Hands On Fitness

If you've been following me on Twitter or on my Facebook page you've probably noticed lots of talk and some pictures of a homemade slosh pipe that I recently made.  First I want to state that I cannot take credit for making this!  I found the idea on Girl Walks Into A Bar(bell) blog.  She was kind enough to write up a printable PDF of instructions on how to make one too. My instructions aren't going to be as detailed as hers, and her pictures are way better, lol, so check out her post too :) I gotta give credit where credit is due!

So following her simple instructions, I went off to Lowes to get my materials. I noticed they only had 5' and 10' lengths so I just went with the 4" x 10' pipe. When I got home and went to get started I noticed that it was going to be way to large for me.  I took it back to Lowes and exchanged it for a 3" diameter pipe and had the 10' pipe cut down to an 8' length.  I kept the extra 2' piece to make a mini slosh pipe for the kiddos. I also bought 2 plastic caps for the ends and 2 rubber caps for the other ends (this makes it easier to change water levels if you need to) and a jar of PVC cement. The whole project came to around $50.

Not intimidating at all...

Once home, I started with the small one and coated the inside of the plastic cap and the outside of the PVC pipe with the PVC cement and slid them together. After I seen that one went well, I did the same to longer pipe. PVC cement is supposed to dry really quickly, but I didn't want to take any chances and let the cement dry overnight to be sure it was set.  In the morning I started with the smaller one again and filled it about 1/2-3/4 of the way full with water and some vinegar (the other directions call for bleach, but I found another site that used vinegar and it seemed much more eco friendly to me, so you could use either/or) to keep the water from getting funky. I pulled the rubber cap onto the end and tightened the adjustable steel clamp. I repeated the same thing with the longer pipe, except I actually had to stand on my counter top to finish filling it, lol. Afterwards I weighed both pipes and wrote their weight on the plastic end caps with the kiddos crayons (worked awesome!). The mini slosh pipe came in at 7.5 lbs and the 8 footer came in at 19.5 lbs.

The materials (do not do this project on carpeting!)

Finished Products

My 3 yr old and the Mini

Pressing 7.5 lbs of sloshy goodness!

Killer core/upper body workout :)

So that was my fun, homemade fitness project of the week! As far as how to use them for working out, you can try carrying it as you walk a distance. Trust me, the water sloshing back and forth totally engages your core muscles. Or you can try using it for the same things you'd use a barbell for.  Make sure you give yourself plenty of room while using this, lol. It's very easy to lose control of! My next project is either going to be a homemade TRX or a homemade Plyo Box. Not sure which one though. Which one would you rather see??

Have you ever made any of your fitness equipment??