Overview and review of the Rogue farmer's walk handles

This is an overview of the Rogue farmer's walk handles including pros, cons, and alternatives. It was published first under which rogue specialty bar to get. Follow the links for more details.

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Overview of the farmer walk handles

Price: $185 - $1850

The farmers walk is a classic among strength athletes. The prolonged bars can be easily adjusted for different weights for athletes and make this a fun way to work your core, grip and posterior chain. The Rogue farmer handles have been developed with Rob Orlando and are a good addition to any gym to spice things up a little. The full specification of the farmer handles are:

Made in the USA
Sold as a Pair
Co-developed with Rob Orlando
Handle: 1" Schedule 40 Pipe
Shaft: 1.5" Schedule 80 Pipe
Overall Length: 60”
Loadable Sleeve Length: 24” (12” on each end)
Finish: Signature Texture Black Powdercoat
12" of loadable sleeve space
Can be used with standared bumper plates or cast iron plates

If you have a long driveway or parking lot and you want to run classes you can even buy these from Rogue in sets of tens to have races.

Pros of the Farmer walk handles

The pros of the farmer's walk handles:

Adjustable weight
More use out of your plates
Great core and grip exercise
Price

Farmers walk handles are a great tool to work your core and get multiple uses out of your plates. They are also very price efficient if you want to go heavy on carries up to 200 lb. You will also work your grip effectively while still getting in a good cardio workout.

Cons of the farmer walk handles

The cons of the farmer walk handles are:

Take up a lot of space
Harder to adjust
High injury risk

The farmer's walk handles take up quite a bit of pace in your gym. More often than not i also see that they are not being adjusted often, which is kind of the point. While the length of the handles makes them great to provide a little more instability to activate your core, it also leaves you open to nasty injuries. Some of the meanest falls I have seen in the gym happened when racing with farmer's handles.

Alternatives to the farmer walk handles

Alternatives to the farmer walk handles are

The rogue echo dog sled
2x 80lb kettlebells
Spud inc traveling farmers handle

If you want o race for time to work on your care and cardio you might as well get the Rogue echo dog sled in a 10 pack. The sleds are only $10 more, but a lot safer to race. They will not work your grip as hard, but in return, you will get a better cardio workout. You can also mix 5 and 5 for your commercial gym. For a home gym, I think the sled is the way better option as it is a lot more versatile in use than the handles. You can use something else for grip strength / similar carries.

For roughly the same price of the farmer's walk handles you can get two 80lb kettlebells. This leaves you with safe carries and a lot of options for grip strength training with holds, swings, and deadlifts. If you are mainly getting the farmer's walk handles to train your core and grip, kettlebells are the safer, more versatile option. They only train your core a little less as the load is more stable and closer to your torso. This means less balancing is involved.

If you want a cheap version of the farmer's carry you can go with the sud inc farmer walk handles. They are cheaper and easier to store. They are also adjustable. The only downside is that they will have a lot more and tear and can only be used for carries.

Conclusion for the farmer walk handles

The farmer walk handles are good when you want to train for strongman competitions. They are a classic event in strongman competitions and will not go away. If, however, you only want a tool for heavy load and running around with, i think some heavy ass kettlebells are the better choice for you. They are easier to store and can be used for much more than just carries. If you mainly like the racing part of the farmer handles, got the dog sleds instead. Lower injury risk at higher speeds.