Help Building a Meaningful Routine

Hey everyone, this is my first post AND topic on these forums, so hopefully it goes over well. I’m a newbie but I did as much reading as possible beforehand because I don’t expect to just have everything handed to me.

I actually found this site several days ago and since then i’ve been picking random articles that I found very interesting and just soaking up as much info as I can. Wonderful and amazing articles I must say, but that’s enough ass-kissing. I type a lot and I apologize in advance for that. You can skip down about 3 or 4 paragraphs to get into the meat of what it is i’m looking for in the way of advice.

I think I have the diet part covered but if not than I’ll research some more and eventually make a topic about it need be, but my main problem is I don’t know where to start as far as actually training goes.

Right now i’m actually going through a rough period. I still live at home (but not in that “Fat dude in mom’s basement” sort of way) and i’m stuck in between jobs, and I tried finding cheap gyms in my area like the Y or something that do a monthly thing, but out of what little gym information I can find that pertains to my area, the gyms that are listed are mostly in the unsavory parts of Southern Chicago, and I wouldn’t be caught dead in some of these areas even if I looked twice as strong as some of you guys and had a gun.

Sorry, I ramble on a lot. I’m just trying to make sure I cover my bases so I can prevent any, “suck it up and go to a gym” sort of responses, because its REALLY out of the question as of right now.

That being said, after looking at all of the articles I could I am officially overwhelmed and I don’t know where to start. I don’t have much available in the way of workout equipment, but what I DO have available is a weight bench (no barbell though), and pairs of dumbbell weights ranging from 5lbs to 40lbs (5lb increments) and i’m thinking of buying a rope to add to the mix to see if I can add to my grip strength as well. I might even go as far as building a stand alone chin-up bar and see how that goes.

I know i’m going to HAVE to eventually get a gym membership at some point if I want to work towards having an awesome muscly body, but for now i’m just some chunky dude who’s ready to finally do something about his weight, so I think anything at this point would be beneficial; I just do know what to do or what kind of program I should start myself on. I know there is no perfect program, but I don’t even know where to start in designing my own based on my current financial and gear limitations.

Oh, and in case anyone needs the info, my strong parts I guess would have to be my biceps and legs (I did a LOT of walking when I was younger), and I suppose my weak points would have to be my endurance, my shoulders, and my BACK! Specifically my lower back, jeeze. Its the first thing to go (by that I mean get sore and need rest) when I do pretty much anything, and i’m pretty damn tired of it.

So yeah, sorry for the long huge post, but I wanted to make sure I covered as much info as possible that I think would be relevant to what it is i’m asking in case I can’t get back to the topic right away and respond to any questions that you may have to help any advice that you might have.

Cheap stuff to buy for weights:

Large sand bag (cleans, squats, sprints etc)
Pull up bar (guess)

Sledge hammer + Tyre (10x1min intervals of tyre wacking, decrease rest from 60s by 5s every workout)

Rope (Drag tyre, take tyre to a tree through rope over tree and attach to tyre = cable system)

Look up 3rd world workouts.

Bench you can do some split leg squats

You should squat. You should deadlift. You should bench. If the weights you have are heavy enough to challenge you on those three exercises, do starting strength until you run out of weight, then either buy a barbell and some plates, or find a gym.