Building Muscle With Scrap Equipment

The Background

I was able to put on 70 pounds as a lifelong hardgainer by doing two things, working out and eating more. I did this over the course of six years with limited fitness equipment and while starting in my mid 40s.

I spent the majority of my adult life incredibly thin, 6’0 tall and hovering around 130 pounds. I ate poorly, drank heavily, and never really worked out since my early 20s. That all came to a head though at age 46 when I had a major health scare. After the dust settled, I realized it could have been a lot worse and that things needed to change soon or I wasn’t going to live much longer. That was when I quit drinking, quit smoking, and decided to salvage whatever time I had left by getting as healthy as I could.

I see so many beautiful and extensive home gym setups featured on reddit and across social media, and that’s fantastic. I didn’t have that available to me however, so I made do with what I had. I see a lot of comments from people on these threads who express a desire to gain muscle and get fit if only they were able to afford a gym membership or professional home gym. I’m here to tell you that that isn’t actually required.

The Setup

After I made the decision to get fit, I immediately began clearing out a decent sized space in my upstairs office in which to work out. A gym membership was not possible at that time, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Fortunately, I did already have a somewhat nice pair of 15 pound neoprene coated dumbbells. I commandeered my wife’s yoga mat she wasn’t using and began to cobble together a workout plan on a spreadsheet.

I did a lot of work from my home office at the time, so I would work out during free moments throughout the day. In addition, I increased my calorie intake significantly. I would often listen to YouTube videos in the background about general fitness, building muscle, and gaining weight.

Though I certainly wasn’t doing things perfectly, I worked hard at it and stuck with it long enough to see some noob gains when I flexed in the mirror. Being at home and in my office most of the day anyways was a bit of a cheat code for me. I was there anyways, so I would find myself doing sets here and there even if my heart wasn’t always in it. At least it kept me consistent.

A few months in, a lady who lived on the next street over put up a sign in front of her house offering a Bowflex for $100. I texted her and went to take a look. It was a Bowflex Xceed sitting in a shed that had been used as a workout room. It was in excellent condition, but I noticed it was missing the top portion of it. The entire overhead and pulldown section was not there. She offered to sell it for $60 on account there were some pieces missing, so I agreed and dragged it back home. Now I was in business!

Getting Creative

I printed out a copy of the Bowflex Xceed exercise manual I found online and got to work. At first I tried out nearly everything in the book that I could. Some exercises worked better than others on a power rod system like this and I eventually settled down to a core set of squat, deadlift, chest press, overhead press, and seated row along with a few other supplemental exercises that I liked such as standing curl, lateral raise, shrugs, and calf raise.

It wasn’t long until the 105 pounds worth of resistance rods were not really enough for the main compound lifts. The rods were more than enough for something like lateral raises, but for something like squats I found myself having to do way too many reps and sets to get a good pump going. Luckily the machine had a spot for an additional pair of 50 pound rods to be added. I found a cheap pair of compatible rods on Amazon that had good ratings and was good to go for awhile longer.

The upgraded 155 pounds of resistance served me well for quite awhile. However as I began to gain significant weight and muscle over time, those compound movements began to become an issue again. Unable to upgrade the Bowflex any further, and not having a lot of money for more equipment, I had to get creative for some exercises.

To help with movements like squats, deadlifts, and even shrugs, I wrapped 5 pound ankle weights that the neighbor lady had included with the Bowflex around the bar for an additional 10 pounds. I velcro strapped my 15 pound dumbbells to the bar as well for an additional 30 pounds. I brought home audiovisual sandbags from my office that were no longer used and hung them off the bar for an additional 40 pounds. Eventually the bar had so much extra stuff tacked on or hanging off it I had to put some of the items into a backpack which I wore for my squat movements. I’m sure I looked like a complete weirdo working out like that, as my daughter can surely attest to, but it worked, and I continued to grow.

The Takeaway

Was it ideal? Absolutely not. But it worked. I went from 130 pounds to nearly 200 pounds with a significant amount of muscle, in 6 years, in my mid to late 40s, now 50s. No doubt I looked like a fool doing squats with all that stuff hanging off me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to make excuses or let anything stop me from reaching my goals.

I’ve recently moved to another country and now have an actual gym membership. I have to admit, it’s noticeably better for growth at the level I’m at now. The Frankenstein dumbbell and Bowflex solution I used was well past its maximum usefulness towards the end. But I did make the vast majority of my gains while using it, and I feel like that’s something I can be proud of. If you’re interested in getting toned, losing or gaining weight, building muscle, or whatever your fitness goals are, don’t let challenges like a lack of equipment get in your way. Work around it and find solutions, you can do it!