Farmer’s Carry Benefits & Muscles Worked

The farmer’s carry, also known as the farmer’s walk or suitcase carry, is a whole-body exercise that involves holding a weight in both hands while walking for a pre-determined distance or amount of time. Similar to carrying grocery bags from the car to the house in one trip, this exercise became well-known throughout the health and fitness industry thanks to Strongman and CrossFit. 

People commonly use dumbbells, kettlebells, and plates to perform this exercise. Some training facilities may even offer farmer’s carry handles, which are useful for going extremely heavy and practicing for competition. Even if you’re not looking to compete, this exercise offers several benefits and trains many muscle groups simultaneously!

In this article, we’ll cover the major muscle groups worked by the farmer’s carry and identify the top five benefits you can expect from adding this exercise to your routine.

Farmer’s Carry Muscles Worked

1. Traps
2. Forearms
3. Core
4. Glutes
5. Quads
6. Hamstrings
7. Calves

Here are some of the main muscles worked by the farmer’s carry:

Trapezius

The trapezius muscle is one of the primary stabilizer muscles worked in the farmer’s carry. While performing this exercise, the traps are isometrically contracting to help keep the arms and shoulders fixed by maintaining scapular retraction (shoulder blades back and down).

The traps are a large muscle group located on the upper back. The traps can be divided into upper, middle, and lower segments based on their muscle fiber orientation and actions.

The upper traps perform shoulder elevation and assist in various head/neck movements and lifting of the arms. The middle traps help maintain stability of the shoulder and are involved in retraction. Meanwhile, the lower traps perform scapular depression and assist the upper fibers in upward rotation.

The traps are a very prominent muscle group since they are superficial. Having developed traps is beneficial for various movements and overall aesthetics.

Forearms

The forearms, specifically the wrist flexors, are one of the most active muscle groups in the farmer’s carry. Like the traps, the forearm flexors are isometrically contracting to hold the weight on the sides of the body as you walk. The forearm flexors include the following muscles: flexor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulnaris, flexor digitorum superficialis, and palmaris longus.

Most participants fail when performing this exercise due to grip fatigue, so they can no longer hold onto the weight. Therefore, the farmer’s carry is an effective exercise for developing better grip strength. Beyond aesthetics, having strong forearms will positively impact your performance on various other lifts, especially the deadlift.

Core

The farmer’s carry engages the core muscles in order to maintain an upright posture. The primary core muscles include the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, and transverse abdominis. During a farmer’s carry, the core is isometrically contracting to stabilize the spine. It also assists with breathing, which is important because this exercise is more cardiovascularly demanding than most.

Contracting the core and bracing while performing farmer’s carries may help improve performance and lower injury risk. The core is one of the few muscle groups engaged in nearly every movement. Having a stronger core is something that most people would benefit from.

Glutes

Since the farmer’s carry requires walking, it actively engages the gluteus maximus. The glutes, also known as the butt, are one of the largest and strongest muscle groups in the body, for a good reason!

They help maintain an upright posture, stabilize the spine, pelvis, lower back, and core, extend the hips, and propel the legs forward when walking or running. The glutes are engaged whenever you squat, jump, stand, run, walk, or climb stairs. Having strong glutes is important for exercise performance and injury prevention.

There are three glute muscles: the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus. The primary one working during a farmer’s carry is the maximus, which is the largest, strongest, and most superficial of the three.

Quads

Another lower body muscle worked by the farmer’s carry is the quadriceps. This major muscle group is located on the front of the upper leg. As the name suggests, four individual muscles comprise the quads, including the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. The quads are considered to be biarticular muscles because they act on the knee joint and hip joint.

The main functions of the quads include knee extension and hip flexion. They are important for running, jumping, walking, standing, sitting, and squatting. The farmer’s carry works the quads when picking up the weight to obtain the starting position and throughout the exercise, as you walk.

Hamstrings

The farmer’s carry trains the hamstrings, including the semitendinousus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris long head and short head. This muscle group works with the glutes to extend the hips but is also responsible for knee flexion. Unlike the quads, hamstrings are located on the back of the upper leg.

In addition to their primary actions, this muscle group plays an important role in knee stabilization. They even work with the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) to help prevent excessive forward translation of the lower leg.

Calves

The calves are the last lower body muscle worked by the farmer’s carry we will cover. This muscle group is comprised of the soleus and gastrocnemius. These two muscles are located on the back of the lower leg. The calf muscle assists in knee flexion but primarily performs ankle plantar flexion.

In other words, they help lift the heel off the ground as you walk. The calves may be a smaller muscle group, but they are crucial for various lower-body movements, such as walking, running, and jumping. Strong calves may improve ankle stabilization, balance, and posture, thus reducing overall injury risk.

Farmers Carry Benefits

1. Improves grip strength
2. Builds muscle
3. Enhances cardiovascular fitness
4. Promotes good posture
5. Requires minimal equipment

Here are the top five benefits of the farmer’s carry:

Improves Grip Strength

One of the main benefits of performing the farmer’s carry is improved grip strength. Adequate grip strength is important for various movements inside and outside the gym. Although many exercises enhance grip strength, the farmer’s carry is arguably one of the most effective ones because it allows for more weight to be used for a longer period of time. 

Very few movements have the same demands as the farmer’s carry. The movement that will likely benefit the most from farmer’s carry is the deadlift, but any exercise that uses your grip has the potential to increase.

Builds Muscle

The farmer’s walk is a compound exercise that’s effective for building muscle for several reasons. First, the movement trains numerous large muscle groups through the upper body and lower body.

Second, it’s more conducive to progressive overload because it uses so many different muscles, and a heavier weight can be used compared to other exercises.

Lastly, it’s a free-weight movement that trains more stabilizer muscles than machine-based movements. Loaded carries are often overlooked when it comes to building muscle, but they can be a secret weapon if done correctly!

Enhances Cardiovascular Fitness

Beyond building muscle and strength, loaded carries, such as a farmer’s walk, can also improve cardiovascular conditioning and muscle endurance. Most exercises are stationary, whereas the farmer’s carry consists of moving the weight by walking as quickly as possible.

Here are two common ways to use this exercise to enhance your endurance and stamina over time:

1. Focus on decreasing the time it takes to move a pre-determined amount of weight from a specific distance by increasing your pace. Try to reduce the time it takes to move the weight over weeks.
2. Move a predetermined weight until you hit failure and log the duration of time or distance you covered. Try to increase that distance or time over weeks.
3. Set a specific time and measure the distance you could cover in the time frame. Then, try to achieve a longer distance in the same amount of time over weeks.

As you can see, several strategies can be used with the farmer’s walk to improve your cardiovascular fitness.

Promotes Good Posture

A lesser-known benefit of the farmer’s walk is that it promotes good posture. Poor posture often results from staring at screens for too long, sitting for excessive periods of time, inactivity, lack of mobility, and overall muscle tightness and weakness.

Upper Crossed Syndrome is a common orthopedic condition characterized by the head, neck, and shoulders rolled forward. This is often a result of tight upper traps and pectoral muscles combined with weak lower traps, cervical flexors, and rhomboids.

Performing the farmer’s walk may help fix poor posture by increasing shoulder stability, strengthening the abdominal muscles, engaging various stabilizer muscles, and training hip extension. The movement also assists with maintaining shoulder positioning and a neutral spine.

Requires Minimal Equipment

One major benefit of this exercise is that minimal equipment is required. All you need is your body weight and any object that can be held onto. Dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, a trap bar, and even plates are all commonly used to perform this exercise. 

If competing in a Strongman or CrossFit competition is a goal, we suggest researching the equipment they use for this movement. A pair of farmer’s carry handles may also be required and recommended if strength levels demand them. 

Keep in mind, however, the farmer’s walk exercise requires a lot of space to perform. If the gym is short on space, go outside!

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About Heather Jacques

Heather Jacques is a former collegiate athlete that graduated from Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training. Along with writing content for Lift Vault, Heather works for one of the fastest growing sports nutrition companies, Axe & Sledge Supplements, as their product specialist. Heather is an avid lifter, snowboarder, and outdoor enthusiast. She was born in Colorado, raised in northern Michigan, and currently resides in Pennsylvania. Heather's primary goal is to help others achieve their health and fitness goals through education, motivation, and inspiration.