Making wooden handles for your dumbbells. You'll find more great stuff on Tom's article page including notes on the construction of a plate-loading sledgehammer and a modified adjustable gripper.
Brian's Strength Training site
Equipment for Janda Sit-ups and other fun things.
Everything from bars to a belt squatting setup.
Building a Lifting Platform (Ironmind)
Randall J. Strossen
Now all you need is a set of bumper plates.
Building Your Own Set of Atlas Stones
Jason F. Keen
Making stones using an old - but effective - recipe of plaster, cement and water. And a couple of inflatable balls. A similar article appears at Body Results.
Some good discussion on the ins and outs of equipment, both store-bought and home-made.
Edgewalls - How to Build a Home Climbing Wall
Construction of a bouldering/traverse wall.
Plastic shopping bags, pipe, a tennis ball and of course lots and lots of duct tape.
A forum for DIY gymrats everywhere.
Building a spring loaded mat. Superb.
If you've ever considered the idea of having your own Glute-Ham Raise, take a look at this. While you're there, check out the home-made slammable medicine ball (based on instructions [.pdf, 1.21mb] from Pierre Augé).
Free instructions for building squat stands and plyometric boxes.
Some great articles here, including Make Your Own 200m Track [.pdf, 204kb]
Plans for a home-made squat rack
Bill McBride
What more could you want?
Want to know the exact dimensions of that bar you're about to transform? They're all here.
Photos of various home-made equipment.
How-to articles on construction of Hammers and Weight for Height/Distance equipment.
Assorted DIY goodness including photographs of a home-made pulldown attachment and a Reverse Hyper bench for the rack.
Ross Enamait forum - Training Equipment
Some great ideas here (start in this thread). If you're hungry for more, take a look at his articles on constructing (and using) a waterball and a sandbag [.pdf, 344kb].
Notes on the construction of various Highland Games equipment.
Excellent advice on joining materials to other materials.
Construction history of many items in the outdoor Toffe's Gym (which is in a superb forest setting, incidentally) including calf-training equipment, a heavy-duty bench and of course the power rack. Excellent stuff.
After reading those, it's time for a trip to the nearest hardware store. Plenty of fun things to experiment with.
Part II of this article is now online. And for a complete list, swing by the the DIY Equipment category. Some great ideas in there.
Scott Andrew Bird is a writer, photographer and a guy who just loves this stuff. He's been at home in front of a computer for more years than he cares to remember (OK, 37) and is now making amends for years of many mistakes noted in the De-constructing Computer Guy articles (part 2) on T-Nation.
Find out what he's up to via Twitter, Facebook, the Daily 'Paper'; and of course his online home. Enjoy.
There's something inherently satisfying about building things yourself.
This site - Straight to the Bar - has been around for an incredible 7 years (the first post was on Jan 17th, 2004), and to say I'm grateful is a gross understatement.
Thank you.
Time to get her what she really wants.
Give her something to complement her indomitable strength.
Stuck for ideas? Try these.
Ready to get started? Great.
Of course, if you enjoyed these, I'd highly recommend grabbing the Strength & Fitness Newsletter. Delivered weekly, and absolutely free.
(there's also a Daily Update, if you're looking for an even larger dose of training-related goodness.)
NB : If you'd like to write a guest post for Straight to the Bar
, or if you'd like to join the team of Moderators here (I love hearing about everyone's training approaches) - get in touch. And if you've got a fitness competition or seminar coming up, add it to the calendar.Look forward to hearing from you.
If you love talking about training, make sure you check out the Gymchats. There's a full list of previous shows here.
To give you an idea of what they're like, here's an example :
Gymchat 277 - Barefoot Running - Believe the Hype! (Steven Sashen)
Fantastic discussion.
NB : if you'd like to be interviewed on an upcoming show (or know someone who should be), drop us a line. It's great to find out how other people train. And if you'd like to add your comments and suggestions on the Gymchats in general, we'd love to hear them. Cheers.
NB : As well as leaving a comment or two beneath the articles themselves, you might like to swing by the Daily 'Paper' for a somewhat more frequent dose of training goodness.
A dose of Online Personal Training is ideal. Your place, their experience.
As you'd expect, I work with a number of Fitness Professionals myself - including the wonderful Josh Hewett. If you're about to begin your own strength-training journey, swing by his site at :
top-form-fitness.com/online-coaching
Highly recommended. If you're looking to get serious about 'getting in shape', book some time with Josh. Fantastic guy.
If you're getting ready to put together a solid Home Gym (fantastic thing), here's how.
And for more, swing by the full guide. Absolutely free.
Want to see (and learn) more Feats of Strength like this? Dive in.
Remember this? Great book. Ferocious Fitness : A Fighter's Proven Action Plan to Develop Blazing Power, Animalistic Strength and Killer Conditioning is a distillation of Phil Ross' training wisdom, in the form of a superbly comprehensive book. We took a look at the digital version recently, and you'll be pleased to know that the paperback version is now available. Definitely worthy of a place on the fitness shelf. Phil Ross' Ferocious Fitness.
Check out The Grip Authority. Fantastic site.
For some people, this site's weekly newsletter (The Strength & Fitness Weekly - part of the Strength Kit) isn't quite frequent enough. For those I produce a daily version, which you can grab here. Absolutely free.
It’s always great to see how other people train.
If you’d like to send in a photo of yourself in action (wearing one of the Straight to the Bar Shirts of course - the latest design is here), just upload it somewhere and send us a link. Cheers.
Over the years we’ve looked at the fitness industry from a number of angles - discussing the history, present approaches and potential future trends involved. Fascinating areas.
When it comes to the last part - discussing potential future trends - things get a little, well, unusual. If it’s an interest you share, or you just want to find out the types of things we think are likely, check out the posts tagged ‘Futurism’. And of course, Gymchat 224 (Roundtable) - The Future of Fitness. Superb discussion.
We discuss air pollution quite a bit on this site - particularly the various health impacts involved. If you'd like to dive in a little deeper, I invite you to check out the following :
and of course :
Cheers.
And for the full list of the Books & DVDs we recommend, swing by the Recommended Books & DVDs page. To check out what we're reading at the moment (and to make suggestions), join us on Goodreads.
See you there.
There are some incredible writers on the team here. To give you an idea, check these out :
If you enjoyed these, check out the complete 'Best Of Straight to the Bar' list. Fantastic.
Before you start your fitness journey, it's important to measure a few things.
Here's how.