fitness equipment

In How to Replace Expensive Equipment With Kettlebells Part 1, I showed you how to make your own sleds with just a tow strap, belt and kettlebells. I also included a bunch of different exercises and workouts you can do on your own or with your clients.

I am always looking to add new tools to my boot camp and kettlebell classes, without spending a fortune.

I love coming up with creative ways to make my own equipment. If you want to add some new tools to your workouts or your gym but are on a budget, then this blog is for you.

Last year I purchased an Earthquake bar for my other gym, The Tallahassee Strength Club. It was expensive but I knew my members would love it. I spent well over $200. Online you will find prices from $269 up to over $300.

On one of my visits with my physical therapist, he showed me how he uses the bar to rehab his client’s shoulder injuries. The instability of the bar (while doing simple bench presses and shoulder presses) works and strengthens all of the stabilizer muscles in the shoulder. I couldn’t believe how challenging this was–and I was using very light weights.

After I balked at the price, he showed me a rod he got at Lowes. I can’t remember exactly what it was but either a steel fence post or a strong metal closet rod. I did the same exercises with the rod and didn’t notice much of a difference between it and the expensive Earthquake bar. He gave me the fence post to use at my gym.

My trainers and I played around with the bar using kettlebells attached to the ends with small jump stretch bands

We started with simple overhead holds. It was unbelievably challenging. Every muscle in my body had to work to keep the bar stable. We got a little more daring, which is common when we get together. We did overhead squats, deadlifts, single leg deadlifts, overhead walking, bench press and of course, I had to try a get-up.

You can modify the exercises with the placement of the kettlebells and the length of the band. The closer the weight is to the center of the bar, the more stable it will be. The band length can be shortened to make it easier or long, to make it much more challenging.

It’s an amazing, challenging tool and super simple to set up. You’ll need a fence post top. For a more challenging workout, get a pvc pipe.

You can get a fence post top at Lowes for less than $12
A piece of PVC pipe is even cheaper for around $10.00
Jump Stretch mini bands on Amazon start at $7.95

You can also use rope or chain to hook your kettlebells to the bar. Go way lighter than you think you would because these are no joke.

Give these a try and let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Senior RKC, Laurel Blackburn owns Boot Camp Fitness and Training and Tallahassee Kettlebells. Look for Laurel at www.bootcampstogo.com or www.tallahasseekettlebells.com.

In her early fifties, Laurel is out to prove that age is just a number. Her goal is to motivate and inspire people everywhere, both young and old that strength, flexibility and mobility can get better with age. Follow her adventures on her blog: www.SuperStrongNana.com.

Laurel Blackburn and Adrienne Harvey Diy Fitness

I started my boot camp business in 2005 on a little patch of grass in front of a gymnastics gym. I didn’t have much money and spent what little I had on a few bands. Our workouts were mostly bodyweight with a few exercises done on the picnic table in front of the gym.

I had to be creative and think outside of the box. Before the TRX came out, I was already doing many of the exercises with beach towels wrapped around trees. I also bought PVC pipes and filled them with sand to use for presses, squats and deadlifts.

As my business grew, I spent almost all of my money on purchasing more equipment. I bought some kettlebells, I picked up logs on the street, and used whatever else I could find as exercise equipment.

Slowly as I earned more money, I bought more equipment. Once we moved from the patch of grass into an 800sqft space, I bought a few more kettlebells, some medicine balls, and I had a friend build a pull up bar.

After a year, we outgrew that space and I moved to a 2,100sqft building—then we moved up to my current 5,000sqft location. Now, I was able to buy a lot of equipment and I spent a fortune on stocking my gym. Every cent I made went back into the gym as I bought more equipment.

As a fitness professional and gym owner, I constantly receive tons of catalogs in the mail full of equipment to buy. I started looking at how I could use what I had to replicate new exercises but at a fraction of the cost. Soon, I became a regular at Home Depot and Lowes!

I found that I could replace everything from sleds to the popular earthquake bars dirt cheap.

A couple of months ago, I went to Orlando and met up with Adrienne Harvey. I packed my car with name brand portable sleds, my earthquake bar, kettlebells and my homemade equipment.

Adrienne and I filmed exercises using my expensive equipment and then filmed the same exercises with better options using my homemade equipment and kettlebells.

I wanted to show gym owners and exercise enthusiasts how they can get creative on the cheap by using kettlebells and a few items from a hardware store.

Here is what I used to make the equipment I used for part 1 of this series.

For sleds:

Lowes SmartStraps 2-in x 20-ft Tie Down ($19.98)

Watch the video, go to the hardware store, grab some kettlebells and get creative.

I’d love to hear how you’ve improvised, created new exercises and workouts with your kettlebells.

Stay tuned for part 2. I will show you how to make your own earthquake bars at 1/8^th of the cost.

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Senior RKC, Laurel Blackburn owns Boot Camp Fitness and Training and Tallahassee Kettlebells. Look for Laurel at www.bootcampstogo.com or www.tallahasseekettlebells.com.