The past few weeks our Vikings have been busy making their own fitness equipment at home. Of course we want to share this with all our participants, so everyone can stay fit at home for their next challenge! Making the 'do it yourself' fitness equipment can also serve as a workout in itself (outside in the sun). This blog explains which fitness equipment is easy to build from home and how you can do it.

Sandbags are a great way to improve strength and endurance. You can use them instead of traditional weights like kettlebells and separate weights, but the weight (the sand) shifts during the movements. The shifting of the weights adds an extra challenge to your training. Making a sandbag requires a few cheap and easy to get items:
· Strong plastic bags, such as garbage bags or resealable plastic bags, depending on the weight you want to create.
· An old sports bag or another bag that you don’t use.
· The stuffing for the bag (like sand, for a real sandbag 😉).
Make sure to put the sand in a plastic bag before you put it in the bag, so you have an extra safety and don’t get the sand all around your house. Although cleaning that might be another exercise on itself.

Kettlebells are an all-in-one gym, the possibilities are endless with these power items. It's easy to make your own homemade Kettlebell in less than two minutes. Kettlebells are not cheap, especially when you want to buy more than one. So in this time with the Covid-19 measures, it is definitely worth it to consider making your own with items you may even already have in your house. We have three options for making your own kettlebells, from light to heavy.

Option 1 – Kettlebell plastic milk bottle
All you need is an (empty) plastic milk jug from the supermarket and some sand. Fill the empty milk jug with the sand and your kettlebell is almost ready. Make sure to close it properly, you can glue or tape the cap to be totally sure. You can also choose to not fill it completely, to make a lighter kettlebell. Or make several with different weights.

Option 2 – Dry Bag Kettlebell
What you need is water and a Dry Bag, when you don't have one, they are available in different sizes at many online shops. When you choose a larger size, you can fit more water in the bag. This means you can make a heavier ‘kettlebell’ for heavier exercise. If you don’t have one yet, it is best to order a larger size Dry Bag, because you can roll them up to the right size/weight.

Option 3 – Dumbbell or separate weights Kettlebell

What you need for this option is separate fitness weights or a dumbell and a piece of rope. The heavier the weight, the heavier you can make the Kettlebell and exercises. Do you have multiple separate weights? You can attach them together with an extra piece of rope, so you can increase the weight of the kettlebell even further. The piece of rope functions as a handle, make sure the handle is big enough for your hands.

Everyone has some socks at home that are actually not really suited for wearing on your feet anymore. But these socks can get a new life! They are ideal for making your daily walk or run just a little bit heavier. Take the sock, fill it with small items like pebbles, dried beans or anything you have in or around your home. Put the sock around your wrist and tie it with a tight knot. When you do this on both hands, you have two extra weights on your wrists, which will make your round of walking or running just a little bit more intense.

You probably have some buckets or old paint cans at home somewhere, now is the time to use them. And not for painting, well you can also do that of course. You can fill these buckets with water or sand and again: fill them until you reach the ideal weight. With a bucket or can in each had, you can easily perform ‘Walking Lunges’ or hold one bucket in the middle of your body and do a ‘Squat’.

1 Litre of water equals 1 Kilo, so it is easy to calculate how many kilos you want in the bucket. Is 10 kilos (a full 10 litre bucket) still too light for you? Then grab an extra bucket and take a bucket separately in each hand to make it even more challenging.

Grab a backpack, throw in some weight. Put on your favorite sneakers or trainers. Go for a walk. You're officially doing a military exercise now! This is a military exercise that uses the concept of gravity. Everything wants to fall down to earth, including the weight you put in the backpack. Your muscles are the only thing that causes that weight not to fall to the ground.
What can you put in the backpack to create the weight? Using old books is a perfect way to add cheap weight to your backpack. Most of us have old textbooks or magazines laying around. Old books can simply be stacked in a backpack. However, it is best to roll up some towels or old clothes and put them in the bottom of your backpack. When doing this exercise, you want to make sure that the weight is as high as possible in your backpack so that it does not scrape on you back. You can also use some duct tape to keep the books together.
You can fill up your backpack with filled water bottles. Hydration is extremely important and you will have to bring water anyway, so why not use it as weight?

So, now you can go and make your own gym equipment. Next week we will publish a new blog with exercises you can do with your new Strong Viking Gym Equipment.