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Barbell Loaded Carry Comment

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GeoffreyLevens

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Waiting on equipment coming so doing Easy Strength w/ the kettlebells I have (12. 16. 20. 24 kg, one of each). At body weight of 115 lbs, Farmer's Carry using the 20 and 24, one minute quick step around my apartment, rest, switch hands, repeat a second minute. Could go a bit heavier, not a lot, but that's all I have at present.

Have watched a few youtube vids devoted to carries and Farmer's in particular and seen a couple blog posts. No explicit mention of this, but from how my body feels when I park the weight after carry, it seems you could easily program a carries only, general strength regime. Maybe do a different variation each session, Farmer's, an asym, an overhead, front loaded, between legs and "duck walk" like Chuck Berry....
 
Agree. This is pretty much OS only training. Tim Anderson suggest in at least one of the books (pressing Rest maybe) a program of:
  • resets every
  • 2 days a week - 10 minimum crawling + 10 min of 'pick something up, carry it 10m, put it down, repeat'
Maybe 2 d/w is a supplement to other training and have higher frequency for OS only. But thats the general idea.

I always say to people that If I would have to choose between my morning prep (resets and carries) and my 'regular' strength training the morning prep wins by a landslide.
 
yeah, I think the way to carries only training is through OS, if that makes sense.

they seem to have it somewhat mapped out.

you'd probably have a lot of fun
 
Thanks Jak, though Becoming Bulletproof looks like its either cowboy gunfight movies or Dave Asprey low carb/keto stuff...
 
My personal favorite carry is the 50 lb. yellow plastic bags of salt pellets for our water softener system. I grab one in the middle, pick it up, and hold it in front of me without allowing the bag to touch anything except my hands - my elbows are bent and my upper arms are pressed into my rib cage. You have to both grip the bag and squeeze your hands together.

A 50 meter walk like that seems to, as they say, hit everything.

-S-
 
I bet! Yesterday I used kettlebells and did a one side rack w/ 20 kg, repeat other side. Then goblet carry somewhat similar though handles instead of squeeze. Finished w/ 2 farmer's using a 20 kg and 24 kg, switch hands for 2nd one. (one minute each carry) Today I needed to take a de-loaded day. Every muscle still talking to me a little. Quite impressive. And yesterday, even though I was a bit tired (did 2X5 heavy [for me] front kb front squats] before the carries, I was also sort of juiced up. Ended up Nordic Walking nearly 6 miles, maybe 5 1/2 just because.

The way I felt yesterday made me wonder if the carries bump up testosterone maybe even more than regular heavy grinds because the time under tension is so long; I was just feeling so...manly :p
 
Loaded carries have had quite the WTH effect for me. Doing them regularly has really improved my ability to stabilize the MTB on techy descents. Dan John and that OTP article Pavel linked are what sold me.
 
The way I felt yesterday made me wonder if the carries bump up testosterone maybe even more than regular heavy grinds because the time under tension is so long; I was just feeling so...manly :p

I think its grip fatigue that gives that feeling. To me at least. I noticed that after I train with heavy grippers, do towel hangs or such I have that same "manly" feeling even more so than after a regular barbell lifting session at the gym. I guess it is a primal feeling that you did something difficult with your hands. My broscience part of the brain suggests that because our hands are much more innervated, when they fatigue they provide a unique sensory overload that is different from other muscle fatigue.
 
My personal favorite carry is the 50 lb. yellow plastic bags of salt pellets for our water softener system. I grab one in the middle, pick it up, and hold it in front of me without allowing the bag to touch anything except my hands - my elbows are bent and my upper arms are pressed into my rib cage. You have to both grip the bag and squeeze your hands together.

A 50 meter walk like that seems to, as they say, hit everything.

-S-
No big bags except under my eyes... So I used kettlebell. Held it by the bell, with my palms, crush style, away from my body. As you say, upper arms pressed to ribs but forearms closer to horizontal, unlike goblet carry. A great way to teach someone about leverage and posture without saying a word. I could not carry enough to give my legs much work but they had their share from the squats and dl's. Everything from waist up for sure. A lot more work per pound than double racked carry it felt like to me.
 
Due to my current gyn situation being a bit sparce I have been playing with loaded carries. Usually I hold a couple of plates at chest height and alternate between carries and squats.

They really make the most out of a relativity light weight.
 
Have a look at this awesome chart, taken from the superb new Tim Anderson Book "Original Strength Performance". It puts carries into perspective and combines Dan John's stuff with OS.

OS_Performance_Chart.png

This is the source:
Performance Grid | Original Strength
 
Absolutely - as you say, leverage - the weight is held further from the body.

-S-
Above was for carries but finding a bit of this w/ TGU's as well. The movement/grind parts feel same w/ equal weight kb vs dumbbell. But I have been noticing that stabilizing a dumbbell is more difficult. Could be more noticeable because I have comp bells so for all weights the center of mass is about 7-8" closer to my shoulder than it is w/ a dumbbell. All comments I've seen elsewhere seem to be that kb's are more difficult at equal weight due to offset mass, but I don't find that to be an issue at least at the weight I work with.
 
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