Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DIY GYM

I am aware that I suffer from DIY syndrome. The illness probably started out someplace in my youth on the farm and it's only gotten worse. It doesn't help that these days, among many circles, "doing it yourself" is not only trendy is revered. If i am not mistaken it used to be called "homemade" before the world of acronyms took over and it was typically done out of necessity rather than "cool" factor.

As an young indentured servant on the family farm we were constantly getting in little pinches and there is usually little help around to come to your rescue so you improvise all sorts of crap just to keep things moving along. This was pre cell phones so we'd run back to the truck and call my dad on a Mortorola handheld radio to ask for help and his usual answer was simple: "desert island". "Dammit!" we'd curse this expression as we knew exactly what it meant: you're on your own/do it yourself. And somehow, someway we'd creatively come up with some way of rigging whatever was failing us back into a condition that would allow us to carry on. It usually involved bailing twine and a pocket knife.
So with that background, and a touch (or more) of general tightfistedness I developed a case of DIY syndrome...

What's this got to do with running?! Nothing really, it has to do more with what I plan to do while not running that may or may not improve my running... You see, I need another workout or two to mix in with the miles. Cross-training.

I am definitely not a gym rat and I've avoided machines and barbells like the plague for my entire life. I don't care for all that crap and the environment of a gym makes me want to puke. Some I am hitting the junk piles at home and on the farm and the hardware store to build my own (DIY) "gym".
First piece in my homemade gym:

Slosh Pipe. Can you believe there is a whole website dedicated to this?! Then again this one is ultimately about putting one foot in front of the other... obviously I'll be building the 3" version--being a wimpy endurance athlete and not some crossfit-crazed-shaved-headed-injury-time-bomb. I seriously get paid to do this in the summertime moving handlines around the fields, now I'll do it for free in my spare time.

More to come on this little gym project...

1 comment:

  1. I built this slosh pipe deal. It's the weeny verison as promised. It measures somewhere around 7'6" or so and weighs 33ish pounds. I've been doing three different exercises with it, one's kind of a curl with both arms, two's an overhead lift and three's squats. once i get the garage cleaned up i'll have a little more room to add some additional exercises.
    it seems like a really good workout as i am worked in a matter of minutes. squats are helping me build strength in my legs that I am hoping will relieve some of the joint pain I have from time to time. I've also been stretching a lot more. Mom got me a grid foam roller (I was going to build my own).

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