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Due to current measures regarding the coronavirus, we are all stuck at home. In the Netherlands a “relaxed lockdown” while in other countries a total lockdown applies. At that time, it is difficult to do exercises at home because of limitations with fitness equipment. Gyms are closed and physiotherapists as well.

Fitness equipment is very expensive and takes up a lot of space. In the Netherlands it is still possible to exercise outside individually, but not in other countries because you can only leave the house for a valid reason. You can get a high fine for that.

I want to show a way to make your own biodegradable fitness equipment and doing exercises with the materials you can get from your local supermarket, which is cheaper. Other advantages of using gelatin based bioplastic is that it is reusable once cured and if you want to get rid of it it is compostable by leaving it in a salt solution and then rinsing it away. In rehabilitation care, this is important for people who are in rehabilitation because they need that exercise to recover from injuries. For people who regularly go to gyms, fitness equipment is very expensive and can go up to thousands of euros and they may have spent it for nothing as soon as the gyms open again.

As a matter of fact the exercises people do in gyms and rehabilitation care is the same. The only difference is that in the gyms everyone is free to exercise how they want and in rehabilitation care it’s guided with a specialist and focused on a specific part of the body.

In some developing countries where they have no gyms in some places, they sometimes make their own workout materials. They cut open a football or basketball, fill it with sand or concrete and turn it into their own kettlebell. They fill buckets with stones and use them to lift weight. They fill bags with sand, lift them on their backs and do exercises. T-Nation Author Craig Weller was often sent to developing countries (according to articles by T-Nation he wants to keep his profession a secret) and to keep fit he made the aforementioned fitness equipment.

Concrete kettlebells and Craig Weller’s workout place during one of his missions - The Jungle Gym and Malaria, T-Nation