Farmer's Walk
Trains the Forearm Flexors and Forearm Extensors.
- Equipment
- A dumbbell, a kettlebell or farmer's handles
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Not recorded
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a heavy dumbbell, kettlebell or farmer's handle on each side of you.
- Stand between them, hinge at the hips with a flat back, and take a firm grip on both.
- Stand up by driving through your legs, keeping your chest up and your shoulder blades pulled down and back.
- Brace your stomach and walk forward with short, controlled steps, keeping the weights from swinging into your legs.
- Walk a set distance or until your grip is close to failing, then set the weights down by hinging at the hips rather than dropping them.
- Keep the shoulders down throughout — letting them get pulled forward and up is what turns a carry into a shrug you are losing.
Common mistakes
- Using straps from the first set. Straps have a legitimate place on the heaviest pulling work, but a carry is one of the few exercises where grip is the intended limiting factor. Using them here removes the point.
- Long strides. Short steps keep the load stable; long ones let the weights swing and pull you side to side.
- Letting the shoulders round forward. The upper back has to hold position for the whole carry, and that isometric work is a real part of the exercise.
- Dropping the weights at the end. The set-down is the same hinge as the pick-up and it is worth doing properly.