The $50 Jungle Gym

When I decided I wanted to live in a tribal village in the mountains of Northern Thailand for 6 months, I knew I would need to build a gym. It had to be one that would not limit me to bodyweight exercises and allow me to use real weight and make good progress. Since I was only going to be in the village for a short time, it didn’t make sense to spend a lot of money (which I didn’t have anyway) on proper equipment, which is imported from the USA and quite expensive in Thailand. I’m not yet at the point where I’m throwing around 540lbs on a bench press machine or squatting 270kgs so I didn’t need equipment built for that sort of use. Besides, since it would be installed outside, the elements would take their toll on even the finest Hammer Strength machine, not to mention the near-certainty that some young local show-off would hoist a $100 dumbbell above his head only to find it was too heavy and drop it, and cracking it.

I therefore set about making the Jungle Gym, a durable, strong (and easily replaceable) fitness phenomenon. Bamboo, wood and sand were the chief ingredients and the project shows it’s possible to work out properly with only very basic facilities.

Just as a warning, I’m not the most photogenic model to begin with, but the crowd of hecklers shouting and throwing out demands such as “Do that for an hour!” while I was being photographed didn’t help me achieve the “Blue Steel” look.

Firstly I made these parallel bars, primarily for dipping, but as you can see they’re long enough to do things such as inverted rows, or even dangerously elevated handstand push-ups. It’s simply four pieces of bamboo in the ground holding up two horizontal bars. The bars can each quite comfortably hold 80kg (me) in the centre, though of course I haven’t tested them to see just how much they can take before they snap. This means that weighted dips up to at least 80kg are possible, and also that even the most enthusiastically careless youth is unlikely to be able to break it. The cost of this essential bit of kit was $0.00.

Similar to the parallel bars is the pull-up bar, which doesn’t require much explanation. It can comfortably handle 130kg so weighted pull-ups are mandatory and no one has managed to break it yet. The Jungle Gym’s pull-up bar is that it’s much thicker than any normal bar, which is great for building up grip strength. This and the parallel bars have become popular climbing frames for the local children, so even though none of their big brothers have really taken to using the bar for more than occasional show-off attempts, at least they are providing some value for the village. Again, $0.00

The bench press is probably the most popular, overused and badly-performed exercise around and naturally I couldn’t be without one, even though the weighted dips would probably be adequate for chest development. The very unimpressive apparatus above is the bench. Safety was the biggest concern given the lack of spotters and the simplest solution was to dig holes to keep the weights in. The result is that, like a machine, the exercise starts from the bottom of the lift and the lowest the bar can go is level with my chest, eliminating the risk of being me squashed by the weight. The sacks you can see are full of dirt (weighed to make sure they were equal). Because they hang from the bar rather than sitting securely on it means the bar is a lot less stable than on a normal bench press. This isn’t a concern though, because the weight can’t drop on the user.

This slightly awkward photo shows the bench in action. The weight, plus the bar, in the photo is 90kg, (just a pinch under 200lbs), which the bar handled well. It’s been tested up to 110kg and that wasn’t a problem, but more than that might require a thicker and stronger bar. The bench has been mostly ignored by the locals because it’s now too heavy for most of them to pick up and they don’t want to lie on the group to bench properly. Since I took this photo I decided to dig two smaller holes to put my feet in so my legs aren’t so raised. As for the cost, I didn’t pay for the sacks I used (though I don’t imagine they’re expensive) and the dirt and bamboo were free, so the cost again was $0.00.

How to squat was a puzzle because one does have to use quite heavy weight. I decided on the above setup, which I feel works quite well. The bottom of the 200L barrel is actually filled with bamboo, and the sacks of dirt sit on top. This is because when the weight in the barrel sits in front of the pivot (the right hand side of the wheel) it actually tips the barrel forwards, making the exercise easier at the top than the bottom, which isn’t what I want. To prevent this, most of the weight sits at the top, behind the pivot. It’s easy to go nice and deep using this setup as the photo shows. I’ll be the first to admit that this is not the most perfect bit of kit given that it’s somewhat harder at the bottom than the top, but I ruled out making a standard squat rack because as the bench press showed, hanging weight from a bar makes it very unstable increases the risk of a back injury. The total cost was $50.

For other exercises, such as military presses, bicep curls, rows and deadlifts etc, I just use another bamboo barbell with attached sand bags, which I’ve measured out in 5kg, 10kg, 15kg and 20kg and 30kg bags. For things like lateral raises, just grab a sack and use it like a dumbbell. I scavenged a few 20 litre water containers, now filled with a mix of water and stones, and they are good for bent over rows and farmer’s walks, the latter attracting plenty of attention as I wander back and forth about the village grimacing and producing sloshing sounds.

As of March 2010, that’s the Jungle Gym. It's not quite a Gold's Gym but it does the job!

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