From Icewind Dale with love.

[wulfgar]

Hi there, I am a brand new adventurer here, eager to begin my quest! Here my stats:

 

age: 33
weight: 120

 

Yeah, I know, I'm quite a fatty dude, but, in my self-defence, I have already some shoulders and my biceps are not so bad (or I hope so, at least...).
What I want to became? My dream is to be a strongman (yeah, I am 33 and still dream, and I love it!), I want to be BIG and STRONG. Still, at the moment I am quite low on cash, as I am becoming a fatty daddy really soon, so I am asking you guys what to do in the meantime, until I can afford myself a gym membership. Bodyweight? Dumbell made of water bottles? Tables to lift?

Any help is very very welcome.

May the Gods watch over you, friends.

[bker1370]

Bodyweight can be very effective.  I know the blog has a number of bodyweight workouts that you can try.  Also you may want to look at this site on various progressions for bodyweight exercises (depending on your ability with each one)

[wulfgar]

Thanks for your kind reply and the link, I will check it out right now. Do you recommend any other kind of exercise?

Thanks!

 

[Johan Ema]

Try madbarz app for your phone.

Have tons of exercise and routines. You can also make your own. Also have videos that show all exercise too

 

Best Regards Johan

[DarK_RaideR]

Quick response, hopefully I can return with a more expanded post

• Nutrition is 75%-80% of the battle. Don't focus solely on workouts. You need to eat right both in order to drop weight and to avoid muscle loss/build muscle
• Unless I'm mistaken, @Broba Fett knows his powerlifting. Beyond that, you should check the Warriors' Guild. Don't know a lot of people there, but perhaps @Gainsdalf the Whey, @SpecialSundae and @Rooks might be able to point you towards the right direction
• Bodyweight is a good option for your situation. If it's not your cup of tea or you want a long term low budget solution, I know @Teros has slowly build his own set of workout items

[Rooks]

I'm going to assume your weight is listed in KGs, not LBs since a 33 year old weighing 120lbs I don't believe could physically be fat.  

 

That said, if money is tight, you can go two ways IMO.  First, as people have said, go bodyweight.  You can get crazy strong doing bodyweight stuff so don't think it's just some fluff stuff.  Loads of good programs out there for BW routines, including one by Steve Kamb (founder of NF) himself.  Very solid starting point.  Plus you can do this at home so can knock it out whenever you have a few spare minutes.  No big time commitment.  

This doesn't really work with the limited money thing, but GymnasticsBodies.com is also a great place, but their programs are pretty spendy.  Christopher Somner (the guy who runs it) claims that he has routinely taking people in straight off the street, and if they stick to their programs for 4-6 years, are doing things like iron crosses and planches and stuff like that.  4-6 years seems like a long time, but you don't get to those things overnight.  More including this as a reference to what a true BW routine could do if you stick to it.  

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

 

Second option would be to shop around for a cheap gym.  Here in the USA, places like Snap Fitness are able to make their memberships really cheap by cutting back on amenities.  They usually don't have showers, but some are able to have full squat racks and benches.  So yeah.  It'll get you access to the iron, but it'll take a bit more time.

 

Either way, the best way to make progress is to do something.  Even if it's as simple as I'm going to try and do 5 push-ups every day for the next week, that's better than doing nothing and you can easily build on that.  Don't overthink it when you are starting.  Just go forth and conquer.   

[Teros]

6 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

 

• , I know @Teros has slowly build his own set of workout items

 

 

 

 

And as it's been said - food accounts for 80%+ of weight loss.

[Broba Fett]

Greetings Wulfgar.  I hope Catti-brie is well. 

 

Couple things:

1. I'll echo everyone else and say start now with bodyweight.  I personally started with the beginner bodyweight workout and used a 20lb box of kitty litter as a dumbell and jogging with the (free) couch-2-5k app.
2. I wouldn't call myself an expert on any kind of lifting but I've gained some experience in strongman and it's all about picking up awkward objects and sometimes running with them.  Find the heaviest thing you can and pick it up.  Multiple times if you can.  Pick it up and run with it.  When you can do that, pick it up, press it over your head, and run with it.  Throw it.  Look up the encumbrance rules for 3.5 and try to out-do the "real" Wulfgar.  (He's a 20 in STR in 3.5 btw, I may or may not have done just as I suggested and looked it up to compare myself).  Have fun with it.
3. This one is going to suck but I'm going to throw it in there just because several people had to give me this reality check when I was starting before I took a step back and listened:  Take a look at your finances very closely and honestly and see if there is anywhere you can cut out enough to pay for a gym membership.  When I was starting I told several people I couldn't afford a $20 USD/mo membership until a friend was brave enough to be a dick and point out that I was spending $6-7 on lunch every single day. 

However you decide to do it, let me know when you get a challenge thread or battle log set up and I will do my best to follow along and help motivate you to keep going. 

[Broba Fett]

Oh!  Also:  Please scream TEMPUS!!! every time you go for a PR.  The gods will hear your plea and lend their strength.

[SpecialSundae]

Hey,

 

Definitely happy to help with powerlifting and vague suggestions on strongman (although I'll leave details on the latter to the experts). Where in the world are you based and I'll see if I know anything I can suggest for getting into heavy metal on a budget?

 

Sundae

[wulfgar]

First of all, I have to apoligize for my log absence, but my wife was pregnant and on 26th of July my first daughter was born, yeee!!!

I will try to reply every one of you right now, thanks for the warm welcome and very appreciated suggestions

@Johan Ema thanks I will try it right now!
@DarK_RaideR yeah, I understood that I have to eat clean to have best results, so I was thinking going semi-Paleo, which seems very reasonable to me, with some adds light beans and lentils.
@Rooks yeah, Kgs my bad Sadly I live in Italy, so no cheap gyms, as far as I know, but your advice in doing anything in order to make progress is very inspirational to me, thanks!
@Teros can I ask you how did you build those items? Thanks
@Broba Fett Catti-Brie is very good, thanks for asking I had no idea that 20 Str was __so much__ weight you can lift, wow! I am very careful with my finances already, as I have wife and newborn daughter, but I will try to trim somewhere if possible. Also, I would love motivation, thanks for the battle log idea! For Tempus!!!
SpecialSundae thanks for your reply, I live in Italy

Again, thank all of you for your replies and motivation!

May Tempus grant us strength and honor in battle!

[DarK_RaideR]

Congratulations and best wishes for your daughter and family!

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Congrats!

 

Like others said, the cheapest way is to find heavy crap and lift in, run with it, carry it, etc. That's what strongman is about. A good tactic is to find a really durable duffle bag and fill it with sand and stone and use that. There's workout routines only that cover many creative ways to use it. Best part is that it's scalable, add more rock and stone as your progress.

 

Another place to look is getting used gym equipment online. We have craigslist here, not sure if it's in Italy or if there's a counterpart. I can get iron (barbell plates) here at about $0.50 a lb if I remember correctly, and I've found used barbells as cheap as $15.