TITAN 20-inch Plate loadable Atlas Stone vs Farmer's walk handles
This is a comparison between the TITAN loadable Atlas stone and TITAN Farmer's walk handles including pros, cons, and alternatives. The Original was published in Which Strongman equipment to get from TITAN. Follow the links for details
Overview and review of the TITAN Farmer's walk handles
This is an overview of the TITAN Farmer's walk handles including pros, cons, and alternatives. The Original was published in Which Strongman equipment to get from TITAN. Follow the links for details
Farmer's walk handles $100
Overview of the TITAN farmer's walk handles
The
TITAN farmer's walk handles are a classic and simple design to strengthen your grip and core. Standard plates can be attached at each end and you lift them to carry the weight as far as you can. As the weight is not fully centered with your body it will challenge your core to avoid straying of the a straight line. The farmer's walk has been a solid part of many strongman competitions for years and if you are serious about Strongman training it should be a regular part of your schedule. The full specifications for the
TITAN Farmer's walk handles are:
This is a good product to buy in bulk for group training for a commercial gym. Home gym owners might want to upgrade to a
upright handle frame as they can invest a little more per item.
Pros of the TITAN farmer's walk handles
The
TITAN Farmer's handles are simple, compact, relatively cheap and easy to store. This makes them a great option for anyone who wants to have multiple pairs to compete against each other. Most people have seen and used one of these in their fitness journey, or at least have seen someone else using them. Not a lot you can do wrong at this price point if you have the space for them.
Cons of the TITAN farmer's walk handles
The cons of the TITAN farmer's walk handles:
The cons of the
TITAN farmer's walk handles are that they wreck the plates you use with them as you can not easily adjust. What usually happens with these
handles is that they got set up once with a certain weight and rarely adjusted. After that they will stand on these plates for days and also get dropped on different surfaces. Over time the plates will suffer and ultimately break. As you put the plates at the front and the back, you will also not adjust often as it is inconvenient. Especially if you are by yourself. Compared to
Upright farmer's walk handles this is inferior as these are easier to adjust and can also be built into a deadlift /carry frame which becomes more common in Strongman competitions for carry events.
Alternatives to the TITAN farmer's walk handles
Trap bars are a good alternative to farmer's
walk handles as you can also use them as a deadlift training tool. Using the frame of a
Trap bar it is a bit safer to go at speed than with the farmer's walk
handles. The
Rogue trap bar and
TITAN trap bar are two alternatives which have about $100 in price between them while the Rogue one has the higher quality finish.
The
TITAN Upright farmer's walk handles are my personal favorite. They keep the nature of the farmers walk alive by putting the plates further away from your body while making the setup safer and more convenient. As a bonus you can also build them into a deadlift / carry frame if you get some extra parts from TITAN. I personally think, especially for a home gym, the few extra bucks are worth considering.
The TITAN rickshaw farmer's walk as a cheaper alternative to a
trap bar which is also more convenient to load. If you have been considering a
trap bar to do carries and deadlifts you might look int the
rickshaw as a cheaper alternative which is also more convenient to use.
Heavy kettlebells are always a great alternative to to farmer's walk
handles as they can be used for so much more than just carries. You can use them for swings, Turkish get ups, and floor presses alike. Only a few tools give you as many possibilities as
kettlebells in this compact size. To be fair, for carries they are not an accurate representation of a farmer's walk,
yoke or frame carry as the center of gravity is close to your body and the
handles are usually more convenient to grip.
Conclusion for the TITAN farmer's walk handles
Cheap and cheerful for carries.
Overview and review of the TITAN 20-inch Plate loadable Atlas Stone
This is an overview of the TITAN 20-inch plate loadable Atlas stone including pros, cons, and alternatives. The Original was published in Which Strongman equipment to get from TITAN. Follow the links for details.
TITAN 20-Inch Plate loadable Atlas stone $650
Overview of the TITAN 20-inch Plate loadable Atlas stone
The
TITAN 20-inch Atlas stone is a 175-lb shallow steel sphere with an insert so that you can add plates to it to make the weight scale. This makes it an adjustable training tool for beginners and professionals alike, as the maximum load ranges to 500 pounds depending on what type of plates you use. This is a great tool for someone who is serious about their strongman training. The full specifications of this
Atlas stone are:
- The staple of the strongman competition, train with an Atlas Stone
- 20-inch diameter is within competition range (anywhere from 8 to 24-inches)
- Add weight plates to ramp up intensity while you practice your form
- Durable steel construction will last for years with proper use
- Overall Diameter: 20-in.
- Material: Steel
- Weight Capacity: 400 lb.
- Product Weight: 175 lb.
Pros of the TITAN 20-inch plate loadable Atlas stone
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Ready Made
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Smooth surface
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Stable hull
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Loadable
This
TITAN 20-inch Atlas stone has the big advantage that it already comes as a perfect sphere. This saves you the hassle of making one yourself and the possibility of ending up with an egg rather than with a sphere depending on your craftsmanship. This makes it a time saving purchase, especially when you are not strong in the DIY department. Big
Atlas stones can take up to a week to fully dry and be ready for use if you make them yourself.
Another advantage of the TITAN 20-inch plate loadable
Atlas stone as its smooth surface. This reduces the risk of injury on the hands and brings your training closer to real world competition. Self made
Atlas stones will usually have more gravel on them depending on how you mix the cement. You either live with that and train with it or you have to sand them down. If you do not have the tools for that it will either take a long time using sandpaper or on investment of a couple of hundred dollars / euros in a proper sanding machine to do the job.
Compared to sandbags which are the latest trend in home strongman training the TITAN 20-inch loadable stone has the advantage of a stable hull. This is closer to real world competition as the cement spheres used there are unforgiving on the hands and therefore harder to grip. The sandbags from Rogue are high quality and great if you want to use stones to become more explosive and for cardio training. They still can be formed even if you load them with lead shot. This means that they are easier to grip and therefore not a proper simulation of the actual
Atlas stone strongman event,
Compared to cement stones the
plate loadable 20-inch Atlas stones has the huge advantage of being plate loadable. This means that you can train at different weights while remaining space efficient. Rather than having 6-12 different stones in your home you only have one. This also means that you can better control your progression towards improving you one repetition maximum. Cement stones usually have jumps of 10kg and higher and their weight is also always a little inaccurate. With the loadable stone from TITAN you can be more precise.
Cons of the TITAN 20- inch plate loadable Atlas stone
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Static size
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Many small parts
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Higher injury risk
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Price
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TITAN finish
The static size of the TITAN plate
loadable 20-inch Atlas stone is not an accurate reflection of competition conditions for strongman. Cement
Atlas stones will vary in size based on their weight and grow in diameter. If you want to truly prepare for a multiple stone to
platform event you will need multiple stones with various diameters as the handling is slightly different.
To make the mechanics of the loading of the sphere work the
TITAN atlas stones comes with separator rings and a handle. These are the type of items that will get lost very quickly in a commercial gym and render a $650 piece of equipment useless, or at least, if you lose the seprators, you might as well just buy
one 175 pound atlas stone and be done with it. This makes it a sub optimal solution for commercial gyms as these are prime items to be lost or stolen on a dare.
Compared to the softer strongman sandbags on the market the injury risk is higher. If you want to use strongman training for conditioning or building bullet proof physiques, rather than for maximum strength and lifts to
platforms, you are better off with the sand bags. They are more forgiving on beginners.
$650 is a big price tag, especially if you are considering a purchase of multiple items for your gym. This is unfortunately not the economic road to travel if you want to train an entire class or have a collection of stones of various weights. For these scenarios you are better of to either buy molds and hone on your cement and sanding skills or go with the sandbags and fill them with a variety of rubber, play sand and lead shot depending on who is attending class. Combined with an Atlas
stone platform you are hitting the $1000 mark for this training set up. For this you can collect a full home gym from TITAN consisting of a
rack, bar and plates.
As with most things from TITAN they are a budget copy of another high end product that is already in the market. In this case TITAN copied the Mike Bartos Atlas stone which is $925 and has a slightly worse finish. TITAN products have the tendency to be that 1mm off or use that slightly inferior steel to make the product to beat the competition on price. That is not the end of the world and it is still usable, just not as nice as the real thing.
Alternatives to the TITAN 20- inch plate loadable Atlas stone
These are the alternatives o the 20-inch loadable Atlas stones:
The
Hybrid molds vary in price from $75 - $140 depending what size you are getting. A full set of these molds from 10" diameter to 19" diameter will cost you the same as the
loadable Atlas stone from TITAN. The advantage of these molds is that you can easily transport them to any site you want to have a competition in and make the stones right there, rather than having to pay for haulage of a couple of tons of stones. The mammoth set will also give you more flexibility to create multiple stones over and over again. This is the better purchase for any one who runs a gym that is focused on strongman competitions with multiple athletes or has the space at home and the time to put into the self made stones. Even if a some breaks, you can remake one and still have the real thing that would be used in competition. A slight disadvantage of the
hybrid mold is that it works with screws and is made of metal. This means that you need to do more preparation when making them compared to a
slater mold and that the mold is also less forgiving for bad craftsmanship.
In my personal opinion the
slater molds are your best bet to make your own stones. They offer a wider range of diameters to make stones ranging from 8" to 24" priced from $50 to $220. They are more forgiving than the
hybrid molds when transported, as the plastic mold will bounce back into shape where the
hybrid does not. They are also lighter. The process of making a stone involves duct tape, cement, the mold and the ring. This also makes it easier and more forgiving to make the stones as you have more freedom to manipulate the cement once it is in the mold. The only downside for the
hybrid and
slater stones is that they are stones and therefore bear a higher injury risk and are a bit of a pain to make. Still only little compares in the world of strength to the satisfaction of lifting a heavy stone on your shoulder.
The
Rogue rubber Atlas stones are Rogue Fitness take on making Atlas stones more palatable for the masses. These stones have an iron core which then gets encapsulated by a rubber outer layer. This reduces the injury risk and is also easier on the floor of the gym compared to the cement stones used in strongman competitions. Another advantage is that these stones are ready to go when delivered and have the right diameter depending on their weight. The
Rogue rubber Atlas stones range from 10" to 18" in diameter and 50lb to 200lb in weight. The prices range from $125 to $360 for an individual stone while a set can be had for $480 or $915 (225lb/450lb set). These stones are great for a commercial gym that wants to offer Atlas stones to their clients without the hassle of making them and possibly being sued by the landlord or the members themselves. The disadvantage of these stones is the rubber outer layer. It is easier to grip then cement and can also get very hot when left in the sun.
The
Rogue Strongman sandbags come in various forms ranging from the tombstone, cube,
husafell, cyclone and cylinder shape. They can be filled with pay sand, lead shot, or rubber to provide a wide range of weights and sizes. When empty they can be easily folded up and stored away. The prices range from $85 to $150 and it depends on you which ones you would like to mix and match for your training. The filling system is sturdy and you will not have any filling on the floor. The only downside is that these are not anything like the real deal of a unforgiving stone. They can be molded and shaped quite a bit by the lifter, maybe even grabbed which makes lifting them a lot easier. These
sandbags will only ever be a simulation of the Atlas stones competition, but in most scenarios that is more than enough and the variety you can get for $650 compared to the loadable titan stone is not to be sneered at.
The
TITAN husafell stone is a simulation of carrying the world famous
husafell stone. This stone weighs 110lbs empty and can be loaded with almost anything you have in the gym. The
husafell stone simulates a carrying event and is therefore different from the
Atlas stone event which goes from the ground to the shoulder. It is still something to be considered, especially when you spread the investment of the
20-inch loadable Atlas stone over several other strongman training items for variety.
Conclusion for the TITAN 20-inch plate loadable Atlas stone
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Already have a gym
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You are training at home
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Do not have the space to store multiple atlas stones
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Do not have the time or craftsmanship to make your own stones
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Your training is one rep max focused for stone lifting
For this the
Atlas stone is the absolute perfect match and worth the $650 dollars. If you have the space and want to make your own stones, go for the
slater molds instead. It will be a pain at the start as it will probably take a month or two to get your hole set of stones ready, but once it is, you will never go back. Commercial gyms are probably best advised to go for a collection of
Rogue strongman sandbags of various sizes and shapes. With this you keep the training interesting, can play around a lot and keep the injury risk low. You probably only have one or two people on your roster who are really willing and able to lift proper
Atlas stones so shell out $650 for training a group, rather than one individual.