bigroutine, but on a smaller budget

[abefroman]

New to the game (you sick of hearing that yet), although I've training with cardio for a while. So of course I was intrigued by the wannabebig routine. My limitation is my budget. I own a bench, barbells, dumbells, etc., but cannot currently afford to join a gym. Any alternative suggestions for some of the excercises that require machines? By the way, am now 23, 6'2", 167lb looking for more!

[Joe Black]

You can get by on what you got...

OK, going by the routine on the site..

Chest : bench, and incline is fine.

Dips, well you might need to substitut here. Unless you can find two platforms or a caouple of stable chairs/stools, you may want to perhaps do some flyes in here...

For back, you can do chins right ? You must have a horizintal pole about that you can do chins on.

deads, barbell rows and shrugs are cool...

Legs : hmm this is a bit tricky.. Squats might be a bit tricky here.. Unless you can think of a a way to squat safely you might want to do dumbell squats.. That way you don't have to worry about the bar.. Also lunges can be done with dumbells instead of leg press... For hams you can do straight legged deadlifts and calve raises with dumbells to..

Shoulders, tri's and arms should be fine..

So you can do most of it

Good luck with your training ..

[chris mason]

I've got a good suggestion for the legs, sissy squats. If you combine sissy squats and stiff legged deadlifts you will work the quads, lower back, and hams very intensely. To perform sissy squats, you must first use a secure 2x4 or something with which you can elevate your heels. Stand with your heels on the board spaced about 10-12" apart. Now, you can either hold a barbell behind your back or a dumbell in each hand. To start the movement, bend only your knees and lean backwards. Try to keep the portion of your body from your knees to your head on the same plane as you lean backwards and move down.
--------------------------------:
------------------------------:
----------------------------:
--------------------------: this colon being the knee
---------------------------:

Use the colons as a kind of dot to dot to illustrate the body. The 4th colon represents the knee and the top three the body and head. As you rotate around the knee that line of the top 3 colons stays with the same linear relationship so that eventually it looks roughly like this;



----------------------------: : : :
-----------------------------:
You probably won't be able to get your upper body parallel to the ground, but I couldn't do any better with colons. Your arms will remain perpindicular to the ground (the same position as when you are standing and they are hanging by your side or behind you). Your knees will go forward slightly during the descent phase of the movement. Only go down as far as you can without losing your balance. This exercise isolates the quads and will really fry them. Give it a try.

[Edited by chris mason on 01-29-2001 at 06:05 PM]

[abefroman]

Sissy squats? Not a great name, but good advice. Thanks to both you guys.

[gino]

I remember when my parents bought me my first weight set for christmas when I was 14. When all you have is a bar some dumbell handles, plates and a flat bench, you need to get pretty creative. For squats, I would move my bar and weights into the garage and use 2 stacks of milk crates for a squat rack. Looking back on it, it wasn't the safest situation, but I was very carefull and squatted hundreds of times without incident.