What Exercises Can I do at Home with No/Little Equipment to Substitute for

J

James

New member
Bench Pressing? I am currently in eighth grade, and school ended which means I won't be going to a weight room all summer. I still want work out at home, but I have no equipment other than BodyWorks 5000 Total Gym, two eight pound weights, and one 15 lb weights. All I need to find a substitution for is Bench Pressing.

I have already tried
- putting the weights into a backpack and attaching those backpacks to a broom and benching that, but it is never even on both sides, and always wobbles.
- doing bench press like exercises on the BodyWorks 5000 total gym, which are too unstable and wobbly because they use a pulley system in which there is too much free movement.

Feel Free to make any suggestions, including exercises on the total gym and improvements to addign weihgts to a broomstick. Thanks.
 
Haven't you heard of push-ups?

The normal position for the hands is beneath the shoulders. You can vary how wide you place your hands to tackle your chest and shoulders in different ways. For example:
* Wider to hit the outer limits of the chest, and muscle linking to the shoulder
* Narrower to hit more the shoulder and the more-central part of the chest

For more advanced push-ups: be explosive with each push and clap your hands together before you land back on your palms.

Furthermore, you can simulate an incline (or decline) by putting either your feet or your hands on a raised surface, such as a step or chair(s). But beware of sliding furniture.

I recommend buying dumb-bells, as they're great for many exercises:
For great range - and this is something you can't do with a bar-bell - do push-ups with your hands holding the dumb-bells beneath. you can drop your chest below the level of your hands. That's a great chest exercise. Also, the fact you have to control the position of the dumb-bell uses more muscles in the arms. Also, you can hold the dumb-bells parallel to each other OR in the same line to use your chest, shoulders and triceps differently.

Use your imagination. And remember there are other parts of your body that need training too!
 
Haven't you heard of push-ups?

The normal position for the hands is beneath the shoulders. You can vary how wide you place your hands to tackle your chest and shoulders in different ways. For example:
* Wider to hit the outer limits of the chest, and muscle linking to the shoulder
* Narrower to hit more the shoulder and the more-central part of the chest

For more advanced push-ups: be explosive with each push and clap your hands together before you land back on your palms.

Furthermore, you can simulate an incline (or decline) by putting either your feet or your hands on a raised surface, such as a step or chair(s). But beware of sliding furniture.

I recommend buying dumb-bells, as they're great for many exercises:
For great range - and this is something you can't do with a bar-bell - do push-ups with your hands holding the dumb-bells beneath. you can drop your chest below the level of your hands. That's a great chest exercise. Also, the fact you have to control the position of the dumb-bell uses more muscles in the arms. Also, you can hold the dumb-bells parallel to each other OR in the same line to use your chest, shoulders and triceps differently.

Use your imagination. And remember there are other parts of your body that need training too!
 
Best "no equipment" substitute would be push-ups.
You can do inclined/elevated push-ups using Chairs to support either Your hands or Your hands & Feet.

An alternate exercise to work the chest are flys:
Lay on a bench with Dumbells (or just matching weights) in each hand, extend arms stright out to the side, keeping arms straight, bring them together in front of the chest. Slowly lower to starting position.

And don't forget the Dumbell Press. Same as "bench press" but using matched dumbells instead of a bar & free weights.

As for adding weight to a broomstick... It can't take very much weight & is a rather dangerous stunt... But to stabilize them use clamps on both sides of the weights on each side of the broomstick (so put on clamp, put on weight, put on clamp).
 
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