Great summary, Michael!
@abasket, you will want 3-4 risers for some uses other than exercises that challenge balance, like hip bridges, using the step bench to elevate your legs for progressions on planks or push-ups, for use as a bench for dumbbell bench presses, etc. So here are some exercise suggestions. Shoot for 8-12 reps, maybe 8-15 for push-ups, then look to increase the load or difficulty. Aim for 1 set if you are new to strength training and build to 2-3 sets. In choosing what exercises to do, you want to hit fundamental movement patterns: bend and lift, lunge, push, pull, pressing, torso rotation.
Pushing:
Push-ups - vary position of hands, wide, under shoulders, narrow, to change load. Elevate feet on step bench or chairs to increase load.
Dumbbell bench presses - laying on step bench. Use as many risers as necessary to give you full range of motion.
Dips on the chairs with legs positioned to offset your body weight as needed
Pulling:
1 armed bent DB row supported on step bench
2 armed free standing bent DB row
Pull-ups - use Superbands for weight assist
Plank 1 armed rowing with hands on DBs in the plank position.
Pressing:
Standing overhead DB presses
Bend and Lift:
Squats with body weight, with arms at side and dumbbells in hands, can position DB at shoulders and combine with presses for a great whole body exercise.
1 leg heel taps on Step Bench
Lunging:
Forward lunges, step back lunges, side lunges, walking lunges, with back leg elevated on step bench, with body weight, with DBs held at your sides
Step Ups on Step Bench - body weight, holding DBs with arms at sides
Torso Rotation:
Planks rotated to oblique side planks
Torso Rotations against resistance of Superband tied off on a piece of furniture or a door and held in both hands at arms length
Torso Rotations holding a DB in both hands at arms length
Other Exercises:
Standing DB curls - alternating arms, both arms at same time. Combine with squats so that you curl when you have fully extended your legs
Triceps 1 armed kick backs supported on chair or step brnch
Standing Tricep overhead extensions
Burpees - combine with push-up, combine with DB squat and/or DB Press
Planks - elevate feet for more load
Oblique Planks
Reverse crunches on Step Bench
Hanging Bent leg crunches if you have pull up bar
Hip Bridges on floor or with feet elevated on Step Bench
Hope this gives you some useful ideas. If you or anyone needs more info on how these exercises are done or how to structure a specific routine, feel free to PM me.
Oh, and if you add a stability ball to your “minimalist” equipment, you can use that to elevate you legs and add a stability challenge to the greater load. Also, you can do Y’s and T’s with DBs on the stability ball. Great exercises to strengthen scapular muscles to offset all the sitting we do all day and help avoid kyphosis.
MNK- I have just copy and pasted your 2 posts into a word doc to print. Thanks so much! I have 3 sets of dumbells , but need to look at getting a step bench.
Thanks so much!
Michael, I’m going to follow FallGirl’s example, thank you so much.
Boring treadmill time this morning, 5.38 miles. I’m not a fan of wet pavement and dark mornings. In good news I am only 66 miles away from my 2016 in 2016 goal - this includes running and intentional walking for the past few months. Barring any calamities I think I’m going to make it. I don’t think I’m going to sign up for the 2017 challenge - I am really enjoying the Hadfield Challenge group so will probably do that for 2017 instead.
35 mile relaxed ride yesterday. Temps in the low 40’s, brrr. Then raked leaves for 2 hrs for last pickup this week. That was tougher than the ride, lol. Today, rain Rest of the week, rain and/or cold. Even some talk of that S word. Better change the oil and replace the stale gas in the snowblower soon!
Great minds think alike - without reading the most recent thread posts (except MK’s exercises) I promptly copy and pasted them into a word document and printed! I’ll go one step further and laminate them so I can keep it right by my weights and it will stay intact. Many thanks!
I am also not signing up for 2017 in 2017. I did NOT need another place where I had to log stuff. I’m on Garmin Connect, RunningAhead and Strava.
3.2 miles this morning- I started in the light (barely) and it was damp but 42 degrees, so I made it outside.
3.8 miles this morning. The car was covered in wet snow, but it has since turned to rain.
H and I went to a fabulous restaurant before the Boston Pops Holiday Concert last night. Italian small plate sharing at its best. Didn’t feel stuffed when we left, which is good.
I am struggling mightily with that issue of “Just Can’t Get Everything Done!”. Too much going on at work, too much to do at home, and I can’t/won’t cut back on exercise. So I am way behind on the weekend’s posts. My 5 mile race on Saturday went OK. The first 2 miles were OK but then my knee started hurting. I finished up with an OK overall time and pace. My knee was better yesterday and it was a very light activity day thanks to the lousy weather, but today it is bothering me. So no running tonight, but the dog will get a nice walk. We’re running the Hot Chocolate 15K in St. Louis this weekend so I am hoping that by resting and just running a couple times this week that I’ll be OK by then.
Thanks for the detailed instructions and info on strength training, MNK. I have been having a hard time making it to my sessions with my trainer and I know that my sporadic attendance doesn’t help maintain strength. So I think I really need to force myself to do workouts on my own. This info will help, but I also need to get some steps.
CBBBlinker - your evening sounded fabulous - both the dinner and the Boston Pops Holiday Concert!
sabaray - what is the Hadfield Challenge all about?
BB - I hope you don’t need surgery, but on the other hand I hope that if it will take care of the issues you’ve been having then I’m all for it. Good luck with baby kiddo on the job front and ultimate location. With her wanderlust and all the cool places she has worked, it might be hard for her to settle down and stay in one place!
C3Baker, if you read Runner’s World there’s “Ask Coach Jenny” or something like that. It’s basically a virtual fitness program that offers monthly fitness challenges, nutrition tips, a private facebook group for participants that she actually participates in, workouts of the month, 30 training programs for all distances, etc. - I am doing the holiday challenge now and it’s actually a lot of fun. Last week we did planks for a challenge - you set your own goals. The participants run the gamut from walk, run/walk, run, BQ. I like it. I think it’s $59 for the full year for just the basic program. I’ve found it useful and the participants friendly and engaging.
CBBBlinker – that restaurant sounds great! Mind sharing the name? I love Boston.
Michael – I too will copy and paste your posts – thank you for being so detailed – I’ve heard people say you can put together your own home gym cheaply but no one takes the time to lay it out with specifics.
C3Baker – I hear ya on being overwhelmed but you’re so right – the second I skip the workout to get more stuff done, I get less stuff done or feel worse doing it. I hope your knee settles down with the rest.
Got out for 7 miles this morning. Felt harder than I remember 7 miles being. I think I have to keep running more miles more often to keep up any kind of conditioning.
sabaray - thanks for the info about the site and challenges. That sounds like something that would be fun to participate in. I have too much going on right now to look into it, but I am putting it on my list to investigate during Christmas break. I have 10 days off and the kids won’t be home for Christmas so I should have plenty of time to catch up on life then.
I am planning to run with the running club tonight.
The holiday bustle is why I always am sort of thankful when it’s like January 10 - and all the “extras” have ended, the house is back to normal, etc. 
At work we have a HealthyU program (because we are a “U”, university) that is optional to be part of. I’d love to know how many of the couple thousands of people who work in our organization are part of it! This morning I had my yearly blood drawn and BP, height, weight, etc. done. My BP was normal - though I’ll admit mine through life has always been a little low - now it’s “normal”. BMI was 22 so that sounds in the healthy range.
They will send me my lab results and then I will couple those with my results today and then an extensive online survey/risk assessment to give me my “Healthy U” grade card and recommendations so to speak. Last year when we completed everything we got a nice dri-fit tshirt - women’s or men’s style - which was a nice perk!
At some point I will beef up my home exercise setup, but at least I have good access to our work gym, too. I keep 5 pound dumbbells in my bedroom and it is easy to do a few sets of arm exercises while watching TV or before bedtime. My TRX/Jungle Gym is in the basement with my treadmill. I also have a couple of kettle bells down there. We have a small step. We have some Swiss balls, but they are too deflated.
45 minutes on the Cybex Arc machine + 2.9 mile ride on the Expresso bike. Steeper “hills” than pervious rides; this was the “Alpine Loop.”
@Classof2015 - SRV Boston; located in the south end. Yum!!
MOWC, too deflated? Don’t you know using the foot pump to inflate your stability ball will count as steps on your Fitbit? 
Sounds like a plan!
Thanks for the mention of the Hadfield Challenge, @sabaray . I checked it out and it was appealing enough and the price was right so I committed.
I am finally feeling well enough to run and made it out into yesterday’s cold and obnoxious snow/rain/sleet/yuck–but the dog liked it and it had the advantage that no one else was out so I didn’t have to worry about off-leash dogs running up to my on-leash dog. So that was okay. Thanksgiving day I managed to ruin one of my favorite orange sweaters (yes, I do have more than one) by dropping a piece of blueberry pie onto it. Salvaged it by overdying/tiedying with red so I wore that to stay warm in the rain (I like to be conspicuously bright when I run), which worked surprisingly well.
During my trail running clinic, one of the tiny pieces of advice was to carry a hat and gloves on cold days with likely rain; even if they just stay in your pocket, you will want them if you need to walk or the wind shifts. I hadn’t really thought about hat or gloves because I mostly am not out that long, so yesterday I found myself thinking that might have been the best advice I got during the clinic. Everything was soaked and dripping by the time I got home (and I only ran three miles) but I wasn’t that cold–the weather had shifted from light drizzle to big soppy wet snowflakes.
I often start my run with gloves and then take them OFF if I get too warm. I’m not good about hats but do have a selection of winter headbands I wear.
I always carry a cap in my pocket. Here, you never know when it will rain or when it will be so sunny the head can get sunburned (I actually had done that - not cool).