Are you looking for an effective exercise that’s fit for any skill level? The farmer’s carry may be perfect for you.

Whether we’re training at home or at the gym, the farmer’s carry promises to enhance your overall body strength, posture, balance, and coordination. Fitness can’t get more simple. The farmer’s carry basically entails picking up something heavy and then walking with it. “A walking exercise?” you’re asking. Yes! But don’t underestimate this one.

In this blog, we will take a deeper look at:

  • What a farmer’s carry is.
  • How to do it.
  • The muscles it targets.
  • Other benefits.
  • Common mistakes.

Let’s dive into it!

What is a Farmer’s Carry?

The farmer’s carry, also known as the farmer’s walk, is an exercise that fits seamlessly in most training programs. Not only is it excellent for building a stronger grip, increasing muscle mass, and torching calories, but the farmer’s carry is also an incredibly versatile exercise that you can incorporate into your daily life activities too.

What you carry honestly doesn’t matter much, as long as it’s heavy:

Basically, if you can pick it up and carry it, it works.

Shop Now

Farmer’s Carry Muscles Worked

You might not be deadlifting 150kg, but make no mistake about it. Doing a farmer’s carry helps you target various muscles in your body, including your:

  • Quadriceps.
  • Calves.
  • Glutes.
  • Lats.
  • Hamstrings.
  • Abdominals.
  • Biceps.
  • Triceps.

It’s a full-body burn.

How to Do a Farmer’s Carry

To start with the exercise, pick your apparatus (read: something to carry). As mentioned, no matter what skill level you’re at, you can do a farmer’s carry. That being said, don’t be afraid to go heavy. If the weight isn’t challenging to hang onto, you’re going too light.

Here’s what you’re going to do.

Step 1: Get your gear ready. Place your weights on the floor on either side of your body. You may also have powdered or liquid chalk ready to aid you with your grip.

Step 2: Hold your posture. With your weights on the sides, level your shoulders, engage your core, and squat down to reach for the weights.

Step 3: Brace your shoulder blades. With arms extended, chest out, weights on both sides, and palms facing your hips, carefully lift with your legs to stand up. Make sure you squeeze your shoulder blades and tighten your core for optimum effect (and safety).

Step 4: Walk it out. When walking towards your pre-determined distance, maintain a steady posture and firm grip. Make sure to squeeze your belly and your shoulder blades as you travel.

Step 5: Upgrade and improvise. Once you get used to a simple walking pace, increase your load. You may also improvise the way you walk to help you with balance, coordination, and control over your legs and core. (Feeling adventurous? Try walking backward!)

Here’s a video guide to help you:

The goal is to maintain good posture, balance, and coordination. Keep your muscles tight! You’re going to feel the weights trying to pull you to the sides. Resisting this force is what helps you build so much strength, especially in your core.

A Few Common Mistakes People Make

The farmer’s carry is simple enough, but your technique still matters. Here are a few things to watch out for:

  • Sagging shoulders: If you can’t maintain good posture, then you might be going too heavy. Keep your chest tall and shoulders back.
  • Weights hitting the sides of your legs: Ideally, you’re able to hold the weights at your sides but keep them in a position such that they’re not constantly banging into the sides of your legs.
  • Racing instead of walking: Athletes tend to rush through the farmer’s carry when it feels like they’re going to drop the weight at any second. Try something a little lighter! Maintain control. Breathe.

Farmer’s Carry Benefits

The farmer’s carry is a whole-body exercise that you can do just about anywhere. It comes with several potential benefits that heighten balance, coordination, stability, and strength.

Let’s take a look at the underlying benefits you can reap from incorporating farmer’s carries into your routine.

Improve Grip Strength

Improving your grip strength is essential for your training. Pull-ups, muscle-ups, the Olympic lifts — so many things that you do in the gym demand a strong grip.

Enhance Core Stability

The farmer’s carry challenges the stability and coordination of your major muscles. It requires good posture and maintaining an engaged core throughout the entirety of your walk.

With enhanced core stability, other physical activities will be much easier (and safer) to do.

Strengthen Body Control

The farmer’s carry can improve overall body control. It trains and puts every major muscle to work and demands stability and coordination. By working on your body control, your sensory skills are also heightened, leading to better body awareness.

Promote Muscle Build-Up

As you know by now, the farmer’s carry is excellent for muscle-building. You don’t need us to tell you that this translates to just about everything you do inside — and outside — of the gym.

Wrapping Up

The farmer’s carry ignites a chain effect. From building muscle to improving balance to boosting stability, it offers countless benefits. It’s a low-impact exercise that improves your performance while keeping your body safe. Focus on form, go heavy, and get to walking! You’ll start to feel the benefits in no time.

Ready to get going? Shop our full collection of equipment today and grab your weights for your farmer’s walks!

Related Blogs