1. Go cheap. Don’t spend a lot of money. You might in general need to spend more to get fit, but just spending a lot wont get you fit. Product marketers know that people think that they can get fit, however, if they do spend money on something, and then make it so you can tuck it under your bed. There is no real benefit from buying something that costs a lot of money and then tucking it under your bed – and make it a rule to never buy that kind of exercise equipment.
2. Keep it simple. You probably don’t have much more room available to exercise than you need to swing a cat around, so you need not get overly technical about your stuff. It need not be perfect if it is useful and you use it. There are plenty of things that wont crowd you out of your home, but again, don’t stick it under your bed. Considering your space is important. What good is a skipping rope if you don’t have room to use it.
3. Shop around. Use the venerable Craigslist, and go & buy what you need with cash in hand. Used sporting goods stores abound as well, so keeping the above guiding principles in mind, look at what they have to offer. And take your time with this stuff.
4. Use your creativity. Make your own exercise equipment. If you have ever had a session with a personal trainer, you will notice that they tend not to use overly complicated pieces of equipment. They use their experience and dip into a grab bag of ideas and tricks for a well designed workout. You can research exercise methods, tips, tricks and techniques on the web. You can assemble the pieces you need from places like hardware stores, marine equipment stores, as well as from mountain equipment and sewing stores.

I decided to create a piece of equipment that extends what I can do with my chin-up bar. A single straight chin-up can be very hard to do if you are heavy, out of condition, or just don’t have enough muscle mass. You wont get the benefit of an exercise if you cant do it. So I thought why not use some rope or strapping and some commonly available parts from some local hardware, marine, and camping stores, and make a cheat. The trick with all this of course, is to make something strong enough to support your weight, and that you can adjust to your dimensions. Hopefully you can do more than one exercise with it.

I call it my Upside-Down T-rope harness, (UDT). I am able to suspend my contraption off my chin-up bar, as a high point. One way or another, the UDT harness should look like an inverted “T”, with handles at the end. It should attach to a ceiling point. In my case, I am able to use a chin up bar.

With my UDT, my exercises become unstable so they help engage the core and control muscles. I am able to add exercises to my regime like unstable push-ups, low angle pull ups, high angle pull ups, lowered chin up, and probably other things I haven’t thought of yet. I started out with a simpler version, and have moved to a more stable version that I am still tweaking for my needs. Some changes were made in order to have a beefier result, that would allow me to use metal parts strong enough to support my weight and then some.

The following is a recipe, please modify to suit your own needs.

Down line:
Samson braid rope, 5/8, 8 feet – good quality rope
1 large harness ring
1 galvanized thimble, 5/8″ (marine style eyelet for rope.)
No. 2 whipping twine (marine store)
1 carbiner, large, galvanized, (optional)

Assemble the thimble and whipping to one end. The cross webbing will go through the eyelet thimble. Using a thimble ensures no chafing on the rope. Pass the rope through the harness ring, over your ceiling mount or your chin-up bar, and back through the harness ring. The rope goes through the harness ring with a half twist, and enables length adjustment. When using the UDT you lock off the length of the downline with a half knot. When attaching the thimble, use the whipping twine and a large needle. Use black electrical tape to temporarily fasten the rope to the thimble. Possibly use a hose clamp to squeeze the thimble ends close together before you begin stitching. The more stitching and whipping you do, the stronger it is.

Cross line:
2 metal clasps for 1″ webbing
2 plastic or metal buckles for adjusting length of webbing
1″ webbing, 9 feet (more than you need).

Assemble the line with clasps at each end. The buckle is threaded through. I have only sewn one end so that I can adjust it more and get the length right. See photo.

The handles
1″ webbing, * 2 * 19″ optional, so you can create a foot stirrup.
1″ webbing, 2 * 26″
2 D-rings, 1″
2 foam bicycle handle grips
2 * 5″ pvc plumbing tubing – tubing may be cheapest in 10 ft. length

Get your bike handles first, and take them with you when you select your tubing. The tubing will only cost $3, but you may have to buy 10 feet of it. Oops. Cut the tubing to the length of the grips and sand the ends, make the inner lip smooth and rounded. Slide the webbing through and slide in the D-ring into the longer piece of webbing and sew them up.

You then you have your handles to attach to the clasps on the cross strap which is attached to the downline through the thimble eyelet. Adjust to your needs.

There are a few things you might need when you are assembling this:

• A source of fire to melt nylon webbing cut ends
• 1 large sewing needle
• 1 pair of pliers, to push needle through,
• sandpaper, scissors, saw, black electrical tape
• hose clamp to squeeze together thimble & rope for sewing & whipping.

My Home Gym includes:

• small bosu ball – $30 on Craigslist
• Dumbells: 5, 3, 2 & 1 lb, couple dollars each
• Adjustable plate dumbell, economy version, 5 – 25 lbs $60 each – cheaper and more compact than plates.
• plastic stool (ikea) $10
• chin-up bar $20
• push up bars static ($25) & twisting ($10)
• 2 exercise balls (not sure, and they are in storage anyways)