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.