How to Make Your Own Weights Barbell and Dumbell: How to Make Your Own Weights Barbell and Dumbell

By Dr. Graham
Last updated March 4th, 2019 .First posted on by .

Can’t afford a gym membership? Then make your own weights. Dr. Doug Graham shows off a simple design to make your own dumbbell or make your own barbell. Find out what circus dumbbells are, as well as a few tips in the process.

Transcript

Hey! Dr. Doug Graham here, just talking a little bit about fitness and making your own toys. Sometimes people tell me they can’t afford to go to the gym, or they don’t own a weight set and it’s a problem. They don’t know where to access stuff. I just wanted to let you know, you can easily make your own with a five gallon bucket and a little bit of cement.

What we’re going to unveil here is known as a “circus dumbbell”.

I don’t know if I can move it. We just made it as an experiment. We might have to make a lighter one, but we’re going to unveil a circus dumbbell. It’s a pretty heavy dumbbell, to be quite honest. It’s just a little piece of pipe. We started with something about like this, and put some cement in the bucket and stuck the pipe in. Once one end hardened, we pulled it out, put a little cement in the bucket again, stuck the pipe in. This is what we end up with. Our circus dumbbell.

It’s heavy enough so I’m not putting overhead just today, but I’m hoping that day will come. For the moment, for me to play with this dumbbell requires two hands. It’s heavy, but it’s a fun little toy. Even putting it up here is requiring a bit of effort. I would guess it’s in the 90-pound range. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a little more, a little less. It’s hard to tell, but it is going to be a great little toy to play with. We can make endless numbers of them using the same bucket over and over again. Two feet of pipe. We can make them any weight we want to make them. A little more cement, a little less cement. We have our circus dumbbell.

We took a piece of steel, put a bucket full of cement, put the pipe in, let it all harden off. Once it had hardened, did the same thing down at the other end. We’re ready for the unveiling today. We’re going to, hopefully, be able to loosen our supports and get this thing off of here. Maybe. Only maybe. It never goes the way you want it to when you’re on film, right? There we go. I’m going to let the whole thing fall to the ground.

Kevin Cosmo (cameraman): Where?

Right there. With a resounding clunk. Eventually, we’ll take this bucket off. We now have our own homemade dumbbell. Our own homemade barbell set. Yes, we will even take the bucket off, but I just can’t wait to find out. How heavy is this thing? Will it come off the ground? Not without some effort involved, that’s for sure. Nope. Didn’t happen yet. Effort is going to seriously be involved. Wow. It’s so heavy. I don’t know if I can even … Don’t know if I can get it off the ground.

One more try, maybe. Maybe it’ll come, but it’s heavy. And there you have it. A new toy. We’ll have fun picking that one up, I’m sure. Now that we know that it does come off the ground, I’m sure everyone else that’s here with me will want to pick it up as well. This is Dr. Doug Graham, reminding you to have a lot of fun as you go to health.

I just want to convey my gratitude and thank yous to Richard Gambino. Richard has been helping me for years at FoodnSport events, and before that, attended many FoodnSport events as an attendee. He’s now working with FoodnSport, and volunteering for Food and Sport doing various things. Especially his field of expertise as a master stone mason has left him in a perfect position to create toys for us, such as this beautiful circus dumbbell, or our creative barbells to which we’re going to be able to add weights as we desire, using ropes and chains and other supplemental weights on top of the barbell itself. He’s made for us more than 16 atlas stones that we’re all having fun playing with the different stones. They’ve been serving us for years. I’m sure he’s going to make even more in the future.

Richard, I want to convey my sincere “thank you” to you for all your efforts on our behalf. We’re thrilled for the time we get to spend together. Your personal achievements, going from a noted athlete, all the way now with the influence of 80-/0/10 to becoming an All-American 3000 meter steeple chase runner. This is quite an accomplishment. I’m thrilled for the time we get to spend together. So glad that you got to meet your fiance at a FoodnSport event, and I know there’s many, many great times to come in our future together. I look forward to a long lasting friendship with you, my baby brother. Thank you, Richard Gambino, for all your efforts on our behalf.

Additional Resources

Articles:

Retreats:


Amp Up Your Fitness

 

Practical Skills To Thrive

Self-Study Materials:


Raw Athlete’s3 Book Combo

The 80/10/10 Family
Membership

80/10/10 Bootcamp
How To Live 80/10/10
This entry was posted in All, By Dr Graham, Fitness, Health Science, Quality of Life by Dr. Doug Graham. Bookmark the permalink.

About Dr. Doug Graham

Dr. Douglas Graham, a lifetime athlete and raw fooder since 1978, is an advisor to world-class and motivated athletes and trainers from around the globe. He has worked professionally with top performers from almost every sport and every field of entertainment, including such notables as tennis legend Martina Navratilova, NBA pro basketball players Ronnie Grandison and Michael Porter Jr., track Olympic sprinter Doug Dickinson, pro women's soccer player Callie Withers, championship bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams, Chicken Soup for the Soul coauthor Mark Victor Hansen, and actress Demi Moore. As owner of a fasting retreat in the Florida Keys for ten years, Dr. Graham personally supervised thousands of fasts. He was in private practice as a chiropractor for twenty years, before retiring to focus on his writing and speaking. Dr. Graham is the author of many books on health and raw food including The 80/10/10 Diet, The High Energy Diet Recipe Guide, Nutrition and Athletic Performance, Grain Damage, Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries, and his latest, Perpetual Health 365. He has shared his strategies for success with audiences at more than 4,000 presentations worldwide. Recognized as one of the fathers of the modern raw movement, Dr. Graham is the only lecturer to have attended and given keynote presentations at all of the major raw events in the world for each of the last eight years. Dr. Graham has served on the board of governors of the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists and the board of directors of the American Natural Hygiene Society. He is on the board of advisors of Voice for a Viable Future, Living Light Films, Vegetarian Union of North America, and EarthSave International and serves as nutrition advisor for the magazine Exercise, For Men Only. Dr. Graham is the raw foods and fitness advisor for The801010Forum.com. He taught the Health Educator program at Hippocrates Institute, served as the "source authority" for Harmonious Living, and authors a column for the magazines Get Fresh! and Vibrance (previously known as Living Nutrition). Dr. Graham is the creator of "Simply Delicious" cuisine and director of Health and Fitness Week, which provides Olympic-class training and nutrition for people of all fitness levels in beautiful settings around the world. He will inspire, motivate, educate, and entertain you like no one else in the health movement can.