The full series is Part I, Part II and PART III.
Does your budget stop you from getting a gym membership? Are you trying to build muscle size and strength in your backyard shed?
If you answered “yes” then this is the series for you.
This series is going to take a look at how you can train in your backyard shed and still achieve amazing strength, power and muscle growth. We are going to look at the best exercises, the best techniques and some lesser known cheats for working out home. The workouts are brutal but the results are worth it.
This post is going to be an introduction/basics post for the aspiring backyard shed trainer.
Background to the Brutal Backyard Shed Workouts for Low Budgets Series
All throughout high school and up into my early university days I trained in a stinking car shed. In the summer it was hot and in the winter it was freezing. I had a bench press that collapsed more than once and a few rusty dumbbells that cut me when I let them slide in my hands.
It was great!
I know it sounds awful but the feeling of going out into my shed and training like and old-school boxer really got me going. Still to this day I can say most of my best workouts were while I was pumping iron out in that stinking little car shed.
The problem with training at home, however, was that I was short on equipment. I didn’t have a lot of money to spend. Two things I wasn’t short on though were inventiveness and dilligence. I created many workouts that I could do with little or no equipment that could rival any gym workout. And using them I got fitter, stronger and bigger than any of my friends who were up in their air conditioned gym.
This series is for all those people out there who are working out at home with the bare minimum but still want to get serious results. I will show you some techniques and exercises I used in my backyard shed to do the very same.
The Mind of the Backyard Shed Trainer
When you work out at home you need to have a certain mental attitude that is going to get you through the hard times. You don’t have anyone around you to get you inspired. You don’t have a personal trainer to egg you on. Your equipment isn’t smooth and polished.
It is just you and your shed full of crud iron.
If you go out in the backyard shed all depressed and sad about your situation you are never going to make any results. You need to hit you workouts like Rocky the gym - he had only one thing on his mind - the result. He didn’t care that two kids punched his stomach while he did situps. He didn’t care that his gym had rats and cockroaches. He just trained because he wanted to beat that Apollo!
You need to be like Rocky. Make the most of your scenario and don’t go out into that shed unless you are going to give it everything you got. There is no one else around to pick you up.
What Equipment Your Backyard Shed Needs
Now my backyard shed did not have much but it did have a few things. I worked with what I had and made the most of it and I am going to encourage you to do the same. However, without a few basic pieces of equipment training is going to be very hard.
Some basics you need include:
- Some dumbbells
There is a lot you can do with just your body weight alone but without a few dumbbells you are really making things hard for yourself. Even if you just pick up one 15 kilo dumbbell from someones hard rubbish collection you are going to be able to make your workout that much better. If you don’t have any and really can’t find any, don’t panic.
- A chin up bar
This is an absolute must. A lot of the muscle gains you make are going to be based around that bar. It doesn’t have to be a bar though. In high school I used a branch on a fig tree at my dad’s house! It wasn’t perfect (or straight) but it did the job. Don’t be picky.
- A barbell or equivalent
Getting a barbell with some weight discs is a great asset. However, if you can’t manage that try to cook up a safe alternative like a heavy steel bar with some buckets filled with sand on the end. Something long and heavy (like a barbell) will really assist your muscle growth.
- Some random heavy things
Make sure you have a few heavy things handy. They should be of a variety of weights. I have a few different weighted medicine balls, an empty beer keg, a sack full of sand and some other things like that. This will come in handy but again are not essential.
Other than this all you need are your arms, legs and a floor to stand on.
Coming up in this series…
The future posts in this series will be looking at all the different ways you can train at home and still achieve amazing size and strength. There are going to be well-known exercises, lesser known exercises and some that are going to make you think I am crazy.
Remember, the series is called BRUTAL backyard shed workouts.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:54 am
Oh oh oh - great series idea! I will be back for more!
Bella
November 26th, 2007 at 3:56 am
Bella - Glad you liked it