Another farmer's walk Saturday

It has become obvious to me that I need special equipment for the farmer's walk. The hex-head dumbbells work well enough, but regular dumbbells with collars, not so much. I think I'm ready to make the leap and get some farmer's walk handles.

The problem with the dumbbells is that it's just too awkward to walk with plates constantly banging against my thighs. I have to take tiny shuffle steps, which means I'm barely covering any distance at all. I might as well be walking in place.

I started out at 105, and I was hampered more by the dumbbells and plates themselves than I was by the weight I was having to support. I could only manage 30 feet at 105. With different equipment, I'm sure I could go farther. At one point the collar slipped off one dumbbell, sending the plates on one side clattering to the ground. I didn't count that set.

That brings me to another problem with the collared dumbbells. Those collars are not very reliable. Granted, these things were not designed to be abused like this, but it's hard to get them secured well enough to feel confident they're not going to fall apart midway through my set.

I followed up the three sets at 105 with some sets at 95—which weren't much easier, though the weight was easily manageable. I finished up at 65 with the hex-head dumbbells. Yes, they feel like paperweights after lugging the 105s, but because of the way they're built, it's much, much easier to walk with them.

No, I'm not going to run out and buy some bigger hexheads for the sake of farmer's walk. They're just too expensive. And what do I do when I want to increase from 105? Buy more dumbbells? I think not. No, I think the best solution is to invest in the farmer's walk handles.

I finished up today's workout supersetting push-ups, barbell curls and triceps pushdowns. It's all logged on Fitocracy. And I still say Fitocracy does not award enough points for the farmer's walk.

More farmer's walk

I followed the 5/3/1 script for the most part today. It's the end of my fourth week, deload week, so I kept the weight pretty low. Instead of going strictly by the plan, however, I did lift a bit heavier on the squats and did two sets of 13 reps at 155 and one set at 175, both more than was called for in the routine for deloading.

Even though I kept the weight lower, I still wanted to do as many reps as I could at the lower weight. I was torn between just continuing with the 20-rep squat experiment and sticking to the Wendler plan. I guess doing the two higher-rep sets is kind of straddling the fence. Next week for the start of cycle two, I'm going strictly by the book and following a plan I created with the Black Iron Beast 5/3/1 calculator.

The assistance work after the squats was strictly according to the plan. Five sets of leg presses on the vertical leg press at 355 and five sets of standing leg curls on the PowerTec WorkBench multisystem.

As usual, I've logged the details on Fitocracy. I still feel I'm getting shorted in workout points for the farmer's walk. It's harder than it looks.

After the regular workout was out of the way, it was time for the farmer's walk. I found some old Olympic dumbbell bars in the garage and loaded them up with 100 lbs. each. The hard part was that I didn't really have enough plates of equal weight to really load them up properly. I had two 25-lb. plates and a whole slew of 10-pounders. So I put a 25-pounder on each and then loaded up with 10s and 5s to make each side of the bar even.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would do for now. I was never able to go more than 60 feet with 100 lbs. in each hand. Most of the time I was lucky to get to the 30-ft. mark. After several sets with the 100-lb. dumbbells, I dropped down to 80 and did a couple more. I finished up with three sets with the 65s I carried last weekend. I was to go 150 feet with the 65s after multiple sets with the 80s and 100s.

Besides really kicking me in the pants, it also made me realize that I need more plates.

So I went out to Dick's today and bought two more 25s and four more 10s. I really wanted a couple of 35s as well, but they didn't have any. I have two 35s, and it would be nice to have four to be able to load up two dumbbell bars. Finally, I also grabbed two new Olympic dumbbell bars.

So I think I'm set for now. My plan is to keep going as heavy as possible on the farmer's walk and then drop down for greater time and distance under load.

While having lunch with my wife and son at Old Chicago, I watched the women's Crossfit Games on ESPN. It made me want to rush home and do some front squats and weighted pull-ups. Watching these women several months back is what inspired me to get back into shape in the first place.

I've made some progress, but seeing what these women can do makes me realize just how out of shape I really am.