Author Topic: Frugel Gym  (Read 8955 times)

Falconer

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Frugel Gym
« on: April 18, 2014, 02:47:28 PM »
So I have finally started going to the gym again after making excuses a lot. My biggest problem was that I used to have a gym right next to my bedroom and could go any time I wanted to and now having to travel way to far to get to one due to moving to another city. So I started doing some research into body weight workouts and found a few great books on the subject. Now body weight workouts mostly do not require gym equipment but it can help to have some heavy objects to lift. So in search for something in the house that would do the job I realized I had the ideal thing all along. A backpack. I just fill it with bottles of water and so adjust the weights exactly to what I need them. that lets me go up to about 20 kg each backpack. I do not want to break them so I found the next best thing for the 30kg mark. A full 5 gallon bottle of water. the one we get delivered here even has a handle build in. I know for many that will be way to little but to start out with, it is pretty good as free weights. Has anyone found something else that can be used from the household to assist in training without costing anything?
I decided the last bit of money I will ever spend on a gym will be a pull up bar that can be hung in a door frame. Second hand if possible.

Falconer

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2014, 10:32:22 PM »
We do not have craigs list where I live and our local site for these kind of things hardly has any weights and if they are there they are way too expensive in my opinion.
I pay a lot attention to form and so far had no problem. This is just for fitness training I have no intention of going big and rather improve stamina and control. I have not done traditional dead lifts in years and have no intention to. Causes me back pain. And yes I did them under instruction of a good gym coach.

I think it is a great way to start when your fitness is right at the bottom and not have to worry about paying a load of money for gyms and getting there. my closest gym is 20kms away and costs 100 dollars per month.

I recommend the book "you are your own gym".

zataks

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2014, 11:51:02 PM »
Learn to use your finger tips for pull ups on a door frame and you'll never need a pull up bar!  (If you're curious about this one, look into pull-boards or rock-climbing in general. =) )

I used to hold a 1 gallon jug of water when doing sit ups.  Then a friend gave me a medicine ball so I use that now.  But the 1 gallon just was great.


sleepyguy

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 03:50:44 PM »
http://rosstraining.com/blog/

check out the forums... dude is for real as well and in wicked shape, practices what he preaches.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 03:56:19 PM by sleepyguy »

YK-Phil

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 05:07:30 PM »
I used to have free access to gyms until last October, mostly doing a lot of cardio, or running outdoors. Due to a job change and a slight running injury at about the same time, i looked for alternatives to an expensive gym membership, and came across a workout app called Prime Mover, and decided to give it a try. I downloaded Level 1 for free on my iPad. After a week, I was hooked, and purchased the entire app for $2.99. This was incidentally the first and only app I ever purchased, and I don't regret it. While I used to be slim before starting the workout, I have gained about 10 pounds of real muscle mass in the past 6 months, without making any changes to my diet. I used to be focused on my weight so I freaked out a bit when I saw my weight steadily increasing, but so far, this is the best workout I have ever tried. Every few days, I also complement my daily routine with an evening workout consisting of 300 to 400 pushups and standard squats, in sets of 10 reps.

griffin

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2014, 06:04:18 PM »
If you're trying to work out from home without buying weights, there are plenty of bodyweight exercies that can help you get into excellent shape (as you progress you may want to invest in a good pull up bar and/or a set of rings). There is a pretty active community here: http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ . You can find out more information about their set up here: http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/faq and see their beginning routine here: http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/training_guide#wiki_beginner_routine . These will help with strength. If your goal is cardio, then just go run outside :) (someone mentioned a jump rope also - jumping rope is awesome also!). Cheers!

GuitarStv

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2014, 06:33:49 AM »
I'd like to nominate burpees as one of the best full body cardio/strength bodyweight exercises.  Do a push up at the bottom, and a tuck jump at the top.  Start out with ten or fifteen to begin with and work your way up to a couple hundred.  If you don't feel like throwing up after a set, you probably could have done more.  :P

lauren_knows

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2014, 06:54:14 AM »
OP, instead of backpacks, you might want to look into DIY Sandbags. They're pretty popular with fitness folks, can be made cheaply, and are very durable.

griffin

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2014, 05:01:02 PM »
I'd like to nominate burpees as one of the best full body cardio/strength bodyweight exercises.  Do a push up at the bottom, and a tuck jump at the top.  Start out with ten or fifteen to begin with and work your way up to a couple hundred.  If you don't feel like throwing up after a set, you probably could have done more.  :P
Burpees are excellent cardio, but sets of >15 reps are extremely ineffecient for gaining strength (though they will certainly help muscle endurance!). If the goal is increasing strength, one does best to perform low reps (<8) and increase resistence as they progress. This can be done without weights (i.e. a progression from knee push ups >> pushups >> hip pushups). (Not that the OP has stated his/her goals for his/her workouts, just thought I'd mention it)

GuitarStv

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2014, 06:25:49 AM »
A burpee strength progression usually goes like this:

Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (no jump)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (small jump - feet barely leave floor)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (huge jump)
Burpees where you go down, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Burpees where you go down, do a pushup, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Burpees where you go down, do a clapping pushup, kick legs out, get back up (tuck jump)
Then you start to work on doing more in a period of time.  You should be able to knock out 100 burpees in five or six minutes.

 . . . but yes, generally I agree that body weight exercises aren't typically very good for gaining absolute strength as it's difficult to load the body in a progressive way.  For many sports related activities strength endurance (especially repeated explosive movements) is as important as absolute strength though.

squatman

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2014, 12:07:25 PM »
Causes me back pain. And yes I did them under instruction of a good gym coach.


These two things are incongruous. Deadlifts are not a back exercise!

Unchained

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2014, 12:22:51 PM »
Check out the book called Jailhouse Strong. It's available on kindle for a very low price. It's written by Josh Bryant who is a very accomplished strength coach and athlete himself. He wrote it along side another fellow who is involved in combat arts. I trained under Josh Bryant and have read the book myself and done the workouts in the book when a gym was not available to me.

A body weight workout can be very effective however you will need some degree of equipment be it gymnastic rings, a playground, weight vest, or other things as time goes by and you progress.

If you had suffered back pain from deadlifts I would look towards underlying weaknesses in your body such as core strength which is one of the most common problems in people. What kind of back pain?

El Limon

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2014, 06:50:39 AM »
I wouldnt do the bottled water thing. A small imbalance in weight can alter your form, and bad form leads to injury. Weighted vests are very inexpensive, and they'll cost a lot less than all the Aleive you'll need if you damage something. I do body weight training, and if you need to go heavier there's always a more intense exercise you can do rather than adding weight. If pull ups are too easy, increase to typewriters, or muscle ups. If push ups are too easy, start pyramiding. 

El Limon

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2014, 07:04:17 AM »


These two things are incongruous. Deadlifts are not a back exercise!
[/quote]
Deadlifts are very much a back exercise. If done properly, a deadlift works nearly every muscle in the body. Best compound exercise in my opinion.

squatman

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2014, 08:28:31 AM »


Quote
These two things are incongruous. Deadlifts are not a back exercise!
Deadlifts are very much a back exercise. If done properly, a deadlift works nearly every muscle in the body. Best compound exercise in my opinion.

There's a big difference between "working the muscle" as you put it, and having your back the the primary mover of the weight. The back is mostly a core stabilizer in the deadlift. When someone hurts their back deadlifting, they are using their back to pull instead of primarily the glutes and hamstrings.

jba302

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #15 on: April 24, 2014, 09:23:39 AM »

There's a big difference between "working the muscle" as you put it, and having your back the the primary mover of the weight. The back is mostly a core stabilizer in the deadlift. When someone hurts their back deadlifting, they are using their back to pull instead of primarily the glutes and hamstrings.

Injury is more because their spine goes from extension to flexion, not because they use their back (I think you mean erectors here, correct me if that's wrong). I pull with my lower back starting in flexion, and simply put there is no choice when I go above 2.5x bw. I've had to coach a few olympic pullers (clean deads are a very low hip position compared to a regular dead) to work on this because they try to maintain perfect extension during a high weight pull and end up constantly straining their lower backs.

Anyway, the argument you two are having is solely symantic, so either you should agree on your word definitions or stop having 2 different arguments. Isometric contraction of a high load works a muscle effectively. Calling it a "back" exercise is not expressly incorrect because deadlifting works muscles in the back. That's all there is to it. I can just as easily call bench press a tricep exercise and not be wrong.

squatman

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2014, 10:58:59 AM »
Quote
Injury is more because their spine goes from extension to flexion

Agreed - I was trying to get here with less precise language. :)

AJDZee

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2014, 12:01:22 PM »
I'm very much into body weight, extreme low-cost home workouts.

In December I came across a workout program call Freeletics. It's a collection of pretty challenging workouts that involve burpees, pushups, pull ups, squats, various ab exercises, etc. (sounds like what OP is looking for)

At first I got the free app which has 4-5 of the workouts. After a few workouts I was hooked and used my itunes credit to get the full version with all workouts, which is $5.

Check out the website and try one of the workouts 'Aphrodite' (each workout has a name, copying Crossfit, et al. haha)

https://www.freeletics.com/en

There's also some videos on YouTube of people getting amazing results in 15 weeks - I'm a bit skeptical... but happy with my results thus far!

RealCanadianSavings

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #18 on: May 05, 2014, 08:51:47 PM »
I agree with the DIY Sandbags. My favorite is a filling a basketball with sand - makes a great medicine ball.

Can't Wait

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Re: Frugel Gym
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2014, 08:14:32 AM »
I bought a set of adjustable dumbbells off of amazon for $106 or so and it came with 200lbs of weight plates. Some folks don't like this kind as they don't adjust quickly (you have to manually add/remove the weight plates to adjust weight) but a set of individual dumbbells can cost in the thousands brand new and several hundred used. The quick adjustable dumbbells that can be bought at sporting good stores usually only go up to about 50lbs each and can cost several hundred dollars. I also picked up a cheap workout bench from walmart for $30.