You don’t have to heed the rooster’s crow to reap the benefits of a Farmer’s Walk. Anyone can do this functional exercise anytime, anywhere to build strength to improve overall fitness and quality of life. The Farmer’s Walk, or Farmer’s Carry, is a basic move that builds foundational strength and has little risk of injury if you start slow, moving step-by-step. It can be a key component of any workout.
The Farmer’s Walk is an integrated movement that targets several aspects of physical fitness; balance, mobility and muscular strength. The exercise involves walking forward while carrying a heavy load by your sides. As such, the exercise can grow with you as your fitness improves. You can start with a light weight and walk just a short distance. When your ability increases, add weight and increase the distance you walk.
The act of carrying a heavy weight with your arms hanging by your sides translates to things you do in your everyday life. The Farmer’s Walk can help you improve your posture and gait. The move can help you develop good lifting technique and movement patterns that can help you avoid everyday injuries. It can help you develop serious strength in your core, grip, upper arms, forearms, shoulders and legs that give you a competitive edge.
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Give The Farmer’s Walk a Try
Here’s how:
– Find a straight-away and determine how much ground you want to cover.
– Pick-up a pair of equally weighted objects. You can use a set of dumbbells if you want or any other objects you can grasp; pails, jugs, weight discs, kettlebells, etc.
– Turn your palms toward your body and let your arms extend down so the palms rest by your outer thighs.
– Keep your knees soft as you walk forward.
– Try to maintain a “neutral posture” with your shoulders and hips aligned.
There are other variations of The Farmer’s Walk you can explore. T-Nation dissects the overhead carry, barbell walk and other related moves. Whatever form you toss into your workouts, The Farmer’s Walk is proof that sometimes simplicity is best.
