Winter Workout for Broke Guys (and Gals)

[Alan H]

On the way back from the gym I was thinking about Highland Games workouts for guys who don't have access to a gym, don't have loads of money, but still want to get in shape for next season. So here we go...Alan's Approved Off-Season Highland Games Workout for the Temporarily Broke.

What do you need?
3 rocks...free
a sturdy chair...I hope you have one of those
one 65 cm or 75 cm exercise ball... about $15-$25
a 50 pound bag of sand from the hardware store...$5...in fact, get three of them... $15
a 75 pound bag of sand from the hardware store, if the 50 pounder is too light...about $7
one roll of duct tape... $3
a big canvas tote bag....$8...or maybe a duffel bag, or a military surplus duffel bag...$10
couple of super-beefy plastic contracter trash bags, or some extra heavy duty plastic sheeting....$4

Throwing rocks.

Look, two of the events are throwing rocks. Rocks are cheap, or free. DUH. So go down to the river or wherever and pick up a couple of rocks. Say...maybe three rocks. Get a 12-16 pounder, (maybe about football sized)...get a 18-25 pounder (between football and soccer ball sized) ...and maybe get a 30 pounder. You know, a Heavy Rock, but not a total gut buster.

Now, go throw them. Like this. Mikes toeboard drills. Do this with the 12-16 pounder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD3zFC1M_Yo

Also do two handed throws. Start with the 12-16'er and move up. Go for explosiveness and really drive your hips forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6oza66gu4

Now do the exact same throw, but do it over one shoulder, then the other.

Now take those rocks and throw them two handed straight off of your chest...basically a "stone shove" out in front of you. Use your legs and explode up and out..



OK...so much for throwing! Core strength is vital in the Games, so use your free rocks to work on your gut. Like this... Sit ups with a twist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mS8nVNGFgU

You can also raise your feet in the air so that your body weight is resting on your butt. Now sit up, and holding the rock in front of you, place it first on one side of your body, and then on the other. Then relax down, flat. Up you go, and do it again. Do it until it hurts!

Can you afford a fitness ball? Get one, and work on your abs by doing crunches on the ball and try this for a variation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPlQ52ZcfWo

Break that up by putting in a push-up in between each ab exercise.

Speaking of push ups....do them. Try this, put the two smaller rocks on the ground, put your hands on them and do your push-ups with your hands on the rocks. Now, add some instability to the whole thing and up the weight by doing this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6e8DCFTwj4

This really works your triceps, because your hands won't be as far apart as they will be when you do push-ups on the floor. Done with push-ups? NOT. Move the instability....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc_yXq9IMkw

Are you a hunk? Can you do 30 nonstop pushups with your feet on that ball? Great. Now have a friend put the 16 pound rock in between your shoulder blades and do some more.

More triceps and shoulder work... bench dips. Put the chair under your feet and the exercise ball under your heels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29kQ...om=PL&index=13

can you do three sets of a dozen of those? Great, now put the 22 pound rock in your lap and do 'em.



Hey what about those sandbags? Well, the duct tape is to wrap the flippin' daylights out of one of those 50 pound bags, so that when you drop it (sooner or later you will drop it) it doesn't bust and leave sand all over your garage. Anyway pick up the bag and hold it to your chest and do squats....like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKJCfe7wMCM

.....only he's going too fast. Slow it down. If your knees are delicate, then do squats with a chair behind your knees. Sit down and stand up. When 50 pounds isn't enough, graduate to the 75 pound bag. When that's not enough, well...read on.

OK, look...sandbags are absolutely incredible, and stupid-cheap training tools. I am totally serious about this. Take your two extra 50 pounds bags (you bought three, right?) and split them up into four 25 pound bags...or five ten pound bags, or whatever appeals to you. You can dump the sand into gallon zip-loc bags, duct tape them shut and then double or triple up the ziplocs, duct-taping as you go. That gives you flexibility. You can also add 50 pounds of sand straight to one of those outrageously strong plastic contracters disposal bags you can get at Home Depot or Lowes or Orchard Supply.. Duct tape it shut, and then double bag it..heck, triple-bag it. Now it'll NEVER bust. The outer bags? If you're only using 50 pounds you probably can get away with a strong, regular duffel bag. You can also use a super strong canvas duffel bag, like an old military duffel bag or sew one up yourself. A surplus military duffel bag is IDEAL. Just make sure that your sand isn't packed in there, tightly. You want the thing to be floppy, so you work harder.. If you don't have bags then pour your sand onto flat pieces of plastic sheeting. Get the sand in there, wrap it up in plastic and duct tape the hell out of it. Make sure the sand is floppy in there, you want your workout bag to flop all over the place..

Watch these, then go to work and make yourself a bag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpo7X...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INUVP...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taHG5...eature=related





Now you have an adjustable bag, from 25 pounds to 100 pounds in 25 pound increments, or ten pounds or whatever you did. You can buy another 50 pound bag of sand and take the whole thing up to 150 pounds. TRUST ME, a 150 pound bag of loosely packed sand is HARD to manipulate, heck, a 100 pound bag works me out *hard* ! I have a 100 pounder at home and 20 minutes with that bag, working hard and I'm DONE.

Load that bag. This is stupid easy. Pick up the bag, clutch it to your chest, trot 100 feet with it (or not) and then load it on a platform that's at least chest-high. Like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUSR_euELAc&NR=1



Throw a couple of those small plastic bags full of sand that you made into the canvas tote, if and do high lifts. Get the drive from your legs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8c3T...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyBO6GfBPuc&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOa3KEwzLY

You can seriously kick your hiney with sandbags and they're Dirt Cheap. MMA fighters and wrestlers work with them all the time. The thing is, sandbags are whole-body workouts. They're unstable, so they involve all sorts of muscles that don't get a workout when you do the usual barbell-dumbell stuff. Make a couple and try 'em out.

Finally, something that I don't do very often, but I know guys that do 'em.... bear crawls. And this is FREE. You just need open space, and an immunity to having people giggle at you. These are great for agility and they are a LOT harder than they look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgoqX...eature=related

If you do a regular program of all this stuff all winter, you'll be whole-body kickbutt strong, come February-March when it's time to start throwing, and you can do the whole thing for less than $50.

[Alan H]

Some other things you can do with stuff that you might just have lying around.

Take a twelve pound sledgehammer and beat the living daylights out of two or three old car tires that you've roped together into a stack. After you've hit it twenty times, put the sledgehammer down, and jump up, both feet more or less together, onto the stack a dozen times. Now pick up the sledgehammer and beat on it again. Continue until euphoria hits. After a few months, move up to a 16 pound sledge. If you can get a big old truck or tractor tire, you're stylin, that's even better.

You laugh. Go look at YouTube for sledgehammer workouts. Ryan Viera works out with a sledgehammer on a 400 pound truck tire....not something that you probably have lying around, though. I wish I threw as far as Ryan Viera..

Big Truck tires...got access to one? If you do, and you have space for it, you're lucky. Have fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M84aGeFiZg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4W_TJVLD5c

Take that sandbag, maybe with 75 pounds in it, and lie down. Put the sandbag on your shoulder. Now stand up. Lie down again. Stand up. Now put it over the other shouder. Repeat. It's not complicated.

Find a big rock. A BIG rock, like a 75 or 80 or 90 pounder. Haul it home. Pick it up. Carry it around. Put it on a shelf and take it down again. Press it over your head a few times. Put it down. Repeat until tired.

Rock/sandbag drags... Make a plywood sled. It's not fancy, it's a 2 foot by 2 foot piece of plywood with a couple of pieces of 2 x 4 wood screwed and glue'd to one flat face of the plywood. Drill some holes in the ends of the 2 x 4s and tie a rope bridle onto the thing. Go drag your rock and sandbag all over some football field, pulling both forwards and backwards, meaning facing both away from the sled, and facing towards the rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulz4C...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSXiA...eature=related

OK, take your rock/bag/sled and do THAT. Pull the sled towards you. Works on grip strength, too.

[ccga3359]

Or move to Canada for a good, cheap winter workout.

Snow shovel - $29.99 at Canadian Tire
3 tonnes of friggen snow dumped on you drive over night - free.
Another tonne of hard compacted snow and ice that that friggen snow plow driver just deposited at the end of your driveway during the time that you finished shoveling and putting your shovel away in the garage - free.

Now that is a workout, my wife has muscles that you wouldn't believe!

[Arizona Scot]

Great Ideas Alan, need to start something to stay in shape over the winter.

[Spectre]

Alan, thats outstanding! I am prior Navy SpecWar, and am a real fitness enthusiast--Your workout is proof that one doesn't need to buy the bowflex9000 or get a gym membership to strength train.
Thanks for that...

[HeathBar]

One thing I didn't see mentioned is a slosh pipe. Its 8-10 ft length of 4in PVC that is half way filled with water. You lug this around in different positions. Supposed to really give your core a workout.

google slosh pipe for details.

[Detroitpete]

Alan--are you SURE you weren't my high school linebacker coach??????

I'd like to get a bit more 'real' in my workouts this winter too. I started doing 'boulder lifts and carries' with a oddly shaped boulder that is part of my landscaping. I pick it up and carry it twenty yards at t time, then put it down and do it again until I'l pooped--weighs about 11o lbs I think and a bear to handle.

I also started doing squats with a 5 ft fence post that is about 6 feet long, 10 inches around--maybe only 90 lbs, but its squirrley and hard to balance.

I have a few sand bags that I'm thinking about using like kettle bells.

This could be fun. I'll mash these around until I have to take some time off--and hopefully I'll stay in fairly good shape.

[Alan H]

One thing I didn't see mentioned is a slosh pipe. Its 8-10 ft length of 4in PVC that is half way filled with water. You lug this around in different positions. Supposed to really give your core a workout.

google slosh pipe for details.

Oooh, that looks NASTY! And cheap.

...but fun. Like some girls I know... ..Oops, who said that?

But what a pain in the patootie to store.

[nh_maclean]

One thing I didn't see mentioned is a slosh pipe. Its 8-10 ft length of 4in PVC that is half way filled with water. You lug this around in different positions. Supposed to really give your core a workout.

google slosh pipe for details.

Wow. I wish I had room to workout with that!

[WClarkB]

Or move to Canada for a good, cheap winter workout.

Snow shovel - $29.99 at Canadian Tire
3 tonnes of friggen snow dumped on you drive over night - free.
...
Now that is a workout, my wife has muscles that you wouldn't believe!

Well done!