Homemade Deodorant for High Intensity Gym Workouts

In a recent article, I wrote my top ten reasons for working out at home and one of those reasons is getting away from other gym members' offensive body odor. Of course, you might counter that you can't avoid sweating in the gym, especially if it's hot and humid. But surely, you must have heard of "deodorants".

I recently discovered a recipe for a homemade deodorant. It's a simple DIY (do-it-yourself) thing. And for the past couple of weeks, I've been applying this deodorant. I have to conclude that it's the best deodorant that you can possibly use. Yes, that even includes all you sweaty gym rats out there.

Buy Used Barbell and Dumbbell Weight Plates Cheap

By powerlifting standards, I've amassed a modest, if not meager collection of gym weight plates. Not that I'm desperate or looking to add more plates immediately. No, I'm still in the process of my lower back rehabilitation and my current inventory of barbell and dumbbell weight plates is enough, thank you.

I've been lifting weights on and off for the past decade and as one who's been weight training at home, I've worked mostly with barbell and dumbbell weight plates. These gym plates were bought new from sports hobby stores in malls. I was attracted to the nice black shiny new plates and as a beginner back then, who wouldn't want to workout using shiny new equipment?

Clean and Paint Rusty Old Weight Plates to Look Like New

When we had our house renovated, we rented a small bungalow at the back of our old house. Since we had limited space, all my dumbbell and barbell weight plates were relegated on the floor in a small corner in the rented house. On top of them were all the other stuff that we boxed in cartons. Because I had to lay off my workouts, I quickly forgot about those dumbbell and barbell weight plates.

Boxing Hobby for Cardio Fitness and Conditioning

One of the sports hobbies I dabbled in during my younger days was boxing. No, it wasn't anything serious or competitive. In fact it was just my brother who I sparred with and this was at our front yard. We had a front yard with concrete paving and was large enough for half-court basketball playing. This was in the early 80's, I believe. I was just finishing college and my older brother was already working.

Five Reasons for Building your own Gym Equipment

In a recent article, I wrote my top ten reasons for working out at home. If you're working out for flexibility or cardiovascular conditioning at home, you may not require an array of exercise gear. But for weight or strength training, a modest selection of free weights equipment or maybe weight machines is a must.

Now, there's a variety of ways to do this. You could buy weight training gear used or new. There are certain specifications to keep in mind though. Commercial weight plates and barbell bars, for example, come in two hole sizes - standard and olympic size. Nonetheless, uninterrupted and and progressive workouts require you to have many pairs of weight plates with varying poundages. And for this reason, I suggest you buy weight plates used rather than new.

Top Ten Reasons for Working Out at Home

All you home training converts out there have seen the typical commercial gym scene. That, and the pitfalls that go with the gym membership. I used to be a member in a local small fitness gym and noticed that the problems mostly stem from the fact that you workout with other people. In other words, it's usually the crowd that comes with the gym.

Let's face it. The differences in training styles, preferences, beliefs and attitudes simply get in the way. And the more gym members you're not friends with, the more difficult it is to overcome these challenges. So the lesser the crowd, the better for you.

Musclehead at the Gym

The Urban Dictionary defines Musclehead as

"A selfish, narcisstic, egotistical person in the gym or fitness center. One who is a bodybuilder or aspiring strength maniac who usually looks at others with disdain unless they need them for a spot. They almost never put their weights away when they're done with their exercise -- sometimes leaving a pile of 45's (45-pound plates) next to the machine or leaving a heavy load of plates remaining on the machine."

If you've been working out in fitness centers or gyms, you would've probably seen one. In the first fitness gym I joined, there certainly was one.

Joining my First Fitness Gym

Fresh out of college in the 1980's, I was lucky enough to immediately start working as a Junior Industrial Engineer in a semiconductor company. Since college, living away from my parents' house wasn't new and so I quickly adapted to life in a boarding house. The boarding house was a quick 5-minute jeepney ride to my work place and so that made it convenient.

But even more convenient was the location of the first fitness gym that I joined. The gym, named ProdiGym, was a good walking distance from my boarding house and was in between my workplace and the boarding house.

A Case of Dengue in the Family

With the onset of the rainy season, Dengue outbreaks have been reported on the radio several times already. And I believe this year had the most number of reported Dengue cases thus far.

In our own subdivision, defogging operations have already been started. Well, the irony of it is that on the same week of defogging, my youngest daughter Sandra fell ill to Dengue. And yes, it's the first case of Dengue in our family.

Glass Window Replacement

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a glass window that broke due to Typhoon Basyang. Well, finally a handyman, Mang Dods, became available and dropped by to fix the window, among other things. He has an ongoing job in Tagaytay working on a vacation house extension. Dods was the foreman during our house construction and has done odd jobs at the apartment like fix the leaky roof.

Homemade Adjustable Safety Squat Racks Part 5

In the previous article, I wrote about the construction of the homemade adjustable safety squat racks. In this article, I'll discuss some of the finishing touches you can do.

My homemade squat racks have served me for quite a long time and in that time, they've pretty much held up. I only had to repaint the metal parts once. Of course, functionality and safety prevails over aesthetics so your mileage may vary here.

Homemade Adjustable Safety Squat Rack Part 4

This is a continuation of the previous article where I discussed the parts of the homemade adjustable safety squat rack and their functions. In this article, I'll discuss how each of the parts of the squat rack are constructed and assembled.

Here is the pair of the homemade safety squat racks as seen from the front. It has been adjusted (raised) to a height suitable for me to perform the squat exercise.

Homemade Adjustable Safety Squat Racks Part 3

In a previous article, I discussed the considerations for building the Homemade Adjustable Safety Squat rack or HASS rack.

So can you build safety squat racks that are freestanding to allow different length barbells yet stable enough not to topple over? Yes, you can. The squat racks are all metal and you don't even need welding equipment.

Yup, NO WELDING required.

Frightening Barbell Setups

A serious weightlifter ought to have squats as part of his weight training plan. So when I finished building my weight plates and dumbbells rack, primarily for storage purposes, I embarked on a project to build squat stands.

Improvised Barbell Supports

For this, I turned to the internet for ideas on how to build homemade squat stands. I wasn't particularly looking for gym equipment designs, but rather setups that other folks have implemented to allow them to safely squat at home.

In my internet search, I encountered a couple of improvised barbell setups that truly aroused interest, but in a rather disturbing manner.

Homemade Adjustable Safety Squat Racks Part 2

In a previous article, I briefly discussed problems with some homemade squat racks I saw around the internet.

Not to be confused with safety squat racks, squat stands are simply holders for the barbell - generally speaking. Safety squat racks have the self-spotting feature afforded by the horizontal steel safety racks made up of steel rods or "pins" on both sides of the weightlifter. The parts are usually are welded or bolted whole together. Shown below is a commercial squat rack with the horizontal safeties.

Homemade Adjustable Squat Safety Rack Part 1

Many years ago, I was searching for designs or plans that would allow me to build a homemade squat rack. After building myself a couple of wooden squat stands, I was hoping to build safety squat racks for self-spotting weightlifting exercises.

Some of the designs I saw on the internet ranged back then that were successfully implemented were a combination of wood and metal and had the theme of a squat cage. The pillars or posts for the cage were essentially made of 4" x 4" wood and had squat safey pins made of metal rods. That was the basic idea.


Above is an example of a homemade squat cage that is solidly built.