How To Create A Simple Home Dungeon For BDSM

Today I’m discussing a very versatile piece of equipment for practicing BDSM in the home, and which comes a lot of additional compound benefits. I can absolutely promise that this will provide some very good ideas for play or for your own home dungeon; how you use those ideas will be up to you. I do have to say though, that I’m very excited about this piece of equipment; and I’m already having a hell of a lot of fun using it. It’s been a very fun week!

 I’m also going to provide you with some background, and a bit more of a peek into my life in areas unrelated to the rest of this blog; but if you’d like to skip all that, and get straight to the main point of this post, click here.

In order to explain how I arrived at this solution, I’m going to let you into a little more of my life and interests outside of the realm of rope bondage than I have previously. I feel that it’s necessary, both in order to provide a bit of context, and also to point out some of the compound benefits of this particular piece of equipment.

Context From Pete’s Life

In addition to running this blog and getting up to all manner of fun mischief and depravity, I also work full time. Over the last three or so years, I found myself becoming sick with an odd bug that would take me down for about three days at a time, far more regularly than I would have liked. It didn’t have the symptoms of a cold; it was more like the fatigue and general aching feeling of a flu, but it was far too regular and far too frequent, to the point where it was happening something like every 3-4 months; and every time it happened, I ended up flat on my back, unable to accomplish a damn thing.

For a guy who likes being productive and doing things, that’s incredibly frustrating.

I took the matter to a doctor; but they were unable to explain it. There was a battery of blood tests done, and the closest anyone could come to explaining it was “one of those infections that can linger in the body and reactivate from time to time”. Because it wasn’t readily identifiable, it wasn’t treatable via medicine. I was prescribed plenty of fluids and rest whenever it happened.

To me, that wasn’t enough. I wanted prevention. I was over it – I’d lost a lot of annual leave through using it up being sick. So I became determined to do something about it.

What is the most common advice given to people to create optimal health?

Avoid stress; and if you can’t avoid stress, find some really healthy ways of dealing with it. Additionally, get lots of sleep, eat the right kinds of food, and get plenty of exercise.

During August 2016, I undertook some massive lifestyle change.

I learned to prioritize sleep, and say no to most things that prevented me from getting 8 hours plus on a weeknight. I even set an alarm to “go to sleep!” instead of reading one more chapter of whatever I was reading. I went super healthy with my food; low carb/ slow carb, lots of protein and vegetables, very little free sugars (one cheat day or cheat meal a week, as per 4 Hour Body – great resource, seriously. Check it out). I took up meditation in the mornings before work, learning the basics from Tara Brach’s website, and reinforced it using apps like Headspace and Calm (Calm has been my most long term one).

And I got into exercise. This became the key point that led to creating a home dungeon.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of time at a gym; you have to travel there, you have to compete for equipment, and you have to pay ongoing fees. That wasn’t optimal.

I decided to get adjustable dumbbells instead; you can do versions of any kind of free weight exercise with them, and it’s a one time fixed cost. I highly recommend them if you want a simple solution to targeted exercise; and it turns out strength training is one of the most highly efficient forms of exercise for health purposes (here’s a link to quite a fun read on that sort of thing, if you’re interested).

I began working out twice a week, and have been roughly since that time, with some variation while I tested different regimes. Youtube became an invaluable resource if I wanted to learn a bit more about particular exercises.

So after all this change, what was the result? Was it worth it?

The experiment in significant lifestyle change had very noticeable, very measurable results. I stopped getting sick nearly as often. My annual leave began to build up again; and when I did get sick, it didn’t last nearly so long. The last time the illness occurred, I recovered in 1.5 days instead of three; and it was six months after the previous time. Additionally, I was actually a lot calmer at work and in other activities; it turned out meditation had multiple benefits other than just preventing illness.

Oh… and with all the healthy eating and exercise, there was an additional side benefit; I ended up in pretty reasonable shape!

Now, bear with me – this isn’t a post about how to live healthy, although I suppose that information is useful too. I’m going in a very particular direction, and it very much relates to BDSM and rope bondage.

At the end of 2016, my flat was sold, and I had to move out.

In addition to the general stress and inconvenience that caused, it also meant that I had lost my rafters . This caused me a lot of sadness 🙁  I no longer had handy hard points to practice partial and full suspension with; and I’d become very attached to partial suspension. It’s a great way to have a lot of fun with sex and other fun BDSM related purposes.

I realized that I wouldn’t be able to afford my own house for a long time to come, if ever; and the owners of most places I stayed in while renting were unlikely to approve of me installing the kind of heavy duty hard points required. So for the time being, I was unable to practice suspension related things in my own environment. I needed new options.

And then, a few months later, inspiration hit.

I was trying to work out a good way to do deadlifts and squats with dumbbells. I like compound exercises – they’re the most efficient for health oriented strength training, and deadlifts and squats are freaking great.

I found ways of doing both, but also realized that at some point, my grip would give out. There was an absolute limit to how much I would be able to lift and continue challenging my body. A friend recommended to me that I get a barbell and squat rack, but I couldn’t find a way of justifying spending so much on a couple of pieces of gym equipment. They only had a single purpose, after all, and the rest of the time when not being used, I figured they would just create clutter; and technically, I could get enough benefit from just the dumbbells.

Still… I’ve learned that it often pays to research ideas given to me by other people. So I looked into home gym equipment.

And then I came across power cages.
And that’s when evil BDSM related inspiration exploded through my brain.

A power cage is essentially designed to create safety for people lifting very heavy pieces of metal. It is a very sturdy, four posted metal frame with lots of adjustable options for where you put the safety arms and barbell rack, which are moveable bits of metal designed to catch and prevent the super heavy weighted barbell from injuring you if you are unable to lift what you’ve loaded on. There are large holes in all four posts, which are originally intended for your adjustable safety arms and barbell rack.

It is absolutely PERFECT for perverting into an explainable, concealable home dungeon.

Given all of the additional uses that I could put that piece of equipment to after all… I decided to invest in one.

WELCOME TO THE DUNGYM

In my last post , you saw the power cage without modification. It takes very little to turn it into a very versatile home dungeon.

Before modification

After modification

Basically, what I’ve done is I’ve taken a sturdy piece of bamboo, and lashed it into place midway across the top of the cage. This is for creating an overhead suspension point in the most stable place possible. As the bamboo is rounded, smooth, and very strong, it creates a good suspension point even without adding a ring or carabiners, as is common practice for suspension. While there are carabiners attached to it, that’s more for if I want to attach chains, as shown later.

You don’t have to use bamboo – you could use any appropriately strong and rounded piece of material, as long as it’s well fixed in place. A thick steel pipe, a fence post, whatever, as long as it is capable of supporting about 10 times the weight of whatever you’re suspending, and is fixed in place in the middle of the frame.

I’ve taken my favorite backdrop for photos, a black and white screen, and placed it against the wall  (not necessary, but I like the aesthetic).

I’ve taken some floggers out of the ottoman that I usually store them in and hung them up. Again, not necessary, but it makes them readily available and promotes that fun home dungeon look, which adds to any scene I might do.

I’ve used the ottoman itself for a lot. For gym use, it’s great for bench press exercises. For BDSM use, I’ve used it to store most of my toys, I’ve used it as a spanking chair or stool, and I’ve used it as a padded surface for tying Blue to. It’s a great addition to the Dungym.

And that’s it. Very, very simple.

And after that, Blue and I set about testing and exploring options. For approximately a week. A day of fun activities and play, and then a day of rest and relaxation and recovery. Another day of fun activities and play, and then another day of rest and relaxation and recovery. And so on.
It’s been a very fun holiday.

Here are a few samples from our week of testing the Dungym

Tied up, blindfolded sensation play. This one position is great for just about everything. Sensation, impact, you name it.

Extra fun use for the gym equipment; if your bottom gets cold from having been tied up for a while, hand them a weight plate and tell them to do squats. Warms them up, enhances booty and legs, and adds more endorphins to the mix! Mmm, science. Plus, it’s very fun to watch.

Captivity play and pet play. The Dungym provides a very sturdy support for chaining your captive to one location. Padlock a chain around her waist, padlock the other end to one pillar of your home dungeon, and you’re done. We’re definitely going to explore that one some more, it was a good time.

Suspension; range of motion is somewhat limited, but less so than you’d think. Very suitable for partial suspensions or full suspensions as long as you’re not hoping to be wildly dynamic.

Helpless bondage play. Wrists tied beneath the ottoman, legs tied up in the air using ladder ties (ladders are great for lots of support). I discovered at this point that the barbell rack attachments make for great adjustable hard points.

An impact station! Basically, a chain St Andrews Cross. You can adjust where the intersection is for the height of your bottom, and use the cuffs for restraint. This tested out to be very supportive; Blue could rest her weight on the cross and hang onto the chains for support (though to be honest, I prefer leather or rope flogging cuffs, and I think I’m going to invest in some leather or synthetic leather flogging cuffs soon).

I discovered while testing that it’s relatively easy to get to both sides of the body at any point; the interior of the Dungym is a lot roomier than it looks in these photos. If I felt like it, I could even lean in from the sides to play with the front of Blue’s sensitive little body.

There are still so many different things to test – as a bondage frame, I think this is going to be excellent. There are just so many possibilities!

Additional Considerations

Your home dungeon, or Dungym, can be stored in a bedroom or in your garage. Because Winter Is Coming where I am, I’ve opted to place the Dungym indoors for now. It means Blue doesn’t shiver her poor little ass off while we play.

It’s surprisingly transportable. These things tend to unbolt pretty easily with a spanner and a socket wrench; we transported it back from the sports store in about four pieces, but it can be broken down into even fewer. Takes about 30 – 40 minutes to disassemble or reassemble, and you want to have two people; one to do the nuts and bolts, and the other to support the frame while this is happening.

It’s very easy to put a drop cloth into the confines of the Dungym to do wax play in there; it makes for a very nice defined space so you can be certain of not getting wax droplets in other random places on your carpet.

Cost:

This is the factor that most people would pause at. And for good reason. This is a big, expensive piece of kit.

Sure, I got my power cage from an actual sports store. I was celebrating, so I decided getting the new piece of equipment was worth my time, and I also really liked the color. You might have noticed I have this whole black and white and red theme going on a lot of the time, so the Elite Silverback Rack 2.0 was worth my time. I got a hundred dollars off because it was from the shop floor, but it was still over $600.

For you, I would recommend doing the much smarter thing, which is taking advantage of human laziness and lack of discipline.

Lots of people get really enthusiastic about exercise, buy all the cool equipment, then don’t end up using it. They simply don’t have the willpower or self discipline or motivation.

Or, they buy the equipment, and then for one reason or another, find they have to move. So then they put their very good condition equipment up for sale on Craigslist, or eBay, or Trademe, or whatever second hand sale website, newspaper, or magazine is available in your location.

Seriously, have a quick browse. Look under home gyms, squat racks, or power cages. I’ve just had a look on my local secondhand marketplace, and I found two power cages up for sale; one as part of a full home gym, plates and all, for 500, and one by itself for 400. There will be other people and other families who sell theirs for even cheaper.

If you purchase one and want it a better color for your home dungeon or BDSM use, you can look into getting it spray painted or otherwise coated a better color, and still spend less than I did.

Finally; don’t forget, even if you buy this primarily for BDSM use as a home dungeon, it also makes for a great piece of equipment for a home gym, and there are all kinds of benefits to be gained from that. Not only have I been using this as a home dungeon all week, I’ve also worked out with it twice, and I’m going to again today, the day I write this post.

I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to feel amazing afterwards.

By the way, if any of you come up with some more brilliant ideas for ways I can put this thing to good use, then please add them in the comments! I’m really looking forward to having a lot of adventures with this thing and sharing the outcomes with you all 🙂