3 Ways to Convert your Dorm Space into a Gym Space

The one thing most college students lack more than anything else is time. With so many classes to take, group meetings to attend, papers to write, and naps to squeeze in, getting a chance to make it to the gym is often impossibility. Luckily, all it takes is a little ingenuity to create everything you’d find in a gym, room right in your dorm room.

Chin up bar under the bed: The chin up one of the 5 best exercises (the others being push-ups, dips, squats, and dead lifts) you can do. They mainly work your lats, which are the big muscles on your sides that run from your deltoids to your glutes, and your biceps, which are the muscles that make girls want to have sex with you. And, since it’s an unsupported body weight exercise, it’s going to work all the little stabilizing muscles in your back and core that help you balance.
There are a couple ways you can get a chin up bar in your dorm room. The first is obvious: go to Wal-Mart and buy an Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar (~$30) and hang it on your door frame. But if you want to save the $30 for the date your big arms are going to win you, consider making your own. It’s simple – all you need is a lofted bed with some clear space underneath it. Literally, that’s all you need. Depending on how tall you are you might need to bring your knees up to your chest, which will make it harder (read: better for you).
If you can’t loft your bed, that doesn’t mean you can’t do chin ups in your room. Most college dorms have thick heavy doors – throw a towel over yours and do chin ups with that. Having to hold on to the towel will do wonders for your grip strength, and the door should be able to support your weight, provided you’re careful about it.

Dip Station: Dips were the hardest exercise for me for a long time. There are two different ways to do dips, both of which hit different muscles and both of which you can (probably) do in your room. Bench dips primarily work your triceps, and can be done by standing with your back facing your desk chair. Grab the front of the chair with your hands and extend your feet out as far as they can do, until you’re almost in a seated position. Now, lower yourself to the ground and bring yourself back up using just your arms.
Chest dips require a bit more equipment, but aren’t hard to set up. In most college dorms, the desk and the dresser are roughly the same height. Arrange your room so that your bed and dresser are a little wider than shoulder width apart, and there you go. Perfect dips station.

Free(ish) Free Weights: While a set of 25-lb hex-dumbbells is a cheap and probably more useful, you don’t really need it to do most free-weight exercises. Instead, take the $500 worth of text books you just bought, stuff them all in your backpack, and get to work.
There are a ton of different exercises you can do with free weights. Hold your backpack from the little handle on the top and go bicep curls. Hold it to your chest and do squats (or for a serious challenge, hold it over your head and THEN do squats. Put it on the ground, crouch down, and then explode upwards while holding it. Get creative and see what you can do with them.