10 Everyday Items You Can Use to WorkOut

Who says you need a gym to work out? Check this 10 readily-accessible everyday items WorkOut that can be used in place of fitness equipment.

Even if you don’t have a gym or traditional exercise equipment like dumbbells or a body ball, it shouldn’t stop you from sweating. As long as you have some common household items on hand (check your garage – there are plenty of unexpected workout tools), you can piece together a full-body exercise program that’s right for any gym workout.

1. Paper Plates

Before the advent of Valslides or glider discs, there were paper plates. Frankly, they’re just as good. If you’re exercising on a carpet or on smooth ground, you want to increase your muscle workouts while doing standard weight exercises, grabbing a few paper plates and letting them work. For example, you can put your front foot on a paper plate before doing a front lunge to make the lunge more difficult. Cardboard reduces friction between the floor and your feet, so instead of taking a lunge forward, you can slide the cardboard forward on the floor and then slide the cardboard again when you get back to the starting position. Controlling this sliding motion is challenging, so be sure to do it slowly and steadily!

2. Gallon Water Bottles

A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, so if you have two gallons of water on your hands, you can easily replace it with a traditional dumbbell exercise. Not to mention, the handles of the water bottles make them easier to grip, curl and swing. Just make sure you’re using a water bottle with a screw cap – if you’re using a water bottle with a spring lid, if the lid falls off, you’ll get dirty on your hands.

Bonus tip! If a one-gallon bottle looks too light, take a three-gallon jar. When filled, each weighs about 25 pounds, but if you’re not prepared to bend and press that much weight, you can fill up half or four-thirds.

3. Length of Rope

If you have a piece of rope in your hand, you don’t need to buy a suspension trainer, even if it’s a relatively light rope. Simply throw the rope over a strong branch, grab both ends of the rope, and do auxiliary pull-ups, suspension panels, and push-ups.

For added safety, consider tying strong knots at each end to improve your grip, or even making circles at both ends as a fulcrum for your hands and feet. Just make sure that the knot remains firm with each exercise.

4. Beer Bottles

Believe it or not, a full beer bottle is a perfect size and shape to replace the “ultra-light dumbbells” (usually 1-3 pounds) required in barbell training. Most full bottles of beer weigh 1.25 pounds (equivalent to the weight of the beverage, cap, and cap), and the narrow bottle is easy to hold. Plus, if you just take the bottles out of the fridge, they’re cool to pick up!

5. Couch Cushion

Sofa cushions (generally pillows) are nice and soft and are a perfect alternative to expensive balancing tools. They are more difficult to stand on for exercise because your body has to work harder to stay stable on the surface of the foam or filler. While it’s true that actual balancing tools usually bring a greater degree of instability to each Everyday Items WorkOut, that doesn’t mean cushions aren’t a good option. Try doing push-ups on a mat, or a split-legged squat with one foot on the mat and one foot on the floor.

6. Backpack

The original weighted vest was a backpack – do you remember dragging a 20-pound book as a kid? Simply fill a sturdy backpack with books or canned food to carry on your back (if your backpack has a plus cross-chest strap you can buckle to add support), wear it in your house, while doing chores, or weight-up exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups. You can even take your backpack off, grab the strap to curl your hair, press your shoulders, or makeshift a kettlebell.

7. Length of Heavy Chain

If you happen to have a long heavy chain (at least 30 feet long) in your garage, why not use it as a combat rope? You can pin the center of the chain to a pillar or a tree, grab one end of the chain with each hand, and swing away! If you’ve never tried combat rope-style exercises, be sure to check out some tutorials and remember to keep your core tight and knees bent in every move. You can also wrap the ends of the chain with tape so you can protect your hands as you do each exercise.

8. PVC Pipe

PVC tubes are a pretty amazing fitness tool, especially if you pick up a hat from a hardware store and close both ends. You can fill a large chunk of PVC with water or sand (partially or in whole) and use the pipe as an unbalanced, weighted barbell (often referred to as a sloshing tube or sloshing tube).

If you’re skilled, you can build almost anything out of PVC. For example, Todd Kuslikis built a separate fitness climbing frame out of PVC – impressive!

9. Heavy Book

Almost any exercise you do with a gym ball or weight board can be done with a very heavy book. For example, replace the gym ball with a book when doing a heavier tilt, a heavier sit-up, or a crossed rib.

10. Beach Towel

Beach towels can be used as temporary yoga mats (mainly on carpet surfaces) and stretch straps. If you’re on a smooth surface, you can fold them up and use them for sliding exercises, like the paper plates mentioned above.

A Word From GetHealthyPoint

At the end of the day, a solid workout doesn’t require fancy or expensive equipment. What they really need is a willingness to put in some human capital, even if it means finding creative solutions to the equipment. So, take a walk around your house and see what hidden exercise tools you can spot – they might be hidden right under your nose., everyday items workout.