Inexpensive Athletic Equipment (Christmas Gifts)

Belladonna has fallen in with an outstanding bunch of young people at college.  One of the things they do is lift weights.  They are STRONG.  They break things without even trying.

Belladonna continued her "circuit" when she was home for Thanksgiving.  I went with her once to keep her company.  I could not keep up.

One of her exercises was to throw a medicine ball.  She started in a berry-picker position and lobbed it over her head and it landed behind her.

I thought buying her a medicine ball would be a spiffy Christmas gift until I saw the price.  They cost almost $50.  I decided that a homemade gift was in order, especially when I remembered that the medicine ball she was using was starting to leak from the pounding it was taking.

Recycled laundry detergent jug.  Recycled garden hose.  New rope.

This is what the inside of the jug looks like.  You cannot really see it but the rope "X" from left side of nearest handle to right side of farthest handle...and so on.  Part of making this durable is to ensure that the ends of the hose are beneath the level of the concrete.  That way, the sharp edges and corners of the concrete are bearing against the hose instead of sawing against the rope.

Pretty good rope.  Fifty feet for $13.  That is enough rope for about twelve copies of this weight.

Mix up a little bit of concrete for a bit less than eight cents a pound.

Add concrete.  I used a piece of scrap lumber to spread the handles but I don't know if that is necessary.  

This is a 175 ounce jug and should weigh about 28 pounds (12.5kg) when filled with concrete.  A one gallon jug will weigh about 20 pounds and a half gallon jug (64 ounces) pr a two liter bottle will weigh about 10 pounds after being filled with concrete.  It looks like I can crank these out for about $2 each.

Bella may not want to be seen in public with one of these, but they will be plenty good enough for putting divots into the pasture out back.