How to build muscles at home?

1. Introduction
2. Table of contents and navigation within the article:
3. How to create your own home mini-gym?
4. Barbell and dumbbells.
5. A stand made from improvised materials.
6. What can you adapt to a stand yourself at home?
7. Horizontal bench at home.
8. How to use an improvised homemade bench and barbell rack?
9. What are the nuances here?
10. Conclusion

Introduction

In previous articles in this section we have already touched upon training outside the gym. We have already considered the following points:

1. outdoor training,
2. exercises with your own weight,
3. exercises with improvised means,
4. using light sports equipment such as dumbbells, weights and expanders.

The time has come to raise the bar significantly higher than the level we have set. Today we will dive even deeper into the topic of the issue “How to build muscles at home?”. Moreover, we will discuss not just easy amateur home training, like morning exercises... Today we will try to train at home, well, if not professionally, then as close to professional level as possible... Let's try to create small home gym, and swing with serious weights, doing real basic exercises...

Table of contents and navigation within the article:

Introduction

Mini gym

Barbell and dumbbells

Rack

Shop

Application

Important

Conclusion

How to create your own home mini-gym?

Barbell and dumbbells.

So we have a huge desire to train and become stronger, more beautiful, sexier. In addition, we have our own room or any other room that we want to adapt for training. How to do this? - there is an answer. In this article I will tell you my little secrets from my personal experience...

What do we need? Well, of course, we need sports training equipment. We need first of all barbell. It also wouldn't hurt dumbbells. Better collapsible ones, like mini-bars. It’s absolutely ideal when the discs from the dumbbells and the barbell fit together - that is, you can safely combine any loads from the huge arsenal of available “pancakes”. Nowadays, all this can be bought without problems in specialized sports stores.

But you don’t have to buy it at all! An example from my personal experience: my father, for which I am extremely grateful to him, came to an agreement with some hard workers from the factory who had machines and good available raw material. They turned him on a lathe for almost a nominal fee vultures for barbells and dumbbells. They did it there locks to them. And from centimeter sheet metal they cut different circles. You can see what ultimately came out of this in the attached photographs. As they say, cheap and cheerful! I recommend! Yes - these are not factory barbells and dumbbells. But in terms of quality and performance characteristics it is in no way inferior to the factory one. Naturally, the weight of the bars and pancakes turned out to be: not even (20, 5, 10 kg), but with some tails (17, 7, 14 kg). I think we can turn a blind eye to this minor flaw. The main thing is that we now have a barbell in our arsenal, and we have brought our dream one step closer.

A stand made from improvised materials.

So, we have a barbell, dumbbells, and a sufficient number of discs for them. We have our own room or other suitable premises that we have allocated for our improvised mini training room. And first of all, there is, of course, a desire to engage in fitness and bodybuilding. What else are we missing? — In order to work with a barbell, we need a rack. After all, we definitely can’t do without a rack for squats and bench presses.

What can you adapt to a stand yourself at home?

Again, the answer is from my personal experience - two armchairs. Why not? A typical chair, by definition, must withstand the weight of an adult; in practice, two or even three of us often sit in a chair, and it can withstand such a load. This means that a pair of chairs can easily withstand a total weight of more than 200 kilograms. And this is exactly what we need!

Another significant advantage of the chairs is that the chair is furniture on wheels. I rolled up a couple of chairs, set a stable position and the required distance - the stand is ready. I trained, removed the barbell, and rolled it back into place. Everything is very fast and mobile. We have a mobile deployable system for training – which is great! Just what we need. I recommend!

The only thing you need to understand is that, alas, not every chair is suitable for our business. There are chairs with rounded top surfaces; throwing a barbell onto such a chair is not safe - it can easily roll off it. Another unsuccessful type of chairs is those in which the back is not strictly vertical, but has a certain slope - such chairs are not stable and can easily be subject to turning over, or, more correctly, falling back. Remember - safety comes first! We will be working with quite serious weights - so all the equipment must be flawless. Carefully check and test your improvised stand for all its weak points, and if it passes all tests, Only then start using it to the fullest. Test it on small scales first. If everything is fine, you are comfortable, comfortable, you are happy with everything, you can gradually increase it and move on to real workloads.

Well, the last thing I want to recommend to you in this article is that if your chairs are dear to you as a piece of furniture, take care of their appearance, beauty and durability. The metal parts of the boom may contain oil and rust residues. So, by throwing a barbell directly onto the chairs, you risk, sooner or later, smearing their fabric covering. There is also the possibility of the neck carving cutting the fabric. Therefore, I recommend protecting the working surfaces of your chairs with some durable multi-layer material at hand. Place an unnecessary rubber mat, a piece of thick fabric or something similar...

Horizontal bench at home.

We continue our construction of an improvised home mini-gym from elements of furniture, home interiors and all other rubbish and rags. 😉

1. A suitable private room (or other space) for training,
2. A barbell, or at least, as a last resort, collapsible dumbbells with a lot of weights,
3. The stand of two chairs, which we looked at in the last article,
4. …

In principle, it’s already quite good. Even at this stage, the outlines of a certain training place. Plus, with the advent of the rack, many new possibilities have been added: you can already do squats, lunges, and calf raises with a barbell. It became much easier to perform bicep curls...

...but still there is still something to strive for. We need to somehow do presses, and fly-ups wouldn’t hurt either, and also pullovers... In general, for our gym we need to somehow implement a bench.

What about the shop? As always, everything I tell you is not invented, but taken from my personal experience over many years. So, how to make a bench at home using improvised materials? – yes, it’s very simple! We need sofa and two kitchen stools.

We place two stools close to each other, tightly without gaps or cracks. We place this entire structure close to the sofa. Cover the top with a thin blanket folded several times (or, to taste, blankets). Voila! The shop is ready. 🙂

How to use an improvised homemade bench and barbell rack?

Well, the time has come to reveal all the cards. We built a bench and a stand, and now I’ll tell you how I personally many years I used this design in my training...

For “lying down” exercises, I do this: I lie down completely on the sofa. Or rather, legs, butt, lower back, in a word, most of the body on the sofa. And the upper back, neck and head are on stools. I adjust the stand (my chairs on wheels) last, having already carefully estimated the range of movements and taken aim...

For sitting exercises: I simply sit either on the stool closest to the sofa, or on both at once - the main thing is that the position is as strong and stable as possible. Again, I adjust the stand to taste...

What are the nuances here?

1. If there is a certain difference between the upper surface of the sofa and the surface of the chairs, this is bad. If it is small, line it with the same blankets as a backing. If it is significantly large, look for other stools or another sofa.
2. Stools should not be flimsy, wobbly, or unstable. You will lie down or sit on them with almost all your weight, plus the weight of the projectile. In total they must withstand this entire load. It is very important! Remember safety comes first!
3. As with the stand, test test it well Your system. At first, with “children’s” scales, then a little more seriously... and so on - in increasing order. And only after that, having checked everything inside and out, move on to real working weights. If the stand is like that... just kidding, it will collapse to the floor, slightly shocking you and your neighbors; then imagine what will happen if, while doing a seated bench press with a barbell, say 60 kg, a stool suddenly breaks under you - You could be traumatized for life! Ato and generally “play in the box.” Therefore, remember - all these things you do, of course, at one's own risk! This means everything must be measured seven times! ...but, as the famous proverb says, if you’re afraid of wolves, don’t go to the gym... But if you’re afraid of everything, you can get injured, even in the most protected and extremely safe professional gym...
4. If suddenly, while doing an exercise, something happens to you embarrassing: you feel some discomfort, creaking, play in structural elements, something is wobbly, loose, does not stand level, has become leaky over time, has become loose - it is better to interrupt the exercise and eliminate the cause of concern. You shouldn't have not an ounce of doubt in your equipment.

So, we now know how “cheap and cheerful” you can create your own home corner for a complete workout. And, therefore, the question: “How to build muscles at home?” can be considered fully disclosed. Now you can train almost the same way as in the gym. And this, in a sense, will allow you to save both the time you spend on traveling to and from the gym, and money - classes at the gym are not free.

Of course, classes at home will never be replaced full-fledged lesson in the hall. Because in the hall, in any case, there is more equipment, various weights, all kinds of equipment and devices. Plus the presence of a large number of exercise equipment, which even if you have a house and a lot of money, you are unlikely to be able to have... Also not the least and quite significant factors are: communication in the hall And teamwork. Swinging alone at home, you won’t get good advice, won’t adopt someone’s good idea, won’t compete with someone, and won’t laugh at some funny, funny situation. In addition, there will always be someone in the gym who will back you up and help you in difficult times, and by training at home, you can rely only on yourself... In view of all these above reasons, home training can never replace working in the gym ...

Can't replace it, but bring it as close as possible - quite! Moreover, it is possible combine classes at home and classes in the gym! Suppose you train three times a week.. Then it is quite possible to do two workouts at home, and one by visiting the gym. Why not an option? Read about how to plan this correctly in our next article: “Combining training.” Read us - we will help you properly pump up your muscles! Thank you all for your attention!