Everyone has that point in their home workouts where bodyweight exercises aren’t cutting it anymore, and workout equipment is logically the next level.
Time for something more challenging.
You think of purchasing the item you need, but then, wasn’t cost-saving the whole point of switching to home workouts in the first place?
How about cutting costs with the equipment part as well? How about some home DIY workout equipment?
The beauty of making your workout equipment yourself is that you don’t need special materials, nor do you need to be a talented craftsperson.
With dedicated effort and a little dose of creativity, you can make the best of what you have and have a fully functional dumbbell, barbell, or whatever it is you need to spice up your exercises.
Let’s now discuss ten homemade gym equipment ideas to get you started, or simply use the table of contents to zap to your desired section.
1. DIY adjustable pull-up bar
Pull-up bars are great for pull-ups and chin-ups, and they come in different configurations that can be adapted to the space and amount of load they are expected to bear.
Even if you are building a home gym on a tight budget, the good news is that you can have a pull-up bar with virtually zero dollars.
Whether it’s a free-standing pull-up bar, an in-ground one, or a wall-mounted structure, you only need some strong PVC pipes, fittings, and a hex key to fashion a durable workout structure that will stand the test of time.
This pull-up bar is not only cost-free but also adjustable and can even be dismantled and reassembled to give the ultimate portability advantage.
Here are the components you will need for your homemade pull-up bar:
- Galvanized threaded aluminum pipes (to resist rust from sweat and the natural elements)
- Kee clamp fittings (for freestanding variations of the pull-up bar): 90-degree elbow, 30 to 60-degree single socket tee, and the three-socket tee.
- Wooden planks (preferably treated lumber) for ceiling-mounted pull-up bars.
- Floor flanges
- Wooden posts
- Wood screws
- Cement (for securing floor-mounted pull-up bars)
NOTE: If you are building a freestanding pull-up bar, you might only need the aluminum pipes and the kee clamp fittings. If the pipes or poles you choose are too long, use a saw to cut them to your desired length.
2. Homemade Dip Station
Dip stations are among the easiest PVC gym equipment to build, and it’s generally cheaper to make them yourself than to buy them at the store.
When constructed with the right materials, your homemade dip station will allow you to perform your chest dips and triceps dips—exercises that engage the pecs, triceps, anterior deltoids, and rhomboid muscles of the back—safely.
And if you want to spend exactly zero dollars on a dip platform of any kind, you can just use two solid, stable tables, stools, or kitchen chairs of equal height.
It’s just that chairs and tables have numerous uses, and then you will need something dedicated to chest dips. In that case, here are the parts and tools you will need for that purpose:
- PVC pipes and fasteners (for PVC dip bars). The PVC pipes will serve as the top bars, support bars, exterior base bars, and interior base bars.
The fasteners will include PVC elbows, T-joints, end caps, and PVC connectors.
- Wooden posts (for DIY wooden dip bars)
- Wood screws
- Gussets (to keep the wooden dip bars from wobbling)
- Hole saws
- Drills
3. Medicine Ball
The medicine ball is one of the simplest DIY workout equipment to make. Don’t let the simplicity make you doubt its utility, though. This basic piece of equipment provides an unstable, rocking surface that is useful for a wide range of home workouts, from the Russian twist to the medicine ball push-up to the medicine ball plank and a lot more workout exercises.
Want to know how to make a homemade alternative to the medicine balls sold in the stores? Here’s how.
Get a basketball and cut a triangular flap in it. Fill the ball with as much sand as possible using a funnel or an empty drink pitcher, and then seal the cutout you made.
The result should be a turgid ball that has few if any, soft spots indicating air pockets that can make the ball deflate slightly when the sand settles in them.
4. Concrete dumbbells
Homemade dumbbells are arguably the most versatile of all DIY home weights. They can be used to make any exercise more challenging when you’ve outgrown the resistance provided by your body weight.
Thankfully, you can make your own dumbbells with some cement, empty container tins, aluminum threaded pipes, and PVC T-joints.
You will first use a scale to measure the weight of sand and cement that will match the desired weight of the dumbbells.
The tin containers, after being hollowed out, will serve as moulds for the concrete heads of the dumbbells.
Prepare the two concrete heads of the dumbbells with the PVC T-joints embedded in them to receive the threaded pipes that will connect both heads of the dumbbells.
Since you can unscrew each dumbbell head from the shaft, you can easily change the weights on the shaft, so prepare the dumbbell heads in various weights to keep the challenges to your taste.
5. DIY Lat pulldown weight machine
The weight machine at the gym for lat pulldowns might seem like an incredibly complex assembly of intricate parts, but in reality, the working principle is simple.
To make your DIY weight machine for lat pull-downs, all you have to do is create a cable and pulley system that lets you pull down on the cable to lift a heavy stack of weights.
In making your improvised DIY lat pulldown machine, the weight can be the concrete dumbbell discussed above. The pulley system could consist of a bicycle’s rim still attached to the fork but disconnected from the bicycle’s main frame—the head tube precisely.
Or your pulley system could be a roller over which the cable suspending the weight passes.
In any case, you want to fasten the pulley or roller securely to a strong, stable overhead surface such that you can pull down on a cable to lift a heavy load and repeat for as many reps as you need.
6. DIY Concrete barbells
Barbells can’t go missing from a list of DIY garage gym equipment, as you will surely need them for your cleans, snatches, jerks, and deadlifts. However, this dearly loved workout equipment can be both expensive and space-consuming.
But if you do have enough space for it in your backyard or in your DIY garage gym, then money shouldn’t stand in the way of having a barbell for those extra-rigorous workouts.
The DIY method for making barbells is nearly identical to the process for making concrete dumbbells, except that instead of a short aluminum pipe or PVC tube, you use a reasonably long and slim metal pole.
Also, get a mould that will allow you to make flat, circular concrete weight plates for each end of the barbell. These weight plates should have a short PVC tube embedded in them to receive the metal pole of the barbell.
7. DIY Tire Sled Pull
Sled pulls are a classic example of workout equipment that is totally DIY-friendly. In fact, it goes without saying that it takes relatively few components to make a sled pull compared to, say, dumbbells or dip bars.
In fact, your DIY sled pull can consist of nothing but a spare tire—that of a car, tractor, lorry, or some other vehicle—and straps or strong ropes.
If you don’t want to go for a tire, no problem. Get a wooden board and mount concrete blocks on it for the desired weight.
8. Parallettes
Parallettes can serve as a handy addition to any calisthenics exercise, such as push-ups, triceps dips, L-sits, and mountain climbers, amongst many others.
But if purchasing a pair of p-bars doesn’t seem like the most cost-effective thing to you, then you can definitely go ahead and build them all by yourself.
In that case, you can construct your parallettes with PVC pipes and fittings or with wooden planks and some other components.
For the PVC pipe construction, you will need PVC pipes, T-joints, elbow joints, and caps.
For the construction, first, make the base of the parallette by running two PVC pipes of the same length through their respective T-joints up to the middle point of the pipes. Let the vertical arm of the T-joints face up.
Next, push two short PVC pipes through the free end of the T-joints. These short tubes will receive the elbow joint at one end.
Orient the setup so that the elbow joints face each other at their free ends.
Now, connect the elbow joints by running a long enough pipe through them. You should now have one parallette that has two parallel pipes serving as the base with another pipe bridging them.
Repeat the process to make the second parallette for a complete pair.
For the wooden alternative, you will need two wooden dowels, copper pipes, copper T-joints, copper couplings, screws, and two wooden rectangular boards of equal dimensions for the base.
The construction goes like this: first, drill two holes at the opposite ends of the rectangular board.
Stick two short copper tubes in each hole. The holes should have been drilled to exactly the diameter of the copper tubes and deep enough for them to be tight.
Make the top section of the parallette by running the dowel through the copper T-joints. Complete this setup by pushing two copper pipes through the free ends of the T-joints to elongate the vertical arm of the joint.
Finish up by driving this top section into the copper tubes you’ve sunk in the rectangular board.
Repeat this process to make the other parallette.
9. Homemade Weight Lifting Bench
Not all gym equipment is cheaper to build than they are to buy, and the homemade weight-lifting bench (especially when you add the incline feature) is one of them.
However, if you can get high-quality lumber and want something that is always within your reach at home, then go ahead and DIY yourself a weight-lifting bench.
To save yourself a lot of stress, just use a bench that is already made and lying around.
The hard part will now be to incorporate the pulley system that allows the inclined plane of the bench to assume various angles. Read this article on garage gym reviews to learn more about constructing a solid, homemade weight-lifting bench.
10. DIY squat rack
Squat racks are one piece of equipment that comes in handy in any exercise involving barbells, and they need not be difficult to make as a DIY home project.
The simplest contraption of the squat rack needs only two empty paint buckets, some sand and cement, and some wooden poles.
The idea is to have two upright rigid posts stationed a few feet apart (in a bucket of solid concrete) with shallow grooves in them to receive a barbell.
Check out this article for the exact process to follow.
11. Sand Bags
Sandbags are the simplest and most versatile of all DIY home workout equipment. They can serve as replacements for barbells, dumbbells, and (if you load them in a wheelbarrow) sled pulls.
Just get a large used bag made of strong rope or cloth material and smaller ones made of strong material as well.
The idea, as explained in this post on the Art of Manliness, is to fill up the smaller bags first to your desired weight and then stuff them inside the larger bag and seal it up.
That way, the sandbag can serve you in either of two ways.
You can use the large sack of smaller weights, or you can use each small weight by itself, depending on your need.
In other words, if the large sandbag with all the smaller weights in it weighs 100 pounds, that might be ideal for you. If you want something smaller, say 10 pounds, you can use any of the smaller sandbags that weigh precisely that.
Wrapping up
As you may have noticed from reading this article, there is a DIY alternative for almost any piece of equipment used in the gym.
From household items to materials you can purchase from your local store, you have a lot to work with if you are willing to invest your time and creativity.
With the ideas presented in this article, you will be well on your way to crafting attractive, functional, and sturdy pieces of equipment at minimal financial cost.
