Farmers carry has been my favourite exercise for years. I used to have horrendous posture from pc gaming slouched over. The carry pulled my back muscles to the proper place and strengthened my grip like nothing I’ve ever experienced. The dumbbells keep your shoulder blades pinned back and down and give such a nice stretch on your traps. Your forearms will will also balloon up. It’s been a long process trying to fix my posture but this without a doubt has been the best way to do it I’ve found.
Another way to help fix posture is to do the Chinese Martial arts stance called the horse stance. Places the load in ur legs n off the spine but u have to stay up right to maintain the position. Has many benefits as well outside of posture
Slumped back head forward(basically default posture when relaxed) is not actually bad posture it doesn’t have any long term permanent effects on your back though you may feel a bit sore but thats mainly because you were sitting to long not saying sitting up straight is bad it actually is better for you as it passively trains your form, just don’t want ppl to feel like they’re murdering their back if they sit slumped.
@@ManicMoe The first thing to improve was probably my grip strength because that’s what’s going to fail first every time with this exercise. So your forearms and hands get very strong first but once you learn to pinch your shoulders back, get a good mind muscle connection and carry with your large back muscles like lats, traps and rhomboids your bad posture has no choice but to improve. Make sure to keep your chest up and really try to let your back muscles hold the weight steady. Starting with a lighter set of dumbbells can make the mind muscle connection easier to achieve since your grip won’t be the main thing on your mind.
I do these every time I’m in the gym, first thing. It wakes up my body, tightens the core. Arms out slightly to the side. Shoulders back enough to straighten the spine. Never slouch. One in each hand. 25 lbs each side for me. That’s up from 20 last month. 100-200 meters each rep. I don’t need a ripped to hell six pack. I need a tight core. It sets me up for every other exercise I do. Chest work, arm work, quads, all of it. Thanks for this video. I wish more people did these.
As Joe Rogan suggested in one of his podcasts, farmer’s carry (2 hands) is better for shoulders and traps, whereas suitcase carry (1 hand) is better for emphasis on core muscles and lower back. Both are amazing for grip strength and forearms.
If you apply a short-hand towel to a kettlebell handle and grab both ends of the towel. You'll challenge your grip strength without increasing the load.
Worked up to carrying body weight in each hand, upper back/traps exploded, core stability in all other lifts greatly improved. Include them in every program now.
At one point I was delivering papers in the morning as a side gig, I set myself up with two bags criss-crossed that I would scoop and carry with each hand to avoid my shoulders being sliced into. Eventually I would run the whole delivery route starting with 7kg of papers in each bag at the start. It was so awesome and I got so fit, miss that job. It was for a paper shop that delivered to Glasgow University and it was so beautiful walking through the main uni building at dawn.
I’m 65. I do farmers walk and suitcase walks weekly in the gym. I work out in a GOOD gym with some good solid gym boys in there. But I’m the ONLY person doing farmers and suitcase walks. I could never understand why! I started off doing suitcase walks with a 45# plate. Then I got good at it and started doing same weight only longer. I like suitcase walk because it is good for core stability and because it’s great in an airport!! If you know what I mean, you know what I mean! Then I started farmers walks with a pair of 45# plates. Now I can do 65# dumbbells. I wish my gym had big boy kettlebells as they would be ideal for both exercises. The 45# plates are great but hard to go up in weight! Good video. I certainly appreciated it.
The biggest problem is people love rushing this exercise, thus causing unnecessary spine movements that cause them pain. Walk at a slower pace at that same time feeling the grip and the weight pulling you will give you a great workout in stability and strength. I like doing singles with dumbells but I use the hex bar to apply more weight. I am beginning to love grip training.
Weights that hang low will need more compensation as they are further away from your center of mass. That’s why you need to go slow OR just pick up less weight
Using kettlebells are much better than dumbbells. They won’t try to rotate in your hands like dumbbells do! (Just FYI for anyone who might be new to weighted carries and didn’t already know this) 🙂
These have helped me rehab from left si joint injury hopefully I can get back to running and jumping soon you’ve been a life savor for active recovery this channel is a gem
@@accradata Ive been doing the Carrie’s on both sides actually to even everything out along side the McGill big 3 and side plank clamp shell to build stability in my hips and core muscles if you have si joint or low back pain in general all of these movements helped so much
I just did this yesterday with 45 pound weights in each hand! I held a bit of a shrug and kept my core engaged I feel great today. Thank you for the video.
I do daily farmer walks because I was a gym trainer and people don't rerack plates and dumbles thanks to gym members I don't do exercise I still grow 😅 💪 🙃.
As a PT Plus gym instructor. Obviously, some of the duties are having to tidy up the gym. Over the years, I have caused lower lumber disc bulge to myself from carrying heavy dumbbells with one arm. These days, when I have to tidy up the gym if I'm carrying a heavy dumbbell, say past, 30kg I always make sure that I use 2 hands and carry it essential to my body.
Its all fun and games when you can feel your organs being crushed by your body weight from holding it in your right arm to long, but your determinded to make it to that pole.
I wish to be able to do farmer walks in my gym, but i will need to slalom through 15 people to do 20 metres. I went to another gym which had a plate loaded treadmill where you could do them safely
Frank Zane (bodybuilder with one of the smallest waists) was a strong advocate against using weighted sit ups and weighted side bends because they would overdevelop the obliques/ rectus abdominis and this can ruin V taper aesthetic physique So basically abs training will make the waist smaller which is good for aesthetic physique but weighted abs training will only overdevelop the obliques which is bad for aesthetics What about single arm farmer walk? Will this exercise overdevelop the obliques like weighted sit ups and weighted side bands?
An absolutely underrated exercise. Only seen 1 other person at my gym that has done it so far. It helped with my grip strength and getting a bigger forearm
I do suitcase carries with an IronMind Rolling Thunder when I go to get my mail every day. Right hand on the way to the mailbox, left hand on the way back. It's a solid 200 yards, and I add a little weight to the loading pin every time. Mostly doing it for grip strength and endurance, but I definitely feel it in the traps.
I like both BUT we know that pressure creates resiliency (knees over toes guy) and that loading one side increases proprioception in small muscles especially in the erector spinae. I did luggage carries (and reverse hyper and dead hangs) when I was fighting through the worst of my back pain and I’m fine dude.
This is insane...i was trying to increase my deadlift weight but wasn't able to progress after a certain point. I tried this for a couple of weeks and i added like 30 more lbs. They say that you are as strong as your weekest muscle so maybe small stabilizing back muscles was my weekness
I always do a warm-up set or two of both arms and then go into Single-Arm for 2-3 working sets of a slow 50m walk on each side. Then 1-2 sets with both weights at the end!
Been dealing with back pain and feeling old for a while, and finally started doing long farmers walks with 35s. (I’m 160) . Also started squatting/lunging with them. I noticed I get way more engagement with longer and slower strides. Makes me really work my stabilizing muscles. I feel great and don’t wake up feeling like crap anymore and drive is up. The lesson I learned is: DONT SKIP LEG GLUTES OR BACK WORKOUTS. THE ENTIRE BODY WORKS TOGETHER. I had always been very fit and solid but didn’t have a big chest so I focused on bench too much and neglected everything else and screwed my shoulders/back/hips all up.
I literally grew up doing the farmer's walk. A bull hit me in 2005 breaking several ribs and my back. Thank goodness I was in extremely good shap because I'd be dead otherwise. I lost 2" in height imediately because it went misdiagnosed but I'm still going.
I train both! I do a 100m lap of two handed, 50m in one hand, 50m in the other hand, then a 100m lap of regular walking. Repeat for a total of three times
What would you say is more beneficial; doing shorter walks with a lot of weight, or a bit less weight and walk longer distances. In our gym we only have a roughly 10m straight line to use, so I just load up like 50-60kg each hand with actual farmer carry bars and I get nicely sore in my hamstrings and lats.
I love farmer walks. They are a great way to finish any heavy workout. I think the best way to do this is max doubles followed by max singles. The single maxes will be less than half of the max doubles.
I've been enjoying adding "The Farmer's Life" into my routine, both single and double bell variations: - 30 sec farmer walk straight into - 30 sec clean walk straight into - 30 sec waiter walk - repeat until strong!
Farmer walks balances the load you carry across the shoulders and back, they target very little. You need more weight than you can grip with your hands to have it be as good as suitcase carries.
I do progressive farmers carries with the trap bar starting at 40kgs upto 200kgs and then back down, then follow it up with overhead barbell walks. Literally my cardio workout every 3 days.
@@seal869 I normally put straps on once I'm at 3 plates each side. I could do it without straps, but this exercise is about stamina and strength. Plus, walking while trying to hold the weight is just not worth the risk of a forearms or wrist injury, grip is my last concern with farmers carries. I normally do static dead lift holds when I want to work on grip strength.
@@norm9069 makes sense to me that grip is a low priority on farmers carries for conditioning but I guess some competitive strongmen feel differently. I will give this a try. I have no shame about using grip aids when needed.
@@seal869 exactly, unless you're a competitive athlete, the risk of injury is not worth it. I'm the same as you as well, I've no shame in using straps. I'm nearly 50 now, so little injuries take so much longer now to heal for me.
Yes or use 2 differents load for the carry like 48/54 kg or 40/54kg or 32/64 kg in each hand & alternate arms , more gap more challenge on spine . Only if u want to keep kb in hands for grip at the same time. But yes only one arm egal more stress on spine dependently of the weight used
Thoughts on duckwalks with the weight out in front? Or even held behind your back. A friend of mine said his Uncle, ironically a farmer, would always walk his property with his hands clasped behind his back. Best posture you’d ever see and never had back problems.
What I would like to know is because of my space limitations this is probably easier for me to do on the stairs. Is there a drawback to doing this on up and down a stairway?
I get right hip pain when carry one on the right side 1 side when i do them. Failed back surgery. I had no rehab after that could fix my muscle and strength loss after the surgery.. all right side issues. How can i safely rehab that? QL, psoas and rotation core weakness on 1 side i think. Also got a disc herniation on t10 - t11
Symmetry suffers under single carry, which has cascading effects under heavy loads, and the protocol only works at low to moderate loads, farmer carries usually require heavy loading, and for that reason, I would avoid single carry.
There is nothing wrong with incorporating lighter weights for some stability exercises to address weak links and challenge certain hip, ankle, and core stabilizers on the contralteral side. I prefer single leg RDL's with weight in oppo hand though, personally.
What if we don't have same weight kettlebells. So what about having a weight of say 1 kettlebell in one hand and 1/2 that kettlebell in the other hand vs having no weight in the opposing hand ?
Frank Zane (bodybuilder with one of the smallest waists) was a strong advocate against using weighted sit ups and weighted side bends because they would overdevelop the obliques/ rectus abdominis and this can ruin V taper aesthetic physique So basically abs training will make the waist smaller which is good for aesthetic physique but weighted abs training will only overdevelop the obliques which is bad for aesthetics What about single arm farmer walk? Will this exercise overdevelop the obliques like weighted sit ups and weighted side bands?
I can never get 1 trip groceries because I’m always getting a case of Mountain Dew 0 coke 0 and Gatorade 0. Guess imma have to farmers wall 150 per arm
Simply interchange the hands. Nothing wrong gonna happened. It is more like a functionality real world training. You don't carry even bags in a real world scenario from a grocery store, right? Don't overthink ❤
Yeah both are fine but it's a lot more beneficial with just one. Two and it just becomes a grip with a back exercise and maybe some leg exercise, And lats, But with one It will work Your forearms, shoulders, biceps, triceps, chest, back, and Legs
