Get Lean, Get Strong, and Add Fun to Your Training With the Farmer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry — a simple exercise that has a person walk while holding two dumbbells — enhances grip and core strength, balance and coordination, posture, and overall total body strength. This loaded carry variation can produce high amounts of fatigue, to boot — making it a worthy exercise to add to most training programs designed to gain muscle and strength.

The increased popularity of the sport of strongman — which regularly features the farmer’s carry as an event — has undoubtedly played a role in the exercise’s overall rise in notoriety. The farmer’s carry may have been made famous by large men running with large weights, but anyone of any skill level can benefit from picking up some dumbbells or kettlebells and taking a stroll. In this article, we will go through everything you need to know about the farmer’s carry, including:

• How to Do the Farmer’s Carry
• Farmer’s Carry Sets and Reps
• Common Farmer’s Carry Mistakes
• Farmer’s Carry Variations
• Farmer’s Carry Alternatives
• Muscles Worked by the Farmer’s Carry
• Benefits of the Farmer’s Carry
• Who Should Do the Farmer’s Carry
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Farmer’s Carry

You can use various tools to perform farmer’s carries with — two barbells loaded with weight plates, farmer’s carry handles, dumbbells, or kettlebells. Even a trap bar is a suitable carrying implement. Whichever tool you choose, the base mechanics are the same. 

Step 1 — Pick Up the Weights

Stand with the weights (in this example, we’re going with dumbbells) at your side. Hinge at your hips to bend over and grab each dumbbell. Lift with your legs to stand up with the weights.

Coach’s Tip: Be sure to squeeze your shoulder blades together so that your chest remains up for optimal posture.

Step 2 — Walk it Out

Walk with the weights in hand. Maintain a steady, upright position and posture. Do not allow the weight to move laterally or favor one side over the other. Use short, fast strides to increase your performance at first.

Coach’s Tip: To help with grip, use powdered chalk or liquid chalk. Chalk will help with contact between your hands and the bar without artificially augmenting your grip strength (by using lifting straps).

Farmer’s Carry Sets and Reps

You can choose to incoporate farmer’s carries into your program as a conditioning move, finisher, or accessory to more traditional barbell lifts. Or, you might center this lift as one of your main programming ingredients. Either way, you’ll still want to program according to your specific goals.

• For Grip Strength: Using 70 to 75 percent of what you can lift, walk 30 to 40 meters with excellent form. Perform three to four rounds.
• For Endurance: Using 55 to 60 percent of what you can pick up, walk as long as you can until failure. Rest as needed between sets, performing four to five rounds.
• For Conditioning: Load up your equipment with 60 to 65 percent of what you can lift and walk as long as you can do to so to safe failure. Repeat for three to six rounds, resting as little as possible between sets.

If you’re performing these sets as finishers at the end of a workout, you might want to use a little less weight to compensate for fatigue. But if you’ve programmed a separate conditioning day or are otherwise focused mainly on this lift, you might want to go heavier.

Common Farmer’s Carry Mistakes

Picking something up, carrying it, and putting it down somewhere else is simple, right? Well, sort of. It’s still quite possible to make mistakes during your lift. Be sure you’re not falling prey to these common flaws in farmer’s carry training.

Going Too Light

It might not seem like a problem to go too light, and indeed there are often advantages to taking it easier. But you may be leaving a lot of gains on the floor if you’re consistently not challenging yourself with heavy enough weight. This is a move where you want to really try and push yourself weight-wise, so if you’re not approaching failure toward the end of your distance or time goal, you might not be training heavy enough.

Stride Length

To start, you’ll likely want to use short, fast strides. And if you’re in competition and lifting extreme weights, you might stick to that. But you might be in the middle ground between beginner and elite competitive athlete and want to use this move to build strength and conditioning. In that case, try to focus on matching your stride length to your experience level.

Trying to take regular-sized steps as a beginner might throw you off balance. But the more advanced you become, maintaining a normal stride length while increasing stride rate is the most beneficial to maximal output and greatest overall performance. (1)

Poor Upper Back Positioning

Many lifters may try to compensate for fatigue by shrugging their shoulders up high. And while that’s good when you’re actually trying to perform shrugs, you want to try to keep your shoulders back and down during farmer’s carries to maximize your upper back activation. This way, you’ll be training yourself to keep your lats packed and properly engaged during the entire movement. It will also help prevent you from resting the weights on your sides.

Farmer’s Carry Variations 

There are many ways to spice up your farmer’s carry, and they all typically involve lifting a new object in a new position. Here are four farmer’s carry variations we like. 

Suitcase Carry

Also known as the unilateral farmer’s carry, the suitcase carry is a multiplanar exercise that involves a coordinated effort across your core and hip musculature to maintain posture while performing.

Despite its simplicity, the suitcase carry requires a high demand for trunk muscle co-contraction, synchronicity, and balance. (2) 

Trap-Bar Farmer’s Carry

If you do not have access to specialized farmer’s carry bars, a trap bar — also known as a hex bar — will do the job. Due to the fixed nature of the trap bar, you may be able to load up more weight during your carry.

That said, you still want to ensure proper core stabilization to reduce the risk of injury to your low back or spine. This may be a better starting point for someone new to lifting or returning from a long off period due to injury.

Towel Grip Farmer’s Carry

For an added boost in grip strength, thread a towel through the handle of a kettlebell and grip either one or two bells in your hand(s).

You’ll need to squeeze far harder to sustain your grip on the towels, resulting in bulkier forearms to boot. The one downside is you won’t lift as heavy compared to holding dumbbells or farmer handles.

Strongman-Style Farmer’s Carry

Newsflash: strongmen and strongwomen are really, really strong. Therefore, you can’t toss a pair of 100-pound dumbbells at them and ask them to take a walk — the event would last forever. Strongman competitions typically use special handles with pegs on the front or on top to hold weight plates.

These specialized handles can hold a tremendous amount of weight, so athletes typically perform heavy carries for shorter distances. Functionally, it’s the same movement but with much heavier weights. 

Farmer’s Carry Alternatives

The traditional arms at your sides farmer’s carry can be altered quite a bit. Still, more specific variations work your body differently enough that we’ll refer to them as alternatives — worth adding into your training. Here are three that we like.

Waiter’s Carry

This variation has the lifter hold a single dumbbell or kettlebell overhead as they walk. Think about a server at a restaurant holding a tray — the movement looks like that.

This exercise develops and reinforces shoulder mobility as you sustain an overhead position while holding a fairly heavy weight. If you press a lot, then this variation could bolster your pressing prowess. 

Zercher Carry

You’ll hold a loaded barbell in the crook of your arm and walk forward. Your upper back muscles and core will be firing on all cylinders to maintain a rigid posture.

Otherwise, as with a front squat, you’ll drop the bar forward. 

Vertical Trap Bar Farmer’s Carry

By turning the bar, so the shafts face in front and back of you, you’re narrowing your grip and creating a lot more instability. To ensure the weight stays put, you’ll need to really squeeze your shoulder blades together and grip the trap bar tightly.

Use about 60 to 65 percent of your typical weight for the trap bar farmer’s carry when using this alternative. 

Muscles Worked by the Famer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry is a full-body exercise. This exercise challenges muscles across the upper body from start to finish — such as the arms, shoulders, upper back, and core. It also places large amounts of tension on the muscles of the lower body — such as the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Needless to say, this is a bang-for-your-buck exercise.

Glutes

The glutes act as key players in hip stability and strength during walking, jumping, sprinting, and strength training. The farmer’s carry helps strengthen the gluteus medius — a muscle that helps stabilize the torso and pelvis alongside the gluteus maximus — and can help alleviate lower back pain and make everyday movements, such as standing, walking, and climbing the stairs, that much easier. (3)(4)

Adductors

The muscles of the inner thigh — known as the adductors — help serve as important stabilizers of the pelvis and help maintain the balance of the pelvis during the pattern of movement for locomotion, also known as gait. (5) The adductors are heavily engaged during the farmer’s carry, specifically during the walking phase (essentially the entire movement). 

Hamstrings

The hamstrings attach to the pelvis and run posteriorly down the leg. These important muscles contribute greatly to your gait cycle, playing a prominent role in hip extension, knee flexion, and extension while also playing an essential role in knee stability.

Although you are not dynamically flexing and extending at the hip during the farmer’s carry does not mean the hamstrings are not working hard every step of the way. (6)

Calves

The calf muscles — most notably the gastrocnemius and soleus — plantarflex (toes pointed down) the foot and ankle. Functionally, the calf muscle assists in knee flexion and is an important muscle in stabilizing the knee during loaded carries, like the farmer’s carry. (7)(8)

Quadriceps

The quadriceps — made up of rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius — play an important role in flexing and stabilizing the hip while also playing a central role in extending the knee. (9) During the farmer’s carry, the quadriceps work double-time to help stabilize the hips while also extending the knee during the carrying stage.

Trapezius

The trapezius — commonly referred to as traps — is a large muscle spanning the better part of your upper and mid-back. This large muscle plays a vital role in stabilizing the scapula (shoulder blades) as it is the main muscle producing tension in the upper back while holding the weight in your hands. Each of the three divisions of the traps is hard at work during the farmer’s carry to help maintain tension and stability in the back. (10)

Latissimus Dorsi 

The latissimus dorsi — commonly referred to as the lats — is most commonly known for its role in moving the arm toward and around the back of the body. During the farmer’s carry, the lats play a slightly different role, most notably stabilizing the pelvis and interacting with the abdominal muscles in everything from respiration, maintaining shoulder positioning to protecting the spine. (11)

Core

The core — most notably muscles of the abdominals, erector spinae, quadratus lumborum, and others — help stabilize the spine and pelvis during loaded movements, such as the farmer’s carry. The farmer’s carry fits the criteria of being a more advanced core-based functional exercise — it requires acceleration, deceleration, and dynamic stabilization. (12)

Arms and Shoulders

In addition to grip, the arms and shoulders are heavily challenged during the farmer’s carry — especially the forearms. A lesser-known function of the biceps and triceps is shoulder stability. As the long head of each muscle — the biceps and triceps — attaches to the scapula, aiding in humeral displacement. (13)(14)

Additionally, when significant loads are lifted and held, a large amount of strain is placed on the shoulder joint. Muscles like the deltoids help maintain stability around the shoulder’s ball-and-socket joint — or maybe more appropriately described as a ball-and-saucer joint, as it is more shallow than the hip joint. (15)

Benefits of the Farmer’s Carry

Regardless of the goal or sport, fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and strength and conditioning professionals can benefit from the farmer’s carry. (16) The load, grip width, distance traveled, intensity, frequency, and volume are all variables to individualize to the lifter. Below are a few of the most notable benefits of the farmer’s carry.

Increase Grip Strength

A strong grip has been associated with everything from a better quality of life, lower risk of sarcopenia (muscle loss) and dynapenia (loss of muscle strength and power) in older adulthood, and reduced risk of cardiovascular events. (17) Aside from the benefits of long-term health, athletes with a stronger grip have an advantage across many disciplines, such as grappling, climbing, baseball, powerlifting and strongman, football, and hockey. (18)

The benefits of a stronger grip extend beyond strength, sport, and athletic performance. A stronger grip translates into other lifts, like the deadlift and snatch. It can also improve strength and muscle-building potential in exercises like dumbbell rows, upright rows, and pull-ups.

Enhance Core Stability and Bracing

A strong core translates to increased strength and performance and the ability to brace better for a more stable spine — leading to the prevention and reduction of low back pain. (19) The farmer’s carry can improve overall core strength, the resistance of spinal rotation, flexion, and extension, improved by the challenge of maintaining a rigid spine throughout the exercise — aiding in injury prevention and force production.

Additionally, bracing the core and controlling breathing during the farmer’s carry can aid in stronger trunk and hip extension, alongside increasing the strength of the internal oblique muscles. (20)

Strengthens Your Glutes

The farmer’s carry helps improve grip strength and the strength of the glutes — a muscle that helps stabilize the torso and pelvis alongside the gluteus maximus. (3)(4) Stronger glutes will carry over into other big lifts such as the squat and any deadlift variation that you can think of, along with other accessory-based movements like the lunge and split squat.

Improve Postural Strength and Control

When carrying heavy loads while walking, postural control is necessary to ensure torso-pelvic coordination and the protection of the spine. The farmer’s carry trains muscles deep within the torso — both anterior and posterior — such as the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, and the erector spinae, enhancing postural strength, and control in movements like squats, presses, and deadlifts. (21)

Versatility

The farmer’s carry — a traditional strongman exercise or event — is categorized as “a non-traditional implement integrated into strength and conditioning practice” currently used to improve performance. Among a survey of 220 strength and conditioning coaches, 88 percent of the coaches reported using strongman implements such as the farmer’s carry. (16)

The non-traditional nature of this exercise allows for the training of multiple energy systems and performance-enhancing adaptations. In simpler words: the Farmer’s carry will get you strong. It will get you lean if that’s something you want. It will improve your cardio.

Among the 88 percent of coaches who use this move, they ranked anaerobic and metabolic conditioning, explosive strength and power, and muscle endurance as the three main physiological reasons why they used strongman implements in their athlete’s training. (16)

Functional Strength

Another reason for using the farmer’s carry in your training — especially if you’re not a strongman athlete — is to transfer gym-based gains into more functional strength. (Carrying grocery bags in each hand is functionally a farmer’s carry.) If that wasn’t enough, strength and conditioning professionals tout the other beneficial uses strongman-based training has had for their athletes, including improving functional strength, creating competition, enhancing stability, elevating metabolic conditioning, increasing enjoyment in training with a “fun” stimulus, grip strength, mental toughness, and more.

Who Should Do the Farmer’s Carry

Here’s a breakdown of the different populations that can and how they can benefit from the farmer’s carry.

Bodybuilding and General Fitness

Training specifically for physique goals — whether for competitive bodybuilders or general fitness enthusiasts — can help build size, strength and improve overall body composition. Still, it can also leave some room for improvement in grip strength, balance, coordination, and core strength.

The farmer’s carry can be used to take the gains you’ve made in the gym using traditional machines and translate that into functional strength. The farmer’s carry can benefit muscles across the upper body — such as the arms, shoulders, upper back, and core. It also places large amounts of tension on the muscles of the lower body — such as the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves, helping you grow bigger legs and help increase your strength in hip extension variations, like the deadlift.

Strength and Power Athletes

• Powerlifters and Strongman Athletes: The back squat, deadlift, yoke walk, tire flip, and many other variations demand significant upper and lower body strength. Among other compound and isolation exercises, utilizing the farmer’s carry will help build size and strength to the upper and lower body while having direct carryover to strength sport. 
• Olympic Weightlifters: The farmer’s carry is an excellent non-traditional exercise for upper and lower body strength necessary for movements such as the clean & jerk. This variation can specifically help those athletes who lack upper or lower body strength while minimizing the risk of irritating the shoulder.

CrossFit Athletes and Sports Training

CrossFit athletes and those training for sport can use the farmer’s carry within their programming to help increase upper and lower body strength and muscle mass. Strong legs will be necessary for maximizing performance in lower body pressing variations (deadlifts, walking lunge, overhead squats, and Olympic lifts) and bodyweight variations (box jumps, wall ball, and burpees).

Similarly, a strong upper body will be necessary for maximizing performance in upper body pulling variations (power cleans, hang cleans, and clean & jerk). Additionally, strength and conditioning professionals across the nation use the farmer’s carry on average once per week, reaping the benefits such as improved motivation and enjoyment, power and speed gains, exercise variety, metabolic conditioning, mental toughness, core strength, and more. (16)

Carry Out Your Goals

The farmer’s carry is a functional exercise that increases strength in your upper and lower body while bolstering your aerobic capacity. It’s easy to learn, easy to do, and there are many variations one can try for sport specificity and training goals. 

FAQs

Still got questions about this powerhouse of a move? That’s cool. We’ve still got answers.

References

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