Later on, I made a set of my own farmers’ walk bars quite cheaply.  Until recently, though, I haven’t been completely happy with the handles.  So in this article, I’m going to show you again how I made a pair of farmers’ walk bars out of a couple of old pieces of wood I had lying around the shed.  But this time, I’ll put in an extra step where I detail the alternative handles I have now made.

If you read the article the first time round, just skip down to the middle section where I talk about alternative handles.

How to make cheap farmers’ walk bars

First of all, you need a piece of wood.  I found a piece 6 feet long and cut it into two halves like this:

Then, I put the weights plates that I planned on using most at either end of one of the pieces of wood.  With the weights plates in place, I was able to mark on the wood where I wanted the holes to go.

Yes, I know, I’m not exactly David Bailey.  If you look carefully, you can see my toes at the bottom of the picture.  Once I had marked the wood, it was time to get the drill out!

I used the largest drill bit that would go into my drill and I drilled four holes next to each other.  With a bit of jiggery-pokery, I was able to knock the holes through to one another using the drill.  This then created a hole for the dumbbell handle.  I repeated this until I had holes at each end of both pieces of wood.  But before I put the dumbbell handles into the holes, I needed to make a handle.

Using a tape measure, I found the centre of each piece of wood and then put nails in 3 inches either side of the centre.  I then added another nail slightly further out and threaded a sling through the middle like this:

Then it was time to put the dumbbell handles into the holes in the wood.

Alternative handles

OK, so if you’re looking for a better (and more consistent) handle then this is the solution.  The handle is PVC pipe and the attachment is climbing cord. 

I used about 6 inches of 2 inch diameter waste pipe (PVC), which cost me about £2 from a hardware store and I got 2m, which should stand me in good stead for future projects.  I also used about 3 foot of climbing cord, which I think was about 8mm diameter.  You can usually buy this by the metre in any climbing shop.  They have reels behind the counter and you just go up and ask for a few metres.  It costs a few pounds.

The cord is attached to the bar using a prussik (lark’s foot) knot and then passed through the hollow PVC handle before attaching again to the bar with another prussik knot.  You will have to tie an overhand (obviously, a figure of eight would be better) to finish this second prussik.  The finished result should look like the picture below.

The next picture shows the PVC handle from the end view.  You can see that the pipe is hollow and that the climbing cord just passes through it.

I’ve field tested these new handles and apart from the 2 inch diameter pipe being a pain in the neck to grip onto, I am really happy with this new set up.  The weight is much more stable and the bars much easier to control.  The grip is also more of a challenge and more consistent each time I pick them up.

Back to the farmers’ walk bars

Once I had set up the bars with the dumbbell handles and the slings, I added some weights plates onto the dumbbells.  I added the weights asymetrically so that the bars would hang predominantly to one side, making them easier to handle.

Then, I took them for a test drive round the garden!

And that was all there was to it.  I think it took me about an hour, including working out how to build them in the first place.

I think the alternative handles took me about 5 minutes.  If you’re less comfortable with knots and rope it might take you little a bit longer but they’re very straightforward. 

I hope you found this helpful and, as always, if you know of any other tips or tricks to create strongman equipment on the cheap, please do let me know.

In this article, I’m going to show you how I made a sturdier pair of farmers’ bars out of a couple of old pieces of wood I had lying around the shed plus my trusty dumbbells again!

How to make cheap farmers’ bars

First of all, you need a piece of wood.  I found a piece 6 feet long and cut it into two halves like this:

Then, I put the weights plates that I planned on using most at either end of one of the pieces of wood.  With the weights plates in place, I was able to mark on the wood where I wanted the holes to go.

Yes, I know, I’m not exactly David Bailey.  If you look carefully, you can see my toes at the bottom of the picture.  Once I had marked the wood, it was time to get the drill out!

I used the largest drill bit that would go into my drill and I drilled four holes next to each other.  With a bit of jiggery-pokery, I was able to knock the holes through to one another using the drill.  This then created a hole for the dumbbell handle.  I repeated this until I had holes at each end of both pieces of wood.  But before I put the dumbbell handles into the holes, I needed to make a handle.

Using a tape measure, I found the centre of each piece of wood and then put nails in 3 inches either side of the centre.  I then added another nail slightly further out and threaded a sling through the middle like this:

Then it was time to put the dumbbell handles into the holes in the wood.

Once I had that all set up, I added some weights plates onto the dumbbells.  I added the weights asymetrically so that the bars would hang predominantly to one side, making them easier to handle.

Then, I took them for a test drive round the garden!

And that was all there was to it.  I think it took me about an hour, including working out how to build them in the first place.  Obviously, there are downsides to this approach, like the fact that I need to dismantle them if I want to use the dumbbells, but to say that they cost absolutely nothing, I have to say that I am delighted with them.

I hope you found this helpful and, as always, if you know of any other tips or tricks to create strongman equipment on the cheap, please do let me know.

I have since had a go at making a pair of farmers’ bars that are a bit bigger, using some spare pieces of wood but I’ll write about that next week…

What you need

You don’t really need very much.  That is the attraction.  However, you will need:

• 2 dumbbell handles (with or without the collars)
• Four 2ft slings or similar lengths of rope
• 2 carabiners (ask a friend who is a climber if you don’t know where to get them)
• some weights plates (but you have these already, right?)

How to set up the dumbbells for farmers’ walks

First, put a prussik knot on one end of a dumbbell handle using one of the slings.  A prussik knot (also known as a lark’s foot) starts like this:

And then you do this:

Once you’ve got one end on tightly, then you can do the other.  Together, they should look like this:

After that, repeat with the other dumbbell handle and one of the slings so that you have two the same.  You can slot the carabiners on at this point too.

Once you’ve got your farmers’ bar handles, you can add your weights.  You can do this by looping your other 2 slings through some weights plates and then clip them to the carabiners like this:

You’ve finished!  All you have to do now is take them for a walk.

I hope you found this useful and if you know of any other easy ways to make farmers’ bars or other strongman implements, please do let me know.

1. Climb stairs – a brand new article about climbing stairs with chains from Elite FTS, just when I need it.  The only problem is that I don’t have any chains.  Hmm, this could be tricky.  Plus, the stairs in my house turn two corners and there’s a big plant at the top which sticks out.
2. Combine running with circuits –Mike Mahler suggests combining running with swings and things.  I like it but I’m not sure I can think of anywhere locally where I could leave a dumbbell lying around and it wouldn’t walk off discretely while I was 200 yards away.
3. Hit things – Mike also gives advice on how to hit things with a hammer.  Sounds good.  I would love to take out some of my hunger-anger out on an inanimate object.  Now I just need a tire and a sledgehammer… damn.
4. Complexes – Chris Shugart has four complexes from four of the best strength coaches in the world.  I hate complexes.  My form goes to hell after the first one and then my joints hurt for days afterwards.  I am sure there are lots of people who are skilled enough to do these safely but I am not one of them.
5. Bike intervals – Dave Draper reminds me that 30s on 30s off for 12 minutes on the bike is as good as anything else these days.  Probably sage advice given the trouble I have finding a routine that I like.  I must confess, I really miss having a Concept 2 rower handy.
6. Hill sprints – Charles Staley recommends hill sprints, which is frustrating as there is a really great hill about 10 minutes jog away from my house.  Frustrating because if I jog there and back as well as running sprints for 20 minutes, it turns into the best part of a 45 minute workout once I’ve put my shoes on and off.  How is that a bad thing, I hear you ask… well, let’s just say I’m not really a cardio king and leave it at that.
7. Lift sandbags – Ben Hanson at ChasingKaz has a great selection of suggestions on how to make use of sandbags for conditioning.  I bought an army duffel bag online about a month ago for £5 and it’s been lying on my dining room floor looking at me accusingly ever since.  Fortunately, the two bags of sand I bought from the local DIY store are round the back of the house so I don’t see them so often…
8. Farmers’ walks – Matthieu Hertilus suggests that I just go and carry heavy stuff around.  Now this sounds promising.  I went through a phase of improvising farmers’ walks in the summer while the weather was nice.  A couple of laps around the garden (it’s quite small, really) and I was definitely feeling it in my upper back and forearms.  I used slings and carabiners to hold 20kg (45lb) plates on dumbbell handles.  Not pretty and they tend to swing around a bit and knock into your legs (especially when you turn corners) but better than nothing.  I’ll do another post tomorrow with some pictures.

Well that’s quite enough cardio for one day.  I need to go and relax on the sofa after all that hard work!