Tag: DIY Fitness

DIY Landmine Base

Landmine exercises are typically done by placing one end of a barbell on the floor (typically in a corner of the room) or into a landmine base attachment.  I had been interested in trying out some landmine exercises in the garage gym for a while now but kept running into different problems.

  1. Cost – A landmine base that does not attach to a power rack can cost anywhere from $60 to over $200.  Power rack versions can be purchased for around $25 but I do not have a power rack so this wouldn’t work for me.  There are also versions which can be inserted into a stack of weight plates on the floor.  But I do not have enough plates to make this work for me.
  2. Space – You can simply place one end of the barbell on the floor in the corner of your room.  However, since my garage is used for storage as well as my gym, this would not work for me either.

My solution was to make my own landmine base.  I scrounged around and found a piece of particle board and an old 2 x 8.  I even had the screws to put it together so my cost was $0.

landmine 2

So far it works great.  I put a dumbbell or other weight on the back to keep it from moving and am able to do any landmine exercises I want anywhere in the garage.  So far I have been doing front squats and one arm presses with it, but I plan on adding more landmine exercises to my fitness journey in the future.

DIY Equipment – T-Handle

I enjoy a good bargain and I also enjoy do it yourself projects.  That has also applied to my fitness equipment.  Most of my equipment has been purchased used and some of it I have made myself.  I am going to discuss one of those home made items today and plan on featuring others items on this blog in the future.

The first item I am going to discuss (as you can tell by the title) is the T-Handle.  This item provides you with an adjustable “kettle-bell” for swings.  It is fairly inexpensive to put together and extremely easy.  I was fortunate to get the weights for free so that also helps with the cost.  As I was driving down the road one day I noticed someone putting out a large amount of items with a free sign at the end of their driveway.  Some of those items were old plastic cement filled weights with three barbells and two dumbbell handles.  I stopped and grabbed them all.

The T-Handle is made from 3/4 inch black pipe and should cost you around $20 or so to make.  Below is a list of the parts needed:

  • 1 3/4 floor flange
  • 1 3/4 T
  • 1 3/4 12″ long pipe nipple
  • 2 3/4 3 or 3 1/2 pipe nipples
    • These are for the handles.  If you have bigger hands you may want to consider 4″.

Optional:

  • Tape for the handles
  • Clamp to keep the weights from moving.  I don’t have one in the picture below but I have used clamps in the past until mine broke.  With the weights I am using they fit fairly tight and don’t move much.

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It is important to make sure that each fitting is tight each time you use this.  I also would caution that the T-Handle is not a replacement for all kettle-bell exercises; only the two handed swing.  It is a great finisher at the end of a strength training workout and an excellent conditioning exercise.