Survival and Emergency Preparedness

1. parallet bars.
Found plans on the internet. Constructed out of pipe purchased at Home Depot. Parallet bars are lower than parallel bars.
I placed them near the outdoor barbecue. Timed exercises. Foot up behind on barbecue ledge - bars for support. Legs straight up on ledge - bars for support.
Given a new exercise by PT. Have to lean over backwards on one of the bars. Put heavy rocks on the bar feet to stabilize.

2. Resistance band operated from stationary stand.
Obtained free bicycle inner tubes which do not break. The stand is a cast iron short stair case to an alcove.
Exercise is to hold the tube with both hands. Step to the side. Thrust, slowly, the tube straight away from the body and back. Works on rotation.

3. Chinning bar.
Constructed out of 1 inch black iron pipe. The trick is to make it high enough that you have to stand on your toes to curl your hands around the bar.
Until this week, I used 50 pounds sacks of play sand to anchor the unit. The plastic bags fail after a few years. Bought cheap heavy stones to stabilize.

I had belonged to the YMCA. Put aside the monthly dues. Parking went up to $2 a day. 1/2 hour to drive about 3 miles. I even walked it one day! Now all that time and money saved.

My son and I built something similar to this;

1. I am not criticizing the guy's homemade equipment. I bought my materials at Home Depot as well.
2. His challenge is that he has people of different sizes using the same equipment. They won't be able to use all the equipment in the same ways.
3. I didn't have the space in the backyard to construct permanent, in the ground equipment. So mine is portable. The equipment has spread pipe bases. Loaded on the pipe feet are heavy stones.
3. If I were wealthy and had the space, I would have sat with construction professionals and physical therapists.
4. The challenge is that you have to be creative in using the equipment.
You see the guy doing chin ups? Ok. I did a pile of chinups in 1968 in the US Army, every day. Now, I had to research how a person who can't do a chin up conditions his body over time so that he will do chin up effortlessly after preparing the muscle groups.

You watch a ballet dancer. She will lift her leg straight up and about 10 degrees backwards from her body. Watch a kick in football. I can't get my leg up straight like those people. However, I use a set of parallet bars like you saw in the video and in one spot a low wall and another spot the ledge of a concrete barbecue that is higher. So, I can kick a straight leg higher than other people my age.