Peg Board

I want one.



But they're pricey.

Might have to make one myself.

No Kettlebell?

No problem. Make yourself a T-handle. Also known as a “Hungarian Core Blaster,” this piece of equipment will set you back just a few bucks and a trip to Home Depot. Just add weight plates and you have yourself a DIY kettlebell.

Tim Ferriss had this to say about T-handles in “The 4-Hour Body”:

I have 20 kettlebells of various sizes but still prize my T-handle, as it can be disassembled for travel and packed flat at a weight of less than five pounds. In addition to swings, it can be used for deadlifts, two-arm bent rows, curls, reverse curls, and more. For $10, five minutes of shopping, and less than five minutes of assembly, you have an entire gym.

Dave Draper.com has the full assembly instructions, but here’s the quick-and-dirty:

Go to a hardware store and pick up the following:

• One 3/4" diameter pipe “T” fitting
• One 3/4"diameter X 12” long pipe nipple (a pipe threaded at both ends) for the vertical shaft (Note: if you’re short, get a shorter pipe)
• Two 3/4" X 4” pipe nipples for the handles (Ferriss recommends using electrical or duct tape to cover the outside threads)
• One 3/4"floor flange
• Optional: A spring clamp to keep plates from shifting up / dropping down during swings.

Screw the pieces together as shown below.

And don’t be a dummy: Use a pipe wrench and some thread locker to be safe, and don't swing above chest-height. (If you really want to do overhead swings, it's best to get yourself an actual kettlebell, you cheap bastard.)

Also, replace your T-handle every few months. It'll cost you less than a cheap pizza.

(Bonus: You can also put together a D-handle for one-handed swings.)

Pull-Up Bar: Best Bang for Your Buck

I get why people opt for budget-friendly, door-mounted, easy-on/easy-off pull-up bars. But given the number of pull-ups that I've done over the past 15 months, a good, solid-mounted pull-up bar is hands-down the best piece of equipment I've invested in. At the very least, I won't end up on video compilations like this one:



If you're in the market for a new pull-up bar, I highly recommend getting one that bolts to your wall or ceiling. (I know: Some folks -- apartment dwellers, etc. -- may not be able to do this due to space or lease constraints, but I'm just sayin'.) I still rave about the rafter-mounted pull-up bar I bought last year -- it's cheap, easy to bolt to the rafters in your garage, and super-stable. It's not currently in stock at Amazon, but you can order it from the New York Barbell Company. For those of you looking to avoid shipping charges, Amazon does offer a couple of similar bars from the same manufacturer: A ceiling mounted bar and a joist-mounted bar.

Other options: This one -- also sold by Amazon -- looks pretty decent. Rogue Fitness sells a stud-mounted pull-up bar that's a bit pricier, but looks strong as a tank. (I've not tried this bar, but can vouch for Rogue's quality -- everything I've bought from them have been rock-solid.) And Rogue makes a great portable bar, too -- you don't even need a door.

[UPDATED: Reader/commenter Mike has good things to say about the StudBar, too -- I hadn't come across it before, but it looks just as rock-solid as the Rogue mounted bar.]

But now that M is also regularly practicing her pull-ups, I have to admit that I'm weighing whether to build my own. It looks doable, even with my lack of proficiency with power tools.

Crafty

Following instructions in the CrossFit Journal, I managed to construct a pair of parallettes out of PVC pipe, primer and cement, and they’re surprisingly sturdy. (Usually, the stuff I make falls apart pretty much immediately.)

Iron Man's Low-Tech DIY Training Equipment

For his starring role in Iron Man 2, Robert Downey Jr. put on 20 pounds of muscle in just one month using DIY gym equipment. (I'm surprised it was necessary for him to bulk up at all, given that his body's hidden under a big metal costume much of the time.)

Examples: "Instead of doing regular bench presses, we used a bamboo bar... and we would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar... so it was like trying to bench press a snake!" [trainer Brad] Bose explains. "It bounced all over the place."

Downey Jr. also pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.

"We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers -- anywhere from, two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand, all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer -- and we were just beating tires with it. We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water... and we'd drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."

They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hauled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley -- you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

"We tried to find the most unique, and yet funnily enough, inexpensive training stuff to use," he says. "You couldn't find more practical stuff to use."

(Source: US Weekly)

How to Mount Your Laptop to Your Exercise Equipment

The perfect fitness solution for those of you with Internet Addiction Disorder:

(Source: ManMade)

Do-It-Yourself Fitness Equipment

Do your New Year's Resolutions involve saving money and getting fit? Then check out these links to instructions on how to build your own exercise equipment:

• The Art of Manliness: DIY Gym
• DIY Life: Home Strength Workouts for Pennies
• RossTraining: Homemade Equipment Links
• Grunt & Shen's Workshop
• Lifehacker: Shovelglove