10 Ways to Transform Household Items in to Fitness Equipment

So you want to workout but you don’t have dumbbells, barbells, a treadmill, and all that jazz? Well, you’re in luck! While those are great tools to start collecting, you can still have an awesome workout with a few common household items.

10 Household Items You Can Use in Your Home Gym

1. Two 1-gallon jugs of water (8.33lbs each) can replace dumbbells. Fill it with sand and it will be closer to 13lbs each. CLICK HERE for ways to use your homemade dumbbells.

2. A heavy book, brick or paver can be used for plate crunches to work your abs.

3. A broomstick or the handle of a broken rake can be used for balance and improving form for exercises like an overhead squats.

4. Plastic containers for detergent or chlorine can be filled with sand for heavy carries to make even a simple walk more challenging.

5. Large box of powdered detergent (weighs 28.9lbs) can be used in place of sandbags for thrusters, push presses and squats.

6. A pillow, basket ball, or even a cantaloupe or pumpkin (yes, we actually have used pumpkins in boot camp!! ) can be used for exercises like a ball pass or take it or leave it exercise.

7. Bottles of water can be great small hand weights Instead of dumbbells. Use them during cardiovascular workouts, like shadow boxing, to increase power and speed in your punches – and really challenge those shoulder muscles.

8. Stair step or picnic bench can be used for working your lower body. Even if you have only one step (or bench seat), you can do box jumps or multiple step ups on one leg at a time to really tax your glutes and legs.

9. A pair of hand towels or paper plates can be used on a smooth surface to challenge your core in various exercises show here by Kettlebell Bombshell.

10. Use an old tire or tractor tire for all kinds of stuff. Use a car tire as a soft obstacle to jump in and out of, or use a big tractor tire to flip or put a sledgehammer to! CLICK HERE for a bunch of tractor tire workouts.

6 Creative Home Workouts for Your Family

#1 Musical Chairs Family Workout

We like to create fun fitness games in our boot camp program to make intense workouts more fun. Here is an example of musical chairs. We made a big circle with cones, putting the chairs in the middle. As you will see in the video below, we sang various silly songs (instead of playing music) and Steve blew his whistle to tell everyone to stop and grab a chair. The people who were chairless, grabbed a kettlebell for kettlebell swings or a sandbag for thrusters (squat/press).

You don’t have to use traditional fitness tools either. You can use some of the above items or you could have them do anything you want, like push-ups, sit-ups, burpees and jumping jacks. Add more fitness variety by changing exercises for the “losers” each time you change songs and take away a chair. If you have a small group, you can do several games to create a good workout for your family.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/dsPAaNbTSGA]

#2 Mountain Man Workouts

Steve and his buddy Brian made an obstacle course out of objects Brian had around his house in the mountains. With a little creativity, you can create a workout anywhere you go!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijd5KWrWwdk]

#3  Grueling Milk Jug Get Ups

Use a gallon of water instead of a kettlebell.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRNeI32KwLA]

#4 4-Minute Abs

Use a gallon of water or a basketball.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/uegnZXj7B9A]

#5 Backyard Workout

This workout was created to prepare our mudrunners out there. It uses a rope, cinderblocks & something to hang from

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY6CoT8aeT8]

#6 Upper Body Outdoor Workout

Turn rocks into dumbbells!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1S7WJML-sU]

If you liked these ideas, subscribe to BCx Boot Camp for more fun workouts and training tips. Click Here to learn more about BCx and how to become a BCx trainer or affiliate gym!