Homemade Weights

Make sure that the jug has a handle; you will use this to complete your exercise reps. Use the handles to lift and lower the jug like you would any hand weight or dumbbell.

With milk jug hand weights, you can do bicep curls, tricep exercises, bent-over rows, pec flyes, deadlifts, and shoulder raises.

You can also hold these weights to your sides when you are doing squats or lunges.2

Lift canned goods. Canned goods that fit into your hands work well as simple hand weights. This is especially good if you are starting out and trying to build muscles slowly. Use larger canned goods as heavier weights or medicine balls.Make dumbbells from plastic water bottles. Instead of recycling your plastic water and soda bottles, refill them with water, or put pebbles or sand in them instead. When filling them, make sure to weigh them so the weights are the same for both hands. Lift the bottles like you would any dumbbell.Make arm weights with water bottles. Instead of using the water bottles for hand weights, this method attaches multiple bottles to your arms like wrist weights. Before you put them on your arms, fill them with sand. For heavier weights, add water after you fill them completely with sand.

When they are filled, scotch tape the plastic bottles all the way around your forearm. The tape does not touch your skin; it only touches the bottles to hold them together. You can also use duct tape, just don't attach it to your skin. Place the bottles just tight enough so they do not slide off your arms.Make a weighted medicine ball from a basketball. Take an old basketball and drill a hole into one of the black stripes. The hole should be big enough to funnel in the weighted material. Place a funnel in the hole and fill with sand or pebbles until you have achieved the desired weight. Use a bike tire patch kit to fill the hole. You can also use duct tape if you don't have a tire patch kit.[4] The repurposed ball can now be used just like a medicine ball.Make wrist weights from socks. Fill a clean sock with dry beans. Alternately, use pebbles or small craft rocks for a heavier weight. Sew or glue the open end of the sock closed. Then, sew the ends together, or sew Velcro onto the ends so you can remove it easily.

Use a scale to adjust the weight. Fill the sock as full as you want based on weight and then cut the excess fabric. If you want to make heavier weights but the inside material won't fit, use a larger sock.

When choosing a sock, make sure to choose one long enough to wrap around your wrist. If the sock is too long, fill it until it will wrap around your wrist, then cut the excess fabric before closing the end.

Cut bicycle tire tubes into hand weights. Take a bicycle inner tube and cut it into equal lengths. Secure one end of the tube with duct tape, then fill the tube with sand. Close the other end with duct tape. You can either leave them flat or bend them into circles until the two ends are touching and secure the ends together with duct tape.[5]

This is a great method for making weights of different sizes. Start with 1 or 3 pounds. You can also try 5 or even 8 pound weights. Use a scale to weight out the weights before you close them.If these 2 packs are too much, don't use half filled bottles. Half-filled bottles will slosh around and shake the bar. Instead, tape individual filled bottles to the bar.

If 2 packs aren't enough, use four or six packs of bottles taped to the bar. Alternately, tape individual bottles to each end of the bar. First line them horizontally along the bar side by side, then stack them on top of each other. Make sure to leave plenty of room for your hands to grip the bar in wide and narrow grips.

The taping must be functional. Make horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rounds to wrap the packs to the bar.