How to Make a Cheap Weight Set

Use plastic bottles to make a set of weights.

If you're trying to lose weight, you can increase the number of calories you burn by including weightlifting in your exercise regimen. Weightlifting builds muscle, and the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day. Yet if a gym membership or a home gym is outside your budget, you can make your own weight set instead.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• 16-oz. plastic water bottle with lid
• 1-liter plastic water bottle with lid
• 2-liter plastic water bottle with lid
• 1-gallon plastic water bottle with lid
• Dish-drying rack
• Sand
• Scale
• Permanent marker
• Masking tape

Instructions

1. Rinse out these four plastic bottles, and their lids, with water: a 16-oz., a 1-liter, a 2-liter and a 1-gallon bottle. Leave them upside down on a dish-drying rack to dry. These will be the weights.

2. Fill each bottle to the top with sand, leaving no free space. Screw the lids tightly on the bottles.

3. Weigh each bottle with a scale. (The type of sand you use will determine how much each bottle weighs.) Write the weight of the bottle in permanent marker on a piece of masking tape and stick the tape across the bottle lid.

References

• Fitness and Freebies: Why Lift Weights?