Q&A for How to Make a Homemade Weight Set

You can do bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, dips, or squats in addition to using your homemade weights.

Yes. Weights are weights. No matter what you use as an extra weight to push your workout a little, weights are weights. Your muscles don't know whether you're lifting a water bottle or a regular bell weight.

No, since wood chips are far lighter that sand, water, stones or concrete. Mulch or wood chips would not do.

Yes, you can get two cans and insert a pole into both buckets and pour a cement mixture in.

Yes, 16 oz is 1 lb.

No. A couch is well beyond the strength range of most people. Also, couches do not have a weight balance spread out uniformly across their volume, making it very difficult to find the center of balance.

You can look online for good workout plans for any skill level, from beginner to expert.

If your goal is to lose weight, I would use body weight exercise such as push ups, sit ups, squats, and other calisthenic exercises. Resistance bands also work well and are much cheaper than weights.

It depends on each patient. It would be best to ask your doctor before performing any of these exercises.

Any weights are effective. You basically mix cement into the jug and use a broomstick as the bar part.

You can use your own human body, just not as a “dumbbell”. It's called “isometrics” - which is essentially the same as “posing” like body builders do on stage. You flex you muscles (as if you're showing them off) and hold that flex for an extended period of time (8, 10, 12 seconds). You can use a friend (or a paid fitness instructor better yet) to provide resistance to your desired exercise movements; this would have to be carefully coordinated and performed for each exercise though – both of you would get exercise out of it though.

These all are great suggestions. If they don't provide enough resistance (are not heavy enough) you can find larger containers to up the amount of sand or water. Other than that, there aren't a lot of options that are safe – meaning the suggested items (water bottles, canned foods, paint cans) provide handles and balance. Otherwise, you might have to get some weights – you can find used ones at a cheaper price if money is an issue. If space is the issue, a gym, or the Y, or a Bowflex dumbbell set - very space efficient.

A stone is officially 14 pounds, or 6.35 Kgs. So 200 kgs would turn out to be approximately 31.5 stones.

You can fill zip-lock bags with sand, then double bag them. This will keep the sand from spilling. Then tie them to your ankles with a comfortable strap.