Loaded Carries (Farmer Walks)

Dan John claims to have invented the suitcase carry

Dan John discusses his role in popularizing loaded carries, claiming credit for inventing the suitcase carry as a deliberate training exercise while acknowledging that farmer walks came from strongman competitions.

"Did you invent this one, Dan, or did you just popularize it? You are, of course, the official inventor of the Goblet Squad. This cannot be denied. But I want to get the record straight on Dan's role. I would say, I don't know. I mean, obviously, people did suitcase carries before. It was just called suitcase carries, carrying the suitcase. But I think I'm the one who invented suitcase carries. I would feel comfortable with that."

Loaded carries build dad strength and work capacity

Dan John explains that loaded carries build the kind of real-world work capacity he calls "dad strength" -- the ability to rip open jars, pull engines out of cars, and handle physically demanding tasks that gym lifts alone don't prepare you for.

"The answer is it builds up work capacity, which allows you to explode more reps than your opponent. Okay. Yeah. And when we talk, remind us again, what you mean when we're talking about anaconda strength, what kind of strength is that? Oh yeah. That's that squeeze. That's that inner tube pressure that you have in your body. Oh, there it is. I want to see my abs. I want to see my abs. Uh, uh,"

Zercher, rack, and bear hug carries are in the same family

Dan John groups Zercher carries, kettlebell rack carries, and bear hug carries together as variations in the same movement family, explaining that mastering the difficult Zercher carry makes everything else feel easy.

"I'll give a little prize. We'll think of a little prize. If you get whatever Dan wants, I've got some of your books and DVDs. If you guess where Dan is, and you can do it in the live stream or after the video. Does that mean we shouldn't reveal it until later then if we want to? Yeah. You know what? Comment on the live stream and after the video where Dan is, and then we'll reveal it next time. I'll give you the first one."

Dan John's injury led to his best-ever athletic performance

Dan John explains how after a wrist injury forced him to only carry heavy objects, he threw the discus farther at age 47 than ever before, shocking fellow athletes who assumed he was using performance-enhancing drugs.

"i put on a heavy backpack i pick heavy things up and i walk with it uh and i and i i that so i carry stuff and that would be a carry and if i put a backpack on or i combine two things i call that a loaded carry"

The suitcase carry is the single best loaded carry for everyone

Dan John ranks the carry variations, declaring the suitcase carry the number one choice for everyone, with rack carries second for men and waiter walks second for women. For double-weight carries, he recommends farmer walks and crosswalks.

"the suitcase carry is probably the best for everybody. If you only pick one loaded carry, suitcase carry. Suitcase carry. For men, the rack carry would be number two. For women, the weight walk."

Constantly vary your loaded carry training

Dan John's top programming recommendation is to constantly vary distance, load, and carry variation every workout, noting that some combinations might not be repeated for six to eight months as you cycle through different options.

"the loaded carries the load so maybe one day you do suitcase carries with a backpack on you might not come back to that for six seven eight months because you're you're playing around with all these other things yeah it carries with a backpack with a sled I've never done that by the way I'm just saying that to you but after that the next time you say okay we're doing loaded carries"

Minimal programs built around carries produce remarkable results

Dan John outlines several minimal yet effective training programs centered on loaded carries, including snatch plus suitcase carry, and power clean plus push jerk plus suitcase carry.

"with my with my discus throwers it's snatch and suitcase carry if if you just want to be great uh if you could do power cleaning push jerk and suitcase carry power clean push jerk suitcase carry that's a pretty good a deadlift press suitcase carry those are all pretty good you know minimal programs"

Suitcase carry is the superior alternative to side bends

Kyle Hunt explains that if you want oblique work, ditch the dumbbell side bend and do a suitcase carry instead -- grab a heavy dumbbell in one hand and walk, getting anti-rotation, core activation, and grip strength in one exercise.

"Well, if you want a better version of that, not really a version, but a better idea of that same exercise, do a suitcase carry."

Loaded carries are unique because they combine resistance with locomotion

Hunt and Matthews discuss why loaded carries are underrated as a movement category, with Hunt crediting Dan John for putting carries alongside push, pull, hinge, and squat as a fundamental pattern, and explaining that no other gym exercise combines resistance training with locomotion.

"loaded carries are great. I know Dan John, he's big on them. I read his book. He puts it up there with a hip hinge and a press. He puts it right up there as a main movement pattern to do."

Farmer carries have direct real-world carryover

Hunt shares how his farmer carry training directly transferred to the real-world demands of parenting twins, noting that carrying two car seats around was exactly the movement he had been training.

"when we had the twins, I would be carrying the two car seats around. I'm like, well, I'm glad I did all those farmer carries."

The loaded carry is the most functional lift

De Veer argues that the loaded carry is the best method for training grip, core strength, mental toughness, and injury prevention, calling it the most functional lift with the greatest carryover to sports and daily life.

"the loaded carry winds up being an afterthought in training and it truly is the best method I know to train grip. Core We'll define that a little better later. Strength, mental toughness, correct injuries, bullet proofing from injuries quite frankly Improve work capacity. As a lift, it's going to have the most carryover into sports and life, dare we say, the most functional lift that I know of."

Loaded carries train the entire core, not just abs

De Veer explains that loaded carries train all the muscles supporting the spine, not just the abdominals most people think of as core, making them the most efficient core training method available.

"It was funny, though, because I don't actually even identify well. I know that I obviously lift weights and train people and stuff, but, believe it or not, I don't identify in my mind as a big guy. I don't really know how other people perceive me often. Yeah, caught me off guard, but the guy behind the pastry counter, he took one look at my forearms and, I guess, the veins in them in particular and asked me how do you get forearms like that? I said absolutely. I mean, I find that a lot of things happen and I have a little bit of a sense of responsibility. Again, these are just funny to me because I've been the same person my whole life, so I still identify as a little siney from growing up, obviously, I played basketball as a sport, so nobody ever accused me of being big. I was always a little guy until I wasn't. Anyway, I'm not entirely used to it. But the guy stops me, asks me about my forearms, decided to give him a tip. He actually mentioned to me that his primary workout typically was calisthenics, body weight progressions but he was trying to improve. I don't know if this was just an aesthetic thing, I didn't have enough time. There was folks in line behind me. But yeah, I knew that he wanted to grow his forearms and since I knew that the body weight training was a big part of what he was doing, my recommendation to him was loaded carries and we're going to talk about all the benefits. But namely for him I was citing that the if he's geeking out of my forearms that the main exercise I do for that, quite frankly, is loaded carries. I don't do any direct forearm training. I don't do the curls and the roll-up things. I've done it in the past but that's not a part of my programming anymore. The only piece I have in my training that would directly impact my forearms obviously any of the pulling work that I do, but namely the loaded carries. That's where the vast majority of my grip strength and thus forearm strength and hypertrophy, if I have any Well, I guess I don't have to be so modest. It's good enough that it got me stopped at a farmer's market, so we'll just take it at face value. But anyway, I started telling the young man on why he should be doing loaded carries and again, namely for his calisthenics, his primary workout. I was seeing this as something that would improve his time up on the bar. Obviously, it follows if you get better at carrying weight, improve your grip strength, you will be better at pull-ups or anything that involves grip. So anyway, after giving him just a little rundown on some carries that he should maybe include in his workout, he finally asked me what we were going to get. And they make these beautiful little custard croissants that well, there's custard in the center and there's all these berries and that's the one my daughter picked. And then, cool guy, he actually just gave it to me for free and, yeah, just took him up on his hospitality and I still wanted to pay for the croissant Anyway, didn't want to turn it down and just acknowledge the value that he and I were sharing with each other. So, anyway, we'll be back again. It's one of our favorite spots and I look forward to catching up with the guy and see if he has put any of that to work. And reason I'm excited for that is I know that if he does it, it's going to go really well for him and maybe we'll have even more free croissants In our future. Just kidding, but not really. Anyway, without further ado, I do want to. Today, the deep dive is going to be all on loaded carries. We're going to talk, actually, about the history of loaded carries. We're going to get in and talk about some of the benefits. I've already kind of scratched the surface of that. We're going to go a little deeper. We will look at the different variations and I'll give you guys a brief explanation of each. They're all great, but we'll kind of run down why you might want to gravitate into some versus others. Couple DIY variations, if you will, that you can pull off. We'll talk about how to program these into your workouts for an array of goals, because I think the loaded carry can be used in a number of different ways. And, yeah, that's going to be pretty much how we're going to go about today's episode. So anyway, let's dive into the history first, and what's fun about this is I also get to shamelessly plug an episode that we have already done. So if you've been listening for a while, you might remember our episode on progressive overload. That was the first time I introduced you to a man named Milo of Croton. So anyway, there's kind of two really important takeaways from that story. Number one, obviously, progressive overload. That's why we did a whole episode on that. But we should also remind you what was Milo doing? Remember, milo picked up a bull every single day as it went from a calf into a bull, and so obviously, the lift that Milo chose is what we would call today a fireman's carry, but he was doing it with a bull. So there really are two really great takeaways that we can pull from the story of Milo, and that would be number one, progressive overload. And then number two, the value of loaded carries."