For me lifting the same old weight over and over again can get a bit boring and a bit tiresome.
Maybe I am a hipster when it comes to weight lifting and fitness because I am always looking to try something new, be different and do the opposite of whatever everyone else is doing.
Sure I do traditional weight lifting stuff-- you know the bench, dead lift and squats. One thing I also do though is lift weird awkward objects as well as do grip work that may appear slightly unusual the average gym rat.
Most of my unique training I do might be done with equipment that isn’t in the norm of your local gym or even is homemade.
The thing is that this weird awkward object training builds different levels of strength for an individuals that carry over to other lifts, they are great for conditioning and is just fun to do.
When it comes to weight lifting I try to not make it a chore. I generally enjoy working out and part of that is doing things that are unusual.
There is some great awkward object training that you can do right at home with a relatively low investment.
Keg Lifting
Probably my all time favorite thing to lift that is heavy is a water filled beer keg that I have in my garage. Beer kegs I feel like are one of the most versatile and challenging pieces of equipment anyone can work with.
One thing that is great about keg lifting is that just about any college kid who has an apartment probably has one laying around in a corner of some room from a party the night before.
Buying a beer keg just for the sake of working out may be a little costly. The cost itself is probably close to $100. The keg itself is really just a $50 deposit plus the beer. Luckily, if you have a few friends who can chip in you can empty the keg of beer and make your money back.
Now that you have an empty keg what do you do with it?
Well the most obvious thing is to shoulder press it overhead. Depending on the type of keg you have it can be relatively simple to fill it with water (I suggest that you look up a tutorial on how to do this).
With water inside the keg pressing even with it partially full can be difficult. The water moves back in forth inside of the keg making it hard to get the weight overhead.
There are also some other great lifts you can do with a keg besides just shoulder presses. You can do all of the Olympic lifts which can be very difficult as well as work on some strong man style exercises.
In the summer I like to take my heavy beer keg and bear hug it. I then walk the length of my back yard back and forth to see how many laps I can do.
Other uses can be partial dead lifts, kettlebells swings and shouldering exercises.
Great thing about the keg is that it works your stabiliser muscles and abs with the constant weight shift from the water inside.
Slosh Pipe
Another great awkward object to work with is a slosh pipe. A slosh pipe is just a long and thick PVC pipe filled half-way with water and sealed at both ends with caps.
The pipe was an excellent and fun piece of training equipment my college roommates and I had fun messing around with.
Our pipe was practically impossible to grip so lifting it over head was a real challenge especially with the moving water on the inside.
It is almost impossible to keep the water perfectly level within the pipe but that is also the challenge.
Try walking with the pipe in the crook of your arms, front squatting or pressing a slosh pipe and you may find yourself working muscles you didn’t even know you had.
It was always a challenge to work out with this piece of equipment and was something fun for my roommates and I to use.
We would keep the pipe in our living room and would challenge so-called college strong men to try lifting the pipe to level. If they were real masters we would challenge them to press it over head.
Have fun with it and give it a try but remember you need a lot of space to use this piece of equipment.
Maces
Another great piece of equipment that you may be able to make ( I didn’t though) are maces.
I have a macebell I bought from Torque athletic which I love and also paid a lot of money for.
Maces are basically large round weight on the end of a stick. I have seen some homemade versions online using dowel rods and bowling balls. Go nuts and be creative.
Maces are a challenge most because it requires some sort of leveraging strength.
The most common exercise is the swing which involves whipping the weight around your neck and back to your front. It is not as easy at seem this particular movement requires you to use your forearms, grip, shoulders and obliques just to complete it.
There are lots of great exercises like shovel lifts, uneven bicep curls and walking ab bridges.
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