Kinobody Body Weight Program - Needed Equipment

I thought for a while about how to organize this blog.  I thought about all the things I have already learned in the first week and wondered how best to put them all into one post, so the information was easily and quickly found and digested.  Then, I realized that it wasn't really possible, and that I would need something to write every now and then.  So, I've decided to make the title of each post what someone would be looking for if they were debating if this was the right program for them, then I'll spend a few paragraphs on the title subject, and finish off with my progress.

When looking into the program, I noticed that I couldn't find a list of the equipment I would need.  Of course, there are plenty of pictures and videos of Greg doing handstand push-ups on the beach and one-handed push-ups with his feet up on park benches, but what if I didn't have a park near me?  What if I couldn't do a handstand push-up on the first day (let alone own a beach)?  Did I have the stuff I would need?  How much would that stuff cost?  Where would I find said stuff (Amazon, duh Paul)?  No matter what, I knew I would likely need 'stuff', no matter how many times Kinobody advertised that all I needed was my own body weight.

So, here it is:  the list of 'stuff' you're going to need.

Some way to do pull-ups.  I started using a door-frame pull-up bar before I started Kinobody.  I used this bad boy.  It works pretty well, though if you get it, you'll want to tear off part of the box to put on the part of the bar that rests just above your door-frame.  There is some padding, but even at only 210 pounds (or so) I dug some pretty good holes into my wall.  A few pieces of cardboard stops this.  The pull-up bar will only take you so far in the system though.  Eventually, you know, when you're awesome, you'll be doing muscle-ups.  This is a pull-up where you get up high enough that your arms take over and push you up until your arms are straight (think of how your body looks when you're hopping a fence, just before you put your foot on the top of it).  So, the door-frame pull-up bar will work up until you need to do muscle-ups, then you'll need something that will allow you to go arms length above the bar without hitting your head.

If you can't do three pull-ups/chin-ups (this is me folks, so don't be too embarrassed) you're going to need a bar at waist height for rows.  I'm currently using some handles that are more like chest height and then putting my feet on a chair.  At any rate, you're going to need to find something to fit this bill.

A floor you're okay with laying on and putting your hands on.  Greg uses a mat of some sort; I use the cement in my garage and wear an old shirt that I don't mind getting dirty.  So, whatever you need to do to get a floor that's lay-on-able.

You'll need a ball that can hold your weight, or some other thing that can hold one hand off the ground while the other is on the floor with your body in push-up position.  A basketball, or medicine ball, or soccer ball would all do, I think.

Right at the start you're going to need a chair or bench that will hold your weight and stay in the same place while you use it to brace on.  I was using a couple of lawn chairs, but found they move too easily, so I bought a flat bench that I'll probably review later when I've used it for a while.  In the beginning this will be used to put your hands on while you lower your butt toward the floor, and to put your feet up on for incline push-ups when you start doing them.  If you're like me, you'll also be using this for putting your feet on to make a bar at waist height.

And that's it.  If you have all of these things you should be good to go.  If not, you'll either be buying stuff, or thinking of ways to use what you have instead of these things.

As for me, I weighed in at 189.2 pounds (85.8196763 kilos) on Saturday (Saturday is generally my weigh in day.  I weigh myself every day, but only keep track on the lowest days, and that is usually Saturday).  I hit my calorie goals every day the week leading up to Saturday, and hoped to lose a little more, but so it goes.  The workout routine has made me extremely sore.  I assume this means good things, but read that being sore isn't necessarily the only indicator that what you're doing is working.  At any rate, I felt pretty good on my walk Saturday morning, even if a little sore.  Just need to keep grinding.