Get beautiful toned body is possible not only in gym, but also at home.
And although the most effective are considered strength training equipment, sometimes it happens that there is simply not enough money or time for the gym. Don’t get upset and eat tons of food out of desperation - there is always a way out, if only you have the desire!
You can get the desired results at home with the help of true friends home fitness- improvised means. It is not necessary to pay large sums of money to practice effectively. Now we will show you several life hacks - what to use instead of dumbbells and other exercise equipment.
How to replace dumbbells at home
The most affordable option is plastic bottles, filled with water, which can replace dumbbells with great success. The weight of such “dumbbells” is regulated by the amount of water poured and the volume of the bottles themselves (from 0.5 l to 5 l). Having filled the bottles with the required amount of water and chosen the appropriate exercises, you can safely get down to business.
If you fill bottles with wet sand, their weight will be even greater than with water. If there is no sand, they can be filled with salt.
Video:
How can I replace an ab roller?
A rolling pin with rotating handles can easily replace an ab roller. When training with such a simulator, the greatest load falls on the abs. In addition to the abs, the muscles of the chest, arms, and legs receive stress.
A homemade roller differs from a gymnastic roller in the lack of shock absorption, so be sure to put some kind of mat under it.
Having taken the “kneeling” position, you need to try to roll back and forth, while straining your muscles. 15 times will be enough. However, this exercise machine is not suitable for people weighing more than 70 kg.
How to replace exercise equipment
For the pectoral muscles:
The pectoral muscles are well worked out not only with dumbbells or a barbell, but also when using two towels using the “Fly” exercise. You will need a smooth floor (linoleum, laminate, etc.). Place towels on the floor. Kneeling (or a more difficult option - lying down), place your hands on the towels. You need to do push-ups while spreading your arms out to the sides. Those. bend your elbows and at the same time move your arms to the sides, and then return back.
On the abdominal muscles:
To obtain in gyms perform on special simulators. They can be easily replaced. For example, let’s take the “lumberjack” exercise in a block - instead of a block, a pillow or ball will do. Yes, yes, with the help of a regular feather pillow (holofiber pillows are not recommended) or a ball, we will work out the abdominal muscles well.
You need to stand with a ball or pillow in your hands, feet shoulder-width apart. Turning your body, tilt the ball towards your foot, then, turning your body in the opposite direction, raise the ball to eye level. Then - starting position. This exercise is performed quickly 15 times in each direction. This exercise works well the oblique abdominal muscles and “slims the sides.”
For arm muscles:
Not only the stomach and chest should be beautiful. Hands also simply have to look beautiful. Exercises are usually performed on special benches. But they are used in gyms. At home, an ordinary sofa is perfect for this purpose. With its help it is carried out reverse push-ups for triceps.
Turning your back to the sofa and placing your hands on its edge, put your bent or straight legs forward. Having taken this position, you need to lower your pelvis, bending and unbending your arms. Repeat the exercise 10 times.
Now you know how to replace dumbbells and other exercise equipment, you can safely start training at home! That feeling of envy that appeared at the sight of television beauties will now definitely disappear. But there will be slight superiority. After all, the same results can be achieved for nothing. You know this better than anyone else!
| How to replace dumbbells at home | Description |
| Books | Surely everyone has some books at home. They can be used instead of dumbbells. Choose better than books with a lot of weight. This option is suitable if you want to do at home:
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| Imitation dumbbells made from plastic bottles and mayonnaise buckets | Buckets can be filled with sand, cover them with a lid and insert a tube between them. These will be simulated dumbbells - the weight can be adjusted by changing the amount of sand. You can also make dumbbells from bottles. To do this, you simply need to fill them with water or sand. If holding bottles is uncomfortable in your hands, you can also make “dumbbells” from them. |
| Bricks | Not a bad replacement, but you need to take into account that they are uncomfortable to hold in your hands. In addition, bricks can crumble and become dusty. If the girl’s weight is too heavy, then the bricks can be broken in two, especially since it’s more convenient to hold them that way. |
| Leg weights | Using regular leg weights will in a great way do a workout with a load on your arms. The principle of their use is no different - you just need to put the weights on your hands, and then perform the necessary movements with them, for example, the way you usually do dumbbell lifts only without the equipment itself. |
How to replace dumbbells is a common question among people who are trying to exercise at home without going to the gym. Not everyone can buy dumbbells, since high-quality equipment is quite expensive and it’s not a fact that after a week it won’t just gather dust somewhere in a corner. Therefore, it is necessary to look for options for replacing this equipment.
There are several basic ways to replace dumbbells that will not negatively affect the quality of your workouts.
Using improvised means
As an alternative to dumbbells, the following are suitable:
- books;
- bricks;
- weights for legs.
You can use any objects that are comfortable to hold in your hands and have sufficient weight. You can perform exercises such as dumbbell presses or lunges with dumbbells using bricks. Weights are also suitable because you can simply put them on your hands, thereby increasing the load on them.
The simplest substitute
Use of plastic bottles:
- 0.5 l;
- 1.5 l;
They need to be filled with water/sand. It should be taken into account that the filler in the form of water will be lighter than sand. The heaviest option would be wet sand. To make your workout a joy, you can fill bottles with salt colored in different colors.
You still need to use the same plastic bottles, however, in this case you need to show a little imagination and build improvised dumbbells.
- Connect two bottles by securing them together with caps. You can use absolutely any fastener. You just need to press the covers together and fix them in this position with rivets, a bolt with a nut, and self-tapping screws.
- Cut two bottles into three parts (bottom, middle, neck). Connect the bottom and neck together and fill the resulting container with sand. Take two small sticks and wrap them in the middle of the bottles. Fasten all the parts together to form “dumbbells”.
- Heat the closed bottle over the fire (middle). Under the influence of high temperature it will begin to shrink. To give the desired shape, the bottle must be rotated regularly. As a result, the bottom and neck of the bottle should remain in the same state, and the middle should shrink (it will act as a handle).
Heavy dumbbells from buckets
If the weight of the bottles does not become obsolete, you can build “dumbbells” using mayonnaise buckets. They must be filled out:
- sand;
- cement;
- water;
- alabaster.
The filler can be anything - it all depends on the desired weight. You need to insert a pipe and a stick into the bucket. Place the second filled bucket on the other end of the pipe. One bucket of cement will weigh approximately 7 kg.
There are a huge number of options for replacing dumbbells at home. The methods presented in the article are considered the simplest and most popular. They allow you to do either bench presses, without the need to go to the gym or buy professional equipment.
The most important thing is the weight, not their shape. Yes, they are made to fit comfortably in your hand. But still, if they are not at hand, choosing an adequate replacement for them in terms of weight will not be difficult.
How to replace dumbbells
Experts say: dumbbells can easily be replaced with ordinary books. To do this, it is enough to pick up heavier volumes, and you can safely start studying. Moreover, finding a heavy book in almost any home will not be difficult. This is due to the fact that the majority have not yet switched to electronic reading mode and often keep several heavy dictionaries at home.
When choosing books to train your muscles, be careful. After all, there is always a risk that the publication is valuable. And in this case, it’s better not to experiment; try to look for something more common.
However, it is worth considering that the product is not universal, because... It’s not particularly convenient to hold a book, or even several, in your hand during training and at the same time try to do squats, bends, turns, etc. Therefore, we have to settle on small options. But there is not much benefit from such things.
Alternatively, dumbbells can be replaced with regular plastic bottles. And this will be preferable to taking books. Firstly, they are more comfortable in shape and closer to dumbbells. Secondly, they make it easier to adjust the weight.
To turn plastic bottles into a kind of dumbbells, just fill them with water or sand, depending on how much weight you need for training. So, half-liter or liter containers are suitable for beginners. For those who have been practicing in the gym for a long time, it is better to choose 1.5-2 liter bottles.
You can also use regular dumbbells. But here you should be prepared for the fact that they can crumble, become dusty, and generally do not fit particularly well in your hands. If you really have no options, you can break the bricks into halves - at least that way it will be more convenient to hold them.
Remember that brick is a rather easily soiled material. Therefore, before starting a workout, it is advisable to wrap them in cellophane or a rag. Otherwise, you risk staining the floor and yourself after training.
Things to consider
Naturally, you should understand that this measure is forced, and simply helps you stay in shape in situations where your usual equipment is not at hand. However, experts suggest finding a way out. For example, you can buy a spare set of dumbbells and put them in the trunk of your car. So, it will always be at your fingertips.If this is not possible, try to find out where you can rent equipment. As a last resort, you can purchase used equipment - it costs much less than new ones.
Quite often in comments to workouts the question is asked: “What can replace dumbbells?” Everyone has their own reasons, some simply cannot allocate funds from the budget for sports equipment, someone is still not sure that in a week the dumbbells will not go to the mezzanine to gather dust. Be that as it may, we tried to help both of them resolve this issue and selected a variety of options for those interested.
We take plastic bottles of the required volume (0.5 l, 1 l, 1.5 l, 2 l) and fill them with water and/or sand. Water bottles will be lighter than sand bottles. Bottles with wet sand will be even heavier.
One of the interesting ideas seemed to be filling bottles with colored salt. Sport should be fun! 🙂
Pros: fast
Cons: uncomfortable to hold
Option two, with fiction
It also requires bottles, water and/or sand. But now, in order to be comfortable to hold, you need to work a little.
On the Internet you can find a variety of ideas for achieving your goal. We tried to collect them for you.
1. Connecting whole bottles using cap connection:
You need to take two bottles and connect their caps together with any fasteners available at home. The photo shows the rivets, but you can press the covers together properly using bolts and nuts.
2. More elegant dumbbells made from bottles, electrical tape and wooden or plastic sticks. What needs to be done can be seen in the picture: 
3. Changing the shape of the bottle using fire. We heat the plastic over the fire in the place where you want to change the shape. Be sure to constantly rotate the bottle to ensure uniform deflection on all sides.
How this is done can be clearly seen in the video:
4. Not enough weight? Then the option is for the most desperate. Dumbbells made from plastic buckets and cement!
You will need 4 mayonnaise buckets, 2 metal/strong plastic pipes or wooden sticks, cement, sand, water (for the solution) and alabaster if you want to speed up the drying process of cement, which takes almost a month to dry in its pure form. And you will get this beauty for about 7 kg:
Pros: quite convenient options
Cons: you'll have to work hard
Option three, unusual
And who said that ordinary dumbbells need to be replaced with dumbbells made from scrap materials? In fitness main role dumbbells - load your arms, add weight to them. This same weight can be added using weights, which are easy to sew yourself. At the same time, you will also be able to regulate their weight.
I think that craftswomen who master the art of sewing will easily understand the structure of weights and will be able to make similar ones for themselves. As a piece of advice: when you fill them with sand, it’s better to put it in bags first, it will be much more practical, otherwise over time the sand may start to spill out. And, by the way, in the pockets of such weighting agents you can put not only sand, but also all kinds of “weights” - metal little things that will help increase the weight of the weighting agents.
Pros: comfortable and unusual
Cons: Need sewing skills, quite unusual option
