I got tired of waiting so I tried my hand at making my own sand bag. Bought a duffelbag from a military surplus store, a liner bag and some sand and made a 100lb sand bag. It doesn’t keep any kind of shape so it’s purely just for strong man lifts and bear hug carries. 100lbs was a bit more than I was expecting so it’s gonna be a very sparsely used tool.
I’ve ordered 2 60lb sand bags off wish so I can take my farmer carries to another level and so I could have something more reasonable for other exercises. I’ve entertained the thought of putting sand in my 5 gal jugs but I then fear for the handles. I further entertained the thought of putting water in with the sand to up the weight but then that sounds like a lot of hassle should I want to readjust them.
I don’t know how to gauge much in the way of improvement but I can start noticing more firmness around my body that I’m not entirely used to esspecially in my fore arms and calves. I can up my farmer carry to three houses down the road now. Still not much in the way of pull ups feeling better but I can hold a dead hang for almost a minute now.