In the previous post, I wrote about my strongman workout session which included doing a couple of heavy farmers walks. What is a farmers walk and why should I do them you might ask. Simply put, it is standing between two heavy objects, lifting them and walking forward until your grip gives out or your arm falls out of it’s socket, presumably still attached to the heavy thing you were trying to carry. OK, so the arm isn’t going to fall off, but at some point, the grip will give out and you will drop whatever it is you were carrying.
So, the first benefit to doing FW’s is grip strength. Doing heavy FW’s has a practical function in our urban lifestyle. And we are all about function here at MFBB! We already know farmers have to carry heavy stuff. It’s their job! But what about us city folk?
Let’s say you and the little lady are going on vacation. Your suitcase has a few pairs of the basics, boxers, shirts, socks, shoes and that’s about it. I promise you, she doesn’t pack like that. She just emptied out half of her closet into one, but probably two suitcases and guess what? You get to carry them! What you haven’t anticipated is that your gate at the airport will be clear across the terminal. Do you get my drift? Do you see a practical side to doing these Farmer Walks? While you’re at it, besides carrying the two suitcases, she will undoubtedly put another bag over your shoulder because one of your job titles is Pack Mule.
To train for this extra load, I suggest you do your farmers walks with a sandbag over your shoulder in addition to the loads in your hands.
If you don’t have to carry her bags, should you still train with FWs? You bet. Besides vastly improving your grip strength which will certainly help you with heavy deadlifting, here are some other benefits:
- Core strengthener. Everyone wants core strength and this will help you get that. Strong back and strong abdominals. I always feel it in my traps, which is good because the traps are heavily involved during deadlifting.
- Improved coordination. It isn’t easy to maintain coordination when every muscle in your body is screaming. This is a compound movement so various muscles groups work together to get the job done.
- Posterior chain strength. Your glutes and hammies will benefit greatly.
- Increased work capacity. Farmer Walks are HARD work. You will build muscle!
- Mental toughness. What will give out first, your grip or your will? (Hint: say “grip”).
The tools can be just a couple of dumbbells that equal your bodyweight. The only problem with dumbbells is that they will bang up against your hand and wrist so a good idea is to get a small section of pipe, 1-2″ diameter and connect it to the dumbbells with nylon webbing. You now have dumbbells with handles. Kettlebells are a natural with built-in handles. To go really hardcore, you can FW with a pair of farmers walk implements like these:
They look like short barbells with handles. In the picture above, the implements have two handle thicknesses. The thicker is harder to hold on to, as you might imagine.
There are many ways to Farmer Walk. You can go for distance or for time. You can go until you drop them, rest and repeat. You can add a hill or some turns. As always, mix it up for variety and variations in conditioning. Whatever you do, always stay tight, breathe, chest up, more your feet quickly and look straight ahead.
Finally, Farmers Walks are great finishers to your workout. They don’t take much time and you should do them after you have done everything else and when you do, you have just dramatically improved the quality of the entire training session.
