1. Gallon Jug/Milk Carton
Body
Don’t recycle those empty jugs/cartons just yet. To make an adjustable at-home dumbbell or kettle bell, just wash the empty containers and fill with water to a desired weight. A container with a handle offers more options for upper-body resistance training. If using a carton without a handle, however, you can grip it with both hands to add resistance to gym favorites like goblet squats and hip thrusts.
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- Goblet squats (pictured below)
- Hip thrust (pictured below)
- Romanian dead lift
- Lunge
- Dynamic upper-body resistance exercises:
- Curl to overhead press
- Lateral raise
- Bent-over lateral raise (pictured below)
- Bent-over row
2. Towel
Body
A towel is a great at-home tool for reducing friction and using ever-present gravity to create resistance in the following exercises:
- Bridge with heel slide (pictured below)
- Straight-arm pull-down
- Push-up variations
- Abdominal roll-/slide-out (pictured below)
3. Container Lid
Body
To create at-home versions of exercise sliders, use lids! Place them topside down on your hardwood floor or carpet for some fun lunge, bridge and plank variations. You can use this technique for a number of exercises:
- Lunges
- Bridge with a heel slide
- Plank variations:
- Hip abduction/adduction/circumduction
- Shoulder abduction/adduction/circumduction
4. Backpack
Body
Remember your first day of school and how excited you were to own a backpack. Reimagine that old backpack and recapture those youthful times with these creative exercises:
- Deadlift
- Front/back squat
- Overhead triceps press
5. Chair
Body
Don’t just sit in it, use that chair for something better. A chair makes a great tool for improving your ability to control a squat. You can also use a chair for adding difficulty or variety to your push-ups. Here are some creative ways to use that trusty chair:
- Squat/Single-leg squat (pictured below)
- Push-up variations
- Incline/decline (pictured below)
- Modified single-arm push-up
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is now offering physician and therapy TeleHealth appointments to provide patients easy access to our expert clinical teams. New and existing outpatients can schedule and appointment at 312.238.1000 or here.
