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Farmers Walks

Farmers Walks - the term comes from farmers carrying buckets of water or milk around, one in each hand. We use kettlebells instead, but you can buy Farmers Walk bars, use dumbbells, or standard bars. You can even use (gasp!!) buckets of water or sand

The idea is simple pick up two heavy objects and walk around until your arms fall off or they get longer.

Make sure you stand tall, chest out, and keep tight, maintaining shoulder pack (don't let the arms come out of the shoulder sockets). Walk around as long as possible, use chalk if necessary. Try to walk at least 100 ft without setting down your weights.

A variation is to only do 1 arm at a time. You'll really have to keep your core tight; a really heavy weight will make you fold.

Other variations include what I call the "Rack" Walk where you hold two kettlebells in the rack position and walk. This is very hard because the bells put pressure on your chest making it hard to breath and you have to stay even tighter to keep from dropping the bells. You'll typically drop down one size from your standard farmers walk weights.

A third variation is the overhead walk. This can be done with a bar, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbag, keg,or anything else heavy you can hold overhead. Each implement puts different stresses on the body so play around with each to find your favorite but don't neglect the others because you don't like them.

All three versions will make you strong tight quickly. Don't be afraid to go heavy on the farmers walks but do be a little conservative on the Overhead variation. Don't drop the weight on your head!

The standard version works the grip, all 3 heads of the deltoids, the traps, rhomboids and of course the legs and core.

The rack version works the grip, core, traps, lats, rhomboids and smaller muscles of the upper back and legs.

Overhead walks work shoulder strength and stability, especially using a weight in each hand verses a bar, sandbag or keg. The overhead version also works your traps, lats, abs, lower back and legs. Using a keg filled with water and /or sand is a very interesting experience! The sloshing really kicks the abs and shoulder stabilizers.

I love using these as a finisher after a tough workout. Typically we'll walk 100 to 150' overhead, then go up a size and walk another 100 to 150' racked and finally go as heavy as possible and walk another 100 to 150' with arms down. Brutal!

Enjoy!!

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