Alrighty folks I'm kicking off a thread for those who want to train hard but don't want to spend a ton of money. Functional training doesn't require a lot of money, but it will take some creativity and time on your part. Not to mention you can save a lot of space in your garage by making kit that is multi-functional. When I get back from Iraq I'm building a rack that I'll post the pics and plans for with all the fun little bits I'm putting into it. But for now I'll post a few links to places where you can find ideas for making your own equipment. If you have any links post them up. Here is a link to a listing of home made equipment: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles.html I've made the medicine ball and the water ball. They work great. When I met Fishy and Coma in London on my trip Coma mentioned a water pipe. Take a long length of 6-9 inch wide PVC pipe, maybe 6-8 feet long, cap the ends and half fill with water. Then use it for over-head presses, walks, squats etc. The imbalance forces the incorporation of stabilizer muscles.
Sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing the pics! All I can offer is a couple of home-made add-ons if you already have a powercage and oly (or normal) bar setup. 1) Improvised dip bars. Stronger than it looks! Dip at the edges and not in the center, for extra safety. 2) Improvised micro-loading weights. 500g at the back 250g at the front. Good plateau busters when 2.5kg extra is too much.
Oh WOW is that ever fun!!! I made the water-tube Coma posted about above, and it's kicking my butt. It's harder to hold and control that you might imagine since most people can't palm a bowling ball. Overhead presses, overhead walks, the side lifts mentioned in the article etc. Makes for a great shake-up to any regime/routine and it's fun!!! The biggest trick is to move slow and steady. I used a 7.5 foot piece of 4 inch pvc tubing with an end cap on one side and a Tom-Kap threaded cap on the other. The threads are coarse threads so I used plenty of plumbers tape to keep the water in the tube. The open cap is almost as wide as the tube is so filling is easy. Plus with time I might try pea gravel or even doing this with other sized tubes and sand. All in all it cost me 13 bucks for the caps and the cement (I've had the tube since I bought my home since the louse who lived here so nicely left me a garage full of trash).
