Building a Gym From The Ground Up Part Six: PVC/Dowel

A wonderful, even essential piece of equipment for CrossFit, is a five foot length of PVC pipe or wooden dowel. These are great for performing the Olympic Lifts. While the lifts perhaps make more sense when performed weighted, being able to do them with a light weight is a great way to learn proper form. In fact Coach G. calls adding weight to fix a movement "painting a dirty car". Some things you can do with a dowel:

• snatch
• clean and jerk
• Bergner warm-up
• shoulder dislocate
• flagpole strech
• deadlift
• press
• push-press
• push-jerk
• thruster

Here is a surprisingly hard workout you can do with just a dowel:

Broomstick Mile

With a broomstick complete the following:

• Back Squat X25
• Front Squat X 25
• OHS X 25
• Run 400 M
• Shoulder Press X 25
• Push Press X 25
• Push Jerk X 25
• Run 400 M
• Hang Clean X 50
• Run 400 M
• Snatch X 50
• Run 400 M