I dragged over a pair of 70-pound dumbbells, put them in front of myself, tensed myself to get ready, and set the timer. As I held them around the gym in circles, I got a lot of strange looks. “Why is he just running around carrying them instead of exercising with them?” they must be thinking about it.
It’s true that very few of them know that I’m actually exercising, which is one of the most difficult and rewarding forms of exercise. When I felt my forearms start to burn, my upper back is getting tired, and gripping becomes difficult, I put down my dumbbells and rest for a while.
After wiping away the thick sweat and drinking some water, I thought, “This is such a challenging and effective pot workout, but I don’t see a single person doing it.” Although this kind of exercise is already quite famous in the physical training fitness world, it is relatively new to the average fitness enthusiast.
Without further ado, let me start introducing you guys.
Farmer walking
Picking up something and walking from point A to point B is one of the most normal things we humans do. Whether it’s carrying a shopping bag, suitcase or travel bag.
Dan John, a famous physical training coach in the United States, lists it as the sport with the highest overall fitness effect
A farmer walks like that – picking up a heavy object with your hands until you can’t catch it. So, it’s one of the simplest functional exercises you can do.
Strength and conditioning coach Jack Lovett called it “the most effective concentrated training”, while Dan John, a famous American physical training coach, rated it as the exercise with the highest overall fitness effect. Here are some of its benefits:
• Build a strong core supporting muscle group to ensure that the spine remains neutral by avoiding oblique compression forces. This can improve your posture, increase your strength in other weightlifting moves, and protect your spine from injury.
• Enhances the body’s ability to perceive itself, also known as the “sixth sense.” It’s your own perception, feeling the position of your body part and the load on your movement, while maintaining and strengthening its supporting core.
• Boosts willpower and concentration. Because walking a farmer walking is really difficult, laborious, very challenging.
• Highly functional. As I said before, this kind of movement is something we often do in real life.
• Promotes muscle growth as muscle tension is prolonged, especially in the upper back, forearms and leg parts. Muscle tone is one of the three mechanisms by which muscles are formed.
• Improves intermuscular coordination. Because when holding heavy objects in space, maintaining correct posture requires proper coordination between different muscle groups.
Some different variations you can make
The best thing about the farmer’s walking exercise is its diversity. You can do this sport almost anywhere. The only equipment you need is – heavy objects that you can handle. There can be some different variations here:
1. Regular version farmer walking
This is the standard version. If you don’t have a farmer’s walking handle in your gym, you can use dumbbells, hex bars, or kettlebells.
If you’re at home, you can use a bucket full of water, or a duffel bag full of heavy loads. You just have to use your imagination.
2. One-armed farmer walking
This is a natural evolution from the regular two-arm version. This change has a much greater effect on your side body than the regular one, because you have to work hard to keep your torso straight as the weight pulls you to one side.
This also helps improve your stability and can also help balance muscle imbalance problems.
3. Zercher farmer walking
Now, we’re at our best stage of “killing my core muscle groups and upper back.” The Zell farmer walk requires a barbell in your arm, which burns your core muscles and upper back muscles.
You can also hold heavy flour bags or sandbags.
4. Overhead farmer walking
This is one of the most effective variations for building stability throughout your body. This can increase the strength of your oblique, shoulders, and straighteners of the spine. Because this form of farmer walking is much more difficult than the other three, you can’t carry too much weight.
You can do these movements with dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells.
How to incorporate farmer walking into your exercise program
Whether you’re training for strength, muscle gain, body shape, or endurance, farmer walking can be easily incorporated into your exercise program.
Since farmer walking involves a small range of motion (ROM) and is largely isometric, it produces little muscle soreness and you can recover quickly.
This means that you can do these exercises regularly without prolonging your recovery time. Here are three ways to incorporate them into your exercise program:
1. As part of a warm-up
Because they can move throughout your body and enhance circulation in your cardiovascular system, a short low-intensity farmer walk can help activate your muscle tissue and get your heart pumping before your workout.
In addition, you can also use the methods of the transformation actions mentioned above. You can do the Zell Farmer Walk first, followed by the Zell Squat and Front Squat, the Head Squat Farmer Walk followed by the Overhead Squat and Snatch, or the Stiff Lift and Barbell Shrug after the regular Farmer Walk.
2. As part of your main training
You can program them into your master training plan, keep track of weight and time, and increase the weight gradually. You can change the intensity of your training by using lighter weights and walking longer, or by using heavier weights and walking less.
Farmer’s walking training extends well to training such as hard lifts, squats, barbell paddles, and barbell shrugs.
3. As the end of training
That’s how I enjoyed the farmer’s walk. At the end of my rally training, I do three sets of farmer walks with 30kg dumbbells, at a frequency of twice a week. You can do this:
• Perform a high-weighted farmer walking or back exercise at the end of arm training, with the forearm and trapezius muscles respectively.
• Longer but lighter-bearing farmer walks at the end of lower body training, mainly to train the leg muscles. Or burn more calories at the end of aerobic exercise.
• Moderate but faster farmer walking with weights, as well as weight lifting or sprinting training, at the end of lower body training, in order to train the leg muscles.
These are just some examples and my personal thoughts. Be more creative and keep experimenting with yourself.
Post time: Jul-24-2023