By Mike Kubas<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pick up these heavy weights and walk them over there and then come back and put them down. That\u2019s it? Sure is. Well there\u2019s a bit more to it than that, but at its essence the farmers carry \u00a0actually is<\/em> that simple. You\u2019ve most likely seen personal trainers having their clients doing this very exercise and asked yourself \u201cWhy are they walking around carrying two heavy weights? That looks pointless!\u201d It looks very basic, but there is actually a lot going on and a lot of muscles being both challenged and strengthened. Farmers carries are debatably the most functional exercise you can do, as it relates directly to almost everyone\u2019s every-day life. Picking up two grocery bags up, a suitcase, or a child, this exercise will help make that task easier for you and that\u2019s just one of the many benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This exercise also improves posture, grip strength, shoulder stability, hip strength, bone density, and core strength. It\u2019s as full body as it gets, kind of like a Body Sculpt class boiled down into one exercise! <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many different variations of the farmers\ncarry, but for our purposes I\u2019ll stick to the basic two-armed farmer\u2019s carry. Despite\nthe appearance of extreme simplicity, the demands this exercise places on your\nbody are actually quite complex. The basis of the exercise is to pick up two\nuncomfortably heavy weights and walk 20yds-50yds with them at a brisk pace,\nwhile maintaining a strong balanced posture and control over the weights (not\nrocking or swinging). In doing this, you are challenging several areas of your\nfitness including grip strength, shoulder stability, trap strength, as well as\ncore strength. Even though you may not realize it, your abdominals, back,\ndelts, and hips are stabilizing the weight and stopping it from swaying back\nand forth. They are under constant tension for the entirety of the exercise.\nThis time under tension is one of the biggest drivers of muscle growth that\nthere is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only does this exercise help build muscle, it can\nalso be used for a nice metabolic burn when it\u2019s mixed in with other exercises.\nThis can be used at the end of a workout as a finisher or can be part of a\nmetabolic endurance focused workout. You will grab two weights for your carry\nand two dumbbells for your exercises. You start the series by performing a\nfarmer\u2019s carry, once you complete the carry, you grab the two dumbbells and\nperform 8 reps of a push press, then immediately begin another farmer\u2019s carry.\nAfter the carry you will perform 6 reps on each side of an alternating reverse\nlunge with the same dumbbells. You will then perform another farmer\u2019s carry,\nfollowed by plank position rows, 6 on each side. You will alternate in between\nthe carries and the three exercises for a set number of rounds or for a given\namount of time (4-12mins). This makes for a killer finish to your workout or a\ngreat way to switch up your workout routine. The three exercises can be changed\nand individualized but should be focused on different muscle groups and in the\n6-8 rep ranges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a simple rundown of the farmer\u2019s carry, why we use it, and how we can fit it into a workout. It\u2019s simple, effective, and a great bang-4-your-buck exercise that can be used in a variety of ways. In addition, once you\u2019ve mastered the proper farmer\u2019s carries, there\u2019s many more variations on carries to keep you challenged and progressing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Kubas Carry What?….. Where?….. Why? Pick up these heavy weights and walk them over there and then come back and put them down. That\u2019s it? Sure is. Well there\u2019s a bit more to it than that, but at its essence the farmers carry \u00a0actually is that simple. You\u2019ve most likely seen personal trainers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 06:03:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}