Farmers Walk: How to Do It, Muscles Worked, How Heavy and Benefits

A farmers walk, also called a farmer’s carry, is exactly what it sounds like: you pick up a heavy weight in each hand and walk, standing tall. It trains your grip, forearms, upper back, core and hips at once, needs only two dumbbells or kettlebells, and suits almost anyone, from beginners building everyday strength to lifters chasing a stronger grip.

How to do a farmers walk

1. Set up. Place two equal weights just outside your feet, handles pointing forward.
2. Pick them up like a deadlift. Push your hips back, keep your back flat, grip each handle in the middle and stand up by driving through your feet. Our Romanian deadlift guide covers this hip hinge.
3. Stand tall. Shoulders back and down, ribs down, arms straight by your sides. Brace your stomach as if you were about to take a punch.
4. Squeeze the handles hard.
5. Walk with short, steady, deliberate steps, looking straight ahead, for your set time or distance.
6. Turn carefully. Take several small steps rather than pivoting on one foot.
7. Stop and set the weights down with the same hinge you used to lift them.

Form cues

• Grow tall, as if a string were pulling up from your head. Don’t lean forward or sideways.
• The weights hang still, without swinging or bumping your legs.
• Feel it in your hands, upper back and the sides of your waist.
• Take short breaths behind a braced stomach; don’t hold your breath.
• End the set when your posture or grip starts to slip.

Muscles worked

Your grip and forearm muscles hold the weights, your trapezius and upper back stop your shoulders from being dragged down, and your trunk muscles keep your spine upright as you move. Every step briefly puts you on one leg, so your hip muscles work to keep your pelvis level.

The most detailed measurements come from spine researchers at the University of Waterloo, who recorded torso and hip muscle activity during strongman events including the farmer’s walk, the one-handed suitcase carry and the yoke walk (1). They concluded that carrying challenged different abilities than lifting, so loaded carries would round out a lifting-based program. In the yoke walk, the quadratus lumborum, a deep muscle at the side of the lower back, helped hold up the pelvis where the hip muscles fell short.

A second study measured the legs and hips of 16 trained men carrying a moderate load (2). The gluteus medius, the side-hip muscle that keeps your pelvis level, worked at roughly 26 to 47% of its maximum, depending on its strength relative to the thigh muscles. As with all electromyography (EMG) data, activation is a clue, not proof of strength or muscle gains.

Overall, the research is thin: a 2019 systematic review of strongman exercise biomechanics found only 11 studies and little data on one-handed carries (3).

Common mistakes

• Going too heavy too soon. If your steps turn into a shuffle or your posture changes, it is too heavy. Fix: drop the load and build time or distance first.
• Leaning or slumping. Rounding your shoulders or tipping forward strains your lower back. Fix: shoulders back, ribs down, eyes forward.
• Swinging the weights. Long strides make the weights swing and bang your legs. Fix: shorter, quicker steps.
• Lifting or dropping with a rounded back. The weights still have to come off the floor and go back down. Fix: hinge down and up with a flat back every time.
• Holding your breath. Fix: brace, but keep taking short breaths throughout.

Variations: easier and harder

Sets, reps and how often

Carries are measured in time or distance rather than reps. A practical start, and the one our video uses, is 3 to 4 walks of 45 to 60 seconds with about 60 seconds of rest. From there, shape it to your goal using the loading principles of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) position stand on resistance training (4):

Two or three sessions a week is enough, the frequency the ACSM recommends for novices (4). Your grip works in every pull and lift too, so leave a day between hard carry sessions. Add time or distance first, then weight; the ACSM suggests 2 to 10% increases once you beat your target (4).

Does it build real strength? In one of the few training trials, 30 rugby players did 7 weeks of strongman-style or traditional training twice a week, and both groups improved strength, power and speed by broadly similar amounts (6). A strongman session that included farmer’s walks also raised heart rate and calorie burn about as much as a traditional lifting session of similar length (5).

How heavy should your farmers walk be?

There is no standard, but one study offers a useful benchmark. Recreationally active adults did one-handed farmer’s walks for 20 seconds, starting at 10% of their body weight and adding 10% each round until their posture or gait broke down (7). The men’s heaviest clean carry averaged about 115 pounds (52 kg), or 64% of body weight, and the women’s about 72 pounds (32.5 kg), or 53%.

Those were one-off maximums in one hand. For training with a weight in each hand, borrow the study’s method: start around 10% of your body weight per hand and go up in small jumps on later walks or sessions until your posture or stride starts to change. Your working weight sits a step below that: a load you can carry for 30 to 60 seconds while standing tall.

Can I use dumbbells for a farmers walk?

Yes. Dumbbells and kettlebells are the most common choice. Gyms may have a trap bar or dedicated farmer’s walk handles, which let you go heavier. At home, water jugs, full shopping bags or a sandbag work fine, and carrying just one weight turns it into a suitcase carry.

Benefits of the farmer’s carry

The clearest benefit is grip. In the PURE study of almost 140,000 adults in 17 countries, each 5 kg (11 lb) drop in grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of death over about four years, and grip predicted death better than systolic blood pressure (8). That is an association, not proof that training your grip extends life, and the authors called for research testing whether improving strength helps. Grip mostly signals overall strength, and our Evidence Index grades the grip strength claim B. Our guides to grip strength and longevity and dead hang benefits cover other ways to train it.

Beyond grip, carries teach your upper back and trunk to hold posture under load while you move, which is what carrying groceries, luggage or a child asks of you. That carrying challenges different abilities than lifting (1) is the best argument for adding carries to a squat-and-deadlift program.

You may see the farmers walk, squat or deadlift called “the mother of all exercises.” That is a nickname, not a scientific ranking, but few exercises transfer to daily life as directly.

Farmers walk vs farmer’s carry (and walking with dumbbells)

They are two names for the same exercise. Loaded carry is the umbrella term, covering the suitcase carry, overhead carries and the backpack carry that becomes rucking over long distances; our article on rucking and the science of walking with weight covers that version.

Walking with light dumbbells is another matter. In a study of 19 sedentary young women, 30 minutes of walking with 3-pound (1.36 kg) hand weights did not raise energy use above normal walking, though it felt harder (9). A farmers walk is a different tool: heavy weights over short distances, to build strength.

Is it safe? Who should be careful

For most healthy adults, the farmers walk is a low-skill, low-risk exercise if the weight matches your ability. Carries do load your spine: in the strongman study, the heavy yoke carry produced the highest spine loads of any event (1), so build weight gradually.

• Pain: stop for sharp pain, pain that travels down a leg, chest pain, dizziness or unusual shortness of breath.
• Back pain: use lighter weights and shorter walks, stay tall, and stop if it makes your symptoms worse.
• Hands, wrists and elbows: heavy gripping can aggravate arthritis, carpal tunnel symptoms or tennis elbow. Use the backpack or bear-hug carry instead.
• High blood pressure or heart disease: hard gripping and breath-holding both push blood pressure up during the effort. Ask your doctor before heavy carries, and keep breathing.
• Pregnancy: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says physical activity in pregnancy is safe and desirable for most women without complications, though some changes to routines may be needed (10). Ask your obstetric provider what load suits you, and favor lighter carries on a clear, flat path.
• Balance problems: walk beside a wall or counter, on flat ground, with light weights.

See a physical therapist or doctor if pain lasts more than a couple of weeks or stops you from doing daily tasks. This page is general information, not medical advice; please read our medical disclaimer.

Watch it done

The fifth and final exercise in our video on five Roman legion exercises you can do without a gym, the sarcina march, is a loaded carry, with a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand named as the classic farmer’s walk. Its cues match this page: stand tall, brace as if about to take a punch, squeeze the handles, keep your shoulders back, and don’t lean or let the weights bang your sides. It prescribes 3 to 4 walks of 45 to 60 seconds with about 60 seconds of rest.

Looking for your next move? Browse every guide in our exercise library, sorted by muscle group, equipment and level.

Sources

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2. Stastny P, et al. The gluteus medius vs. thigh muscles strength ratio and their relation to electromyography amplitude during a farmer’s walk exercise. J Hum Kinet. 2015;45:157-65. PubMed 25964819
3. Hindle BR, et al. The biomechanics and applications of strongman exercises: a systematic review. Sports Med Open. 2019;5(1):49. PubMed 31820223
4. American College of Sports Medicine. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687-708. PubMed 19204579
5. Harris NK, et al. Acute physiological responses to strongman training compared to traditional strength training. J Strength Cond Res. 2016;30(5):1397-408. PubMed 26439778
6. Winwood PW, et al. Strongman vs. traditional resistance training effects on muscular function and performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2015;29(2):429-39. PubMed 25627449
7. Holmstrup ME, et al. Fat-free mass and the balance error scoring system predict an appropriate maximal load in the unilateral farmer’s walk. Sports (Basel). 2018;6(4):166. PubMed 30544822
8. Leong DP, et al. Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Lancet. 2015;386(9990):266-73. PubMed 25982160
9. Campaña CT, Costa PB. Effects of walking with hand-held weights on energy expenditure and excess postexercise oxygen consumption. J Exerc Rehabil. 2017;13(6):641-646. PubMed 29326895
10. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period: ACOG Committee Opinion, Number 804. Obstet Gynecol. 2020;135(4):e178-e188. PubMed 32217980