The farmers walk is picking up two heavy weights and walking with them, and the training effect comes from holding on rather than from moving anything. Grip is what fails, the trunk works the whole time to stop you folding sideways, and it is the rare exercise where the progression is distance or time rather than reps.
How to do it
- Stand tall with the shoulders back and walk with short, controlled steps.
- Brace your core as if someone were about to push you sideways.
Common mistakes
- Letting the shoulders round forward, which is where grip work becomes back strain.
What it trains
- Forearms
- hold the handles — the limiting factor, and the reason most people do this
- Traps
- stop the shoulders being pulled down out of their sockets for the whole walk
- Abs and obliques
- resist the sideways lean that a heavy load in each hand keeps trying to cause
- Legs
- carry you and the load, though they are rarely what gives out
Variations and alternatives
Common questions
How heavy and how far should I walk?
Heavy enough that your grip is going by 30 to 45 seconds, which for most people is somewhere near half bodyweight per hand. Distance is the other lever — 20 to 40 metres per trip is a normal working set, and either the weight or the distance goes up next time, never both.
Can I use straps for farmers walks?
You can, but it changes what the exercise is for. Strapped, it becomes trunk and trap work and you can carry far more; bare-handed, it is grip training. Pick which one you are doing that day rather than drifting between them.
Dumbbells, trap bar or proper handles?
Handles are best because the load hangs level and clears your legs, a trap bar is a good substitute, and dumbbells work fine until they get heavy enough to bang your thighs. Do not use a barbell in each hand — it tips.
How do I track a carry?
Log it by weight and by distance or time, then beat one of them next session. StackUp tracks duration and distance exercises separately from rep-based ones, so a carry keeps its own history instead of being forced into sets and reps.
In StackUp. Logged with a stopwatch that keeps running if you leave the app, plus distance. Get the app.
Arms
