Grip strength is one of the cleaner predictors of all-cause mortality, and the farmer's carry is the simplest exercise that loads it. The equipment is the problem: half-bodyweight implements run $1.50 to $3 per pound delivered, and most home gyms top out well below the weight you actually need. This build solves it with about $50 of materials: scraps of MakerPly melamine-faced eucalyptus plywood, a 36-inch length of 1-inch schedule 40 steel pipe cut in half for handles, and two 80-lb bags of concrete mixed right in the boxes. A pair of 85-lb weights, with headroom to top off to 90.

A small rolling side table built on a Sunday from 2040 aluminum t-slot extrusion, a custom-cut piece of 18mm pre-finished Baltic Birch plywood, and a pair of Sidio crates pressed into service as drawers. No glue, no clamps, no finishing schedule. The whole thing comes apart with an Allen key.