Why You Should Start Doing The Farmer Carry Today
Are you looking to strengthen your grip so you can do more pull ups, have a stronger deadlift, and want to know the benefits of farmers' careries?
We got you.
Grip strength is one of the three things (mobility, core, and grip strength) that I really drive home when first taking on a new client within our fitness programs.
We are going to be covering quite a few different topics so if you want to skip directly to the topic you have the most interest, click the link below and be taken right there.
A Few Different Examples Of Grip Strength Before Diving Into The Benefits
Grip strength will “unlock” your ability to do a lot more exercises and pull some really heavy weight. I have some different feats of strength of deadlifts and pull ups listed below. In the videos below I’m going to show you the difference in Strength VS Strength Endurance
Absolute Strength
One Rep Max Deadlift - This is a true test of not only grip strength but overall strength. If you notice in the video I don't have the mixed grip which is a cheat for a weak grip. It's okay, I used to do it too until I found out you could actually get injured from mixing your grip. Then I stopped.
Strength Endurance
10 Rep Deadlift - A lot of people can pick up heavy weight and that's great. But do you have the grip strength to handle moderate weight without using the mix grip? If you don't work on that.
Absolute Strength - 123 lb Weighted Pull Up
Similar to the one rep max deadlift video from above to achieve these heavy numbers a lot of training goes into being able to get here. Progressive overload training over many of years can do the same for you.
Strength Endurance - 20 Strict Pull Ups
The ability to crank out a ton of pull ups (20+) with ease comes from a lot of grip work. The ability to hold on to the pull up bar (after a five event crossfit competition by the way) is an example of why you need to vary the duration of your farmer walks.
Benefits Of The Farmers Walk
Never have your grip be the reason you can’t do something.
Strengthening your grip with farmers walk is simple. It’s grunt work. You pick up a pair of heavy dumbbells, kettlebells or even a trap bar and you either hold it and get a good isometric hold or you challenge your core with walking.
Just like in the videos above you saw an example of one rep max strength and strength endurance and you want the same training principles to apply when performing the farmers walk.
What Is Farmers Carry In Crossfit
I don’t see enough strongman work done in most crossfit settings. When I was in the military we carried these heavy water containers and I remember it was one of the hardest things we did. The water was sloshing around and of course we were doing a bunch of crazy things in between the carries.
I remember this one time there were four of us. Three of us had to carry an enormous tire overhead (don’t remember how heavy it was) and the fourth person had to carry the water containers for two miles. It was absolutely brutal and freaking awesome. The person carrying was to motivate and lead the team on the tire.
That’s one of the reasons why I program partner workouts in our fitness programs every weekend. Community and accountability bring the best out of people and that’s all I want for our community.
We give you the tools, education, and support...you put in the work.
What Muscles Do Farmers Walk Work
Farmers walks are one the best way to strengthen your grip, lats, abs, biceps, traps, you name it. It’s an exercise that is under utilized and not done properly often...what do you mean? You aren’t carrying heavy enough weight is what I mean.
I can promise you that if you start doing more farmers walk you will see a direct carry over in your ability to:
- Do more pull ups (here is a free guide to help you with pull ups)
- Cycle the barbell better
- Deadlift without flipping your grip. Stop doing that by the way, here is why.
Do Farmers Walk Build Muscle & Mass?
Absolutely. One benefit being you are going to see is so much strength carry over to your other lifts and why it will increase your deadlift. I can’t say this enough the stronger your grip is the stronger you will be.
The farmer walk is an isometric hold the entire time. Same with the king of all ab exercises, the L Sit. Isometric holds whether it be L Sits or Farmer Carries are hard and get you really strong.
Because your muscles are firing the entire time. Time under tension is key to getting stronger and why it’s so good for you. It’s the reason why we have our K2 Levels within each training program.
To get stronger at a particular movement you don’t just keep trying to do it over and over again. There are steps you need to master before getting there.
Example:
If a workout says to perform 10 pull ups and you can only do two at a time it’s not best to just do sets of 2 as fast as you can. You want to get the right “training stimulus” AKA choose an exercise that allows you to get 10 reps of time under tension.
What Is A Good Farmer Carry Weight
The weight you choose for farmers walks is going to depend on a few things:
- Distance
- Duration
- Relative strength
The longer the duration the lighter the weight and the shorter the duration the heavier you need to go.
I want you to be able to walk 60 seconds at:
- Advanced - 60% of bodyweight (not per hand)
- Intermediate - 40%
- Beginner - 25%
So if you weigh 200 lbs and you consider yourself intermediate I would want to be able to walk for 60 seconds with 80 lbs per hand. If you are thinking there is no way I can do that you can obviously tell how important I believe grip strength is.
If you are ready to get stronger, strengthen your grip, get better at deadlifts, pull ups, all of that then take our quiz and see which program is best for by taking the quiz below.
How Long Should You Do A Farmer Carry
Reference the text above on what weight I recommend for you based on the distance but here are a few of my favorite farmer carry workouts. These are pulled directly from our online fitness programs.
Comment below with which workout is your favorite of the three!
Farmer Carry Workout 1
10 Minute EMOM (Every minute on the minute)
- 6 x Weighted Pull Up OR Strict Pull Up OR Banded Pull Up
- 40 Yard Farmer Carry (Men 75/60/40 & Women 40/35/30)
Farmer Carry Workout 2
8 Minute EMOM (Every minute on the minute)
- 8 x Weighted Pull Up OR Strict Pull Up OR Banded Pull Up
- 20 x DB Chest Press
When the clock hits 8:00 complete:
Three sets of:
- Farmer Carry x 100 Yards (Men - 28/24/20 kg & Women - 20/16/12 kg)
- Rest x 90 seconds
Farmer Carry Workout 3
Every 4 minutes x 4 sets
- 30 seconds x Chin Up Hold
- 25 Yards x Plate Pinch Carry
- 25 Yards x Farmer Carry
Does The Farmers' Walk Increase Your Deadlift?
Yes! Strengthen your grip, your core, your posterior chain and you can expect great things to happen with your deadlift. Just make sure you are lifting properly of course. Check out the tutorial below or if you are a reader click here for a full breakdown.
Conclusion
We showed you some examples of how strength can come in the form of one rep absolute strength and also strength endurance.
Both are important.
Be sure to try some of the farmers walk workouts we gave you above and take our strength training program for a spin. You can join now for just $1 by clicking here.
PS
We talked about the importance of grip strength AND core strength. So we are decided to create a FREE five day video ab series that is dedicated to strengthening your core. Check it out here!