterone.net/html/100back.html.
STRETCHING
First of all I highly recommend Pavel Tsatouline's book
"Beyond Stretching: Russian Flexibility Breakthroughs.
Some of his recommendations require some equipment so I
would like to recommend the following.
1. This is for use with Stretch #48, page 125, Spine
Extension. He looks to be doing the stretch on some
kind of device developed for ab or low back training.
I duplicate this exercise and also do hyperextensions
for my back on the following setup. I use a small,
household, 3 step ladder of the type that most folks
keep handy for changing light bulbs and getting stuff
down from high shelves. I also use a concrete block and
a closed cell foam sleeping pad sold at WalMart for
about $7. Tie the pad in a fairly loose roll, and put
it on the top step of the ladder, place the ladder
about 30 inches from the concrete block, put your feet
in the two holes in the concrete block, now use your
hands to support yourself as you lean back on the
ladder more or less placing the small of your back on
the foam pad and then continue to lean back across the
ladder/pad arching your back and getting one heck of a
stretch. The concrete block is to keep your feet from
flying off the floor as you lean back. If you are a big
guy you may need weight on the concrete block.
2. Same setup but reverse yourself and place your
abdomen on the pad and your feet against the wall,
door, etc. and lower your torso and then raise it up
again. Makes a good apparatus for doing hyperextensions.
Page 1. This thing keeps cutting off the end of my posts.
STRETCHING (CONTINUED)
Again from Pavel's book on stretching. He shows doing
the Squats, #22, Page 91 and 92, and Stair calf Stretch
#23, page 93 as being assisted stretches. Since there
is no one to assist me in doing them I use the
following apparatus as an assistance. Take a piece of
webbing about 1" X 15' , fold it in half and put a
pencil in the fold, put the pencil on the opposite side
of a door and shut the door. Now you have two 7.5'
straps hanging out of the top of a door. Use them for
support as you do the squat and stair calf stretch. I
also use them for the Lunge, #29, page 101.
For static leg stretching that most martial artists do
with an apparatus, I use a pencil and a piece of cord,
rigged much like the foregoing except that in the piece
of cord I also place a welded ring about 2" in
diameter. With the pencil on one side of the door and
the ring on the other I run the webbing through the
ring and tie a loop in one (or both) ends of it and
put a foot in the loop, grab the other end and pull up
until I am stretching that leg for either a front or
side kick. Neither kick would I try to use in a brawl.
I am not much in favor of high kicks in combat, there
are those who can use them but I am not one of those
gifted individuals.
ABDOMINALS
I also like to use the Abdominal wheel that Pavel
recommends in his book on abdominals. When it is not
available some good substitutes are to use a towel on a
fairly smooth floor or a furniture dolly. For a while I
used one of those things that used to come with old
refrigerators so you could roll them out and clean
behind them. I have also used ZipLock bags on my hands
on a carpet – your hands will get hot but not
uncomfortably so.
Other ab tricks are to (1) Use a wrist roller clipped
into an eyebolt about 2' off the floor, hook your legs
over it so the roller handle is on the lower part of
your calves and do Janda Crunches. (2) Use a chair to
do crunches by placing your calves on the seat and your
thighs perpendicular to the floor. (3) Buy lengths of
bungee cord at the hardware store, form two loops, each
about 3' long with a snap swivel on one end of the
loop and a handle made of closed cell foam and duct
tape on the other. Clip them into eyebolts in the wall
about door width apart and elbow high or use the pencil
and cord method mentioned in the section on stretching.
(this is a bit awkward as you have to hang one pencil
on the center hinge and then hold the other in place as
you shut the door). Now face away from the door, hold a
handle in each hand and basically throw hooks to the
body of an imaginary opponent and you get a gut twisting type of exercise.
I am typing in bull.... because it cuts off the end of the posts.
WEIGHTS
Take 2 - 1" dowels about 12" long and slip a 6"
section of 2 1/2" PVC pipe over it add weight plates on
each end and slip on a couple of those little spring
clips that you can get from most sporting goods stores
for holding weights on the bar. These make good thick
grip dumbells for doing the farmers walk and even for
doing curls and etc. The wood will hold a surprising
amount of weight because of its short length and it
being supported by the PVC. You can do the same thing
with a longer dowel and a 5' length of PVC for a fairly
good thick grip barbell. If you already have a barbell
you can cut a piece of 2 1/2" PVC to fit inside the
handle section and use it as a thick grip barbell. I
have also used 2 1/2" galvanized pipe to put inside the
barbell handle section but I wrap the outside of the
pipe with duct tape because I am apprehensive of
galvanic poisoning.
Weight plates are hard to duplicate but I once had a
good bit of scrap steel plate available aboard ship So
another sailor and myself used a cutting torch to turn
the scrap iron into weight plates.
I use a cheap basketball that I got at WalMart to do
the woodchopper and shelf stacker exercises. Cut an
opening in the basketball, fill it up with gravel (or
whatever is available) tape the flap of the opening
shut and then use canvas or naugahyde or whatever scrap
is available to reinforce the hole. Tape that in place
and then tape the whole ball up with a couple of layers
of duct tape. Mine weighs 23 pounds. Stand erect and
then raise it first up over one shoulder, lower it and
then raise it up over the other in a sort of chopping
motion. This is the woodchopper. Do the Shelf Stacker
by holding in front of you in the dead hang position,
then curl it, press it above your head, lower it behind
your head, french curl the thing, then lower it to
chest level, and finally lower it to dead hang. This
can also be done by starting off with the ball on the
floor and squatting to pick it up, do the shelf
stacker, and set it back down on the floor. Be sure to
keep your back straight.
PULLUP BAR
Get some shelf support brackets from the hardware store
and screw them to the wall SECURELY, and use hose
clamps to fasten a length of 1" pipe to the brackets. I
use this one almost daily.
Use shelf support brackets and fasten the pipe between
two trees, this time the pipe is aligned with the
brackets instead of perpendicular to them.
Use a hole saw to bore 1" holes in adjoining rafters
and slip a piece of pipe through the holes to make a
pullup bar. Be careful in aligning the holes and be
careful not to bang your head when doing pull ups
because you don't have as much room with this one.
Use a towel, webbing, rope, a gi belt, etc. to throw
over any available pipe, tree limb, or eye bolt and use
them to do pullups. I have also done them on piping,
"I" beams, and all kinds of playground equipment. Put
a broom handle between the backs of two chairs and do a
sort of supine rowing motion that is a fairly good
substitute.
Page 3. with the addition of n
WEIGHT BENCH. Any board that is narrow enough, and
long enough to support your body will work well.
Support it with stacks of books so that it is high
enough to draw the bar to your chest and your elbows
don't touch the floor. Rest the bar on two more stacks
of books and you can bench press starting in the
negative position which is safer and probably just as
effective as starting in the up position.
FOLDING CHAIRS. Although other chairs work well, my
favorite is the folding chair. In addition to using it
to do abdominals and the supine pullup mentioned above
I also use it to do:
STEPUPS: Simply step up onto the chair with one foot
and then the other, then step down. Alternate the foot
you step up with. I often do this wearing a backpack
full of magazines or newspaper. This gives a heck of a
good, low impact, aerobic workout.
DIPS: Use two chairs, Pad the top of the backs a bit,
place them back to back a few feet apart and do dips
while holding your feet up. You can also do a sort of a
dip by placing the chair seat at your back and your
feet on the floor and then grabbing the seat with your
hands behind you and then lowering and raising
yourself. I have also done dips between bunks on board
ship.
CHAIRS CONTINUED: Chairs make a heck of an expedient
weapon. Never fail to get in some practice when you
can, it builds your grip, arms shoulders and abs as
well as being a good aerobic exercise. My Kenpo
instructor often pulls stunts out of the hat to make us
to use our brain. When he told me to make up a Kata on
the spot using a folding chair, he just about croaked
when I cut loose doing what I had been practicing at
home.
ROCKS, Concrete Blocks, Suitcases (full), Pieces of
log, stacks of lumber or pipe, bags of sand (always use
playground sand, some of the other types have too much
mica and are bad for your lungs), dirt, etc. all make
good expedient weight training equipment. A mark in
their favor is that they make you stick to exercises
that use more auxiliary muscles instead of isolating
the "show" muscles. I have even used fire
extinguishers, pry bars, pumps, large valves,
automobile parts and just about anything heavy to work
out with. It is a good idea to invest in steel toed
boots if you go in for this sort of stuff.
GRAPPLING DUMMY: I made mine out of stacks of
newspaper with a cylinder of newspaper for the neck and
part of the chest and a soccer ball for the head. The
Head to neck attachment is reinforced with a large
strip of canvas because I kept knocking the head off of
"Henry" when I only used duct tape. The whole thing is
wrapped in duct tape and has survived months of having
the snot beat out of it every morning. It is also a
good "Odd object" for training with, doing squats,
presses, stepups, deadlifts, fireman's carry, etc. Mine
only weighs 65 pounds but it can wear me out in minutes
if I go at it with vigor.
SLEDGE HAMMER: For building your grip and wrists use a
sledge hammer do slow motion blows on a tire or
perhaps a piece of padding on top of the little ladder
already mentioned. Be sure to alternate from side to
side. For another good aerobic and upper body workout
just beat the daylights out of a stump with the
GRIP TOYS
In addition to the slow motion sledgehammer try some of
these:
Grab the fork of a branch on a living tree and use it
like a spring gripper.
Use I 1" dowel surrounded by 91/2" dowels all held
together with a rubber band. Wring this thing in your
hands and you will get a whale of a good grip/forearm
workout.
Cut the top and bottom out of a 1 lb. Coffee can. Tape
the end of a shirt sleeve closed and put that end in
the can so very little sticks out. Fill up the
can/sleeve with playground sand and then pull a little
of it out the other end of the can and tape it so it
maintains its shape. Keep doing this until the whole
sleeve is full and taped to about the size of the
coffee can. Tape the other end shut and then put a
couple of layers of tpe on the whole thing. Now you
have a sleeve full of sand that is fairly firmly
packed. This is good for throwing in the air and
catching and for holding onto as you knee and punch the
bag to simulate holding your opponents arm while you
beat the daylights out of him.
Get a 30" length of chain and a cheap carabiner to hold
the weight plates for the following devices:
PINCH GRIPPER: Screw an eyebolt into a short section
of 2X4. Put weights on the chain and clip it to the
eyebolt. Pinch grip the 2X4 and lift it off the floor.
If you can hold it up for 10 seconds add more weight.
If you can't hold it up for 5 seconds you have too much
weight.
HUB GRIPPER: This simulates picking up Olympic plates
by the hub. Cut a 3 1/2" circle out of 3/4" wood, cut a
5" circle out of any size wood, Put an eyebolt through
the center of both to hold them together and give you a
place to clip the chain and weights. Use it like the
Pinch Gripper.
WRIST ROLLER: Get a short length of 2 1/2" PVC or wood
or steel of similar size. Bore a hole through it and
put a length of cord through the hole. Tie a knot in
one end so the cord won't slip out and tie a loop in
the other end so you can hook in the weight and chain.
Grip this baby with both hands and twist it to roll up
the weight first in one direction and then in the
other.
Good hard work shoveling, chopping, hammering, etc. are
darn good grip exercises and work the whole body as
well.
I strongly recommend the Captain Crush Grippers from
Ironmind. Contact them at sales@ironmind.com.
Pa
Striking Training
In addition to the normal sparring, Heavy bag, speed
bag, double end bag, punch mitts etc. you might want to
try some of these.
THE FOOT: Screw a shoe into the floor under your
punching bag and practice stepping on it when you are
punching. Momentarily pinning a guys foot to the floor
interrupts their rhythm and may give you the opening
you need.
MAIZE BALL: Suspend from a rafter or other lofty perch
a small bag that can hold anything from a couple of old
socks to 5 lbs. of sand. Keep it swinging as you shadow
box and practice slipping the Maize Ball as you would a
punch.
STRING: Tie a string across the room at about shoulder
level and shadow box as you advance and retreat all the
while ducking and weaving under the string.
DISTANCE DUMMY: I often use this for shadow boxing and
get distance training as well. Rig bungee cords in a
doorway so they form an inverted "Y" , the joint of the
"Y" chould be at about crotch level. Put a small amount
of foam padding at head chest and groin level and duct
tape it in place. I rigged mine by using eye screws at
the top of the door and at the bottom on each side. Now
you can punch away and make virtually no noise, and no
shock to your hands, It is sort of like shadow boxing
and distance training at the same time.
WEAPONS TRAINING: While dowels (cut to length) can be
substituted for more expensive training knives, escrima
sticks, etc. Another good thing to do in addition to
the chair training mentioned above is to pick up all
kinds of things around the house, workplace, or yard
and experiment with how you would use them as a weapon.
After years of inspecting fire fighting equipment I
just automatically look for fire extinguishers any time
I go in a restaurant, movie, store or motel. A good
burst of any extinguishing agent to the face will
momentarily disorient someone and allow you to use the
body of the extinguisher as one heck of a bludgeon.
Weapons at hand such as a ball point pen, keys, your
belt, or hat are much more likely to be used and won't
get you in trouble for going armed like nunchukas, a
sai, or tonfa will.
Page 6. Yep. This was the last page. I hope you folks
make and use some of this stuff
and enjoy it ju
Striking Training
In addition to the normal sparring, Heavy bag, speed
bag, double end bag, punch mitts etc. you might want to
try some of these.
THE FOOT: Screw a shoe into the floor under your
punching bag and practice stepping on it when you are
punching. Momentarily pinning a guys foot to the floor
interrupts their rhythm and may give you the opening
you need.
MAIZE BALL: Suspend from a rafter or other lofty perch
a small bag that can hold anything from a couple of old
socks to 5 lbs. of sand. Keep it swinging as you shadow
box and practice slipping the Maize Ball as you would a
punch.
STRING: Tie a string across the room at about shoulder
level and shadow box as you advance and retreat all the
while ducking and weaving under the string.
DISTANCE DUMMY: I often use this for shadow boxing and
get distance training as well. Rig bungee cords in a
doorway so they form an inverted "Y" , the joint of the
"Y" chould be at about crotch level. Put a small amount
of foam padding at head chest and groin level and duct
tape it in place. I rigged mine by using eye screws at
the top of the door and at the bottom on each side. Now
you can punch away and make virtually no noise, and no
shock to your hands, It is sort of like shadow boxing
and distance training at the same time.
WEAPONS TRAINING: While dowels (cut to length) can be
substituted for more expensive training knives, escrima
sticks, etc. Another good thing to do in addition to
the chair training mentioned above is to pick up all
kinds of things around the house, workplace, or yard
and experiment with how you would use them as a weapon.
After years of inspecting fire fighting equipment I
just automatically look for fire extinguishers any time
I go in a restaurant, movie, store or motel. A good
burst of any extinguishing agent to the face will
momentarily disorient someone and allow you to use the
body of the extinguisher as one heck of a bludgeon.
Weapons at hand such as a ball point pen, keys, your
belt, or hat are much more likely to be used and won't
get you in trouble for going armed like nunchukas, a
sai, or tonfa will.
Page 6. Yep. This was the last page. I hope you folks
make and use some of this stuff
and enjoy it ju
1 Like
We are not worthy!!! :)
Thanks once again, grandpab! This puppy hits the archive tomorrow morning!
Once again... one of my all time favorite threads. Absolutely what this place is, or should be, about. Thanks, grandpab.
Archive this one now please. :)
Those posts are much appreciated.!..
SSonnon;
I will hopefully shoot you an electronic mail message later today. Thanks for responding.
Subject: RE: INFO
From: Opinions are divided as to whether bridging is safe or dangerous. In my opinion, the most important factor in the safety of any exercise is the care taken by the person doing the exercise to insure that they use proper form and understand the movement they are doing.
Lee
-
GREAT thread!!! ttt for grandpab, the grand-daddy of welfare training! j/k.
Wow! I figured this "old stuff" had been nuked with the current version of the forum. For the life of me, I can't seem to find anything from the archives.
Deeder, how did you find this? Thanks, by the way!
cool stuff
Greg