Some favorites for odd object training

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.

Easy DIY Projects That Get Big Results

I am not somebody who is very handy.

I'm not the guy who can fix his own plumbing or re-shingle his own roof I don't really own any tools besides maybe a tape measure and some duct tape.

However, some of the best strength training tools or the ones that you make yourself.

Sure there is always a quick buy already manufactured version you can buy-- but why spend hundreds when you can do it yourself for the fraction of the cost.

I can't say any of these designs were really original and there is probably a better of doing things but here are two do-it-yourself projects that don't break the bank (pictures to come hopefully).

SANDBAG

I'm a big fan of awkward objects. You may want to call me a hipster (but I rather you not) when it comes to strength training, but for me taking it old school and doing the unusual is cooler then simply lifting a barbell.

Sandbags are one of those things that are cool to train with right now (supposedly) which is cool since they are fun to use.

However, here in lies the problem people are charging hundreds of dollars for an empty duffel bag that is supposedly built for sand bag training.

I made my sand bag for $30 and there are probably cheaper ways out there.

What you'll need

1. 60-lb bag of sand from the hardware store
2. A duffel bag of some sort from your local sporting goods store

I wanted to start small so I bought a small duffel bag from Dunhams the brand of bag I bought was called Outdoor but any bag will work. However, what I like about the Outdoor brand bags is they come in different sizes which is great for when you decide to upgrade.

It is probably best to have your bag before you buy your sand. I found out the hard way that just because a bag of sand is marked non-tear or non-leak or non-anything that they still leak sand :(.
So, with my sand bought first I managed to create a mini- beach front property in my trunk.

So have the bag handy so when you get to the car you have something to put the sand into so it doesn't spill out in your trunk.

When you get home tear the sand open empty into duffel bag and zip it up. Simple.
If you are afraid the sand might leak or have some sort of bag without a zipper I suggest two things.

Either duct tape the spot where the sand is leaking out from or buy another bag to put sand bag inside off.

If you are concerned that 60-pounds might be too hard to start with get some sandwich baggies and put sand into them so that way you can add weight slowly as you get stronger. I didn't do this put it seems to be a semi popular method of sand bag training think of it as adding weight plates to your bag.

Homemade Rolling Handle and Loading Pin.

Grip strength whether it be for grip sports, arm wrestling or weight lifting is very important.

One of my new favorite ways to train grip is heavy one handed dead lifts with a rolling handle.

I can't promise that my handle works as well as Ironmind's Rolling Thunder but I like it and it seems to get the job done.

What you will need

1. Two different sizes of PVC pipe
2. chain, rope or cable
3. different size washers
4. carabiner
5. eyebolt
6. access to a saw
   

I had my neighbor help me with this one because he has a nice table saw that made cutting PVC pipe easy.

So, why two different size PVC pipe?

The reason is that you are going to put one inside the other so that it can spin around it.

I chose two widths I'm not sure exactly but one I believe was 3-inch width and the other was probably 2-inches. The point is that you want something you can grip but can't fit your hand all the way around.

You want the smaller pipe to fit just inside the other because the idea is for it to spin not flop.

Cut the inside pipe a little longer then a dumb bell grip (I may experiment with this so don't take this as law). so now you have your grip.

If you haven't screwed up you should have a decent amount of pipe left over. You are going take your smaller width pipe and make sure it fits nicely inside of an Olympic style plate.

If it does great cut the just short of the length of your eyebolt. You want this to go over your eyebolt.

Take your washers you bought which should be a couple different sizes. One big, one smaller one and if you can find a tiny one great.

I didn't really buy the right size washers so I improvised but basically you want a large washer that is wider then an Olympic plate hole so it does slide off of your pin when you lift it.

Put the smaller washer over the large one so that you block the hole of the washer so that when you put the screw that came with eyebolt on that it doesn't slide off. You may need to buy several sizes and experiment.

For me I didn't really know exactly what I was doing so I used a 2 1/2-pound non-Olympic style plate for my stopper.

Finally get your chain, rope or whatever put it through the handle, attach a carabiner or carabiners to the loading pin (preferably with weight) and dead lift.

Pretty simple right and if you have left over pipe you can use it as a make shift leverage bar by hanging a weight plate off of it (thank John Brookfield for the idea it wasn't mine.)

Now go out and have fun.


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