Farmer's walk

Today we are going to tell you about the Farmer's walk crossfit exercise.

The benefits and harms of exercise

What about the benefits of walking farmer exercise? The muscles of the legs and the press work in a balanced manner, the load is evenly distributed between the muscles of the press, hips, legs and feet. At the same time, all of these muscle groups work in a single "bundle", mutually complementing and strengthening each other. After a farmer's walk, an ordinary walk will seem to you something indescribably light - at least half the weight of your own body will cease to be felt.

But where there are pluses there are minuses. The downside is the risk of injury in the lumbar spine. While walking, the joint between the pelvis and the spine is actively working, a rotational movement occurs in the vertebrae of the lumbar spine. This kind of mutual movement of the vertebrae is not very useful and is limited by the powerful ligamentous apparatus of the spine. Taking a burden in our hands, we repeatedly increase the load on this ligamentous apparatus and increase the risk of injury. The solution is to avoid walking the farmer during the first years of active CrossFit training, until you get a strong core, or use a weightlifting belt. The first option is preferable, since the belt will in any case relieve some of the load from the abdominal muscles, especially from the oblique muscles, and from the extensor of the spine.

Exercise technique

There are several options for the farmer's walk exercise, namely with dumbbells, kettlebells, or other weight options.

With dumbbells

We take the weight off the floor.

• The loin is bent and fixed.
• The shoulder blades are brought together.
• Hands at the seams.

Without bending the lower back, we bend the knees and hip joints, take the dumbbells in our hands. When using dumbbells of significant weight, knitting can be used - this will allow you to go a long distance, but take the load off the flexor muscles of the fingers. Another option for "lightening" the hand is a closed overlap grip, when the thumb rests on the bar of the dumbbell, the rest cover it and rigidly fix it to the projectile.

And so, the burden is in the hands, the shoulder blades are brought together, the back is straight. Knees slightly bent, feet shoulder-width apart. We take the first step - the heel is placed on an imaginary line running from the toe. Thus, the steps are short. Even a small distance you are unlikely to go too quickly, thereby ensuring sufficient time for the muscles to be under load. A short step is also taken in order to reduce the range of motion in the lumbar vertebrae and in the hip joint - the most vulnerable to compression loads. Throughout the farmer's walk, the body is kept level, the shoulders are brought forward slightly, the trapezius muscle, as it were, spreads over the upper shoulder girdle.

In the technique described above, the main load falls on the muscles of the lower limb girdle. The back, trapezium and arms perform only static work, and the main load falls on the flexors of the fingers. In order to more seriously load the muscles of the upper shoulder girdle with a "farmer's walk", there are the following exercise options.

With weights

Initial position:

• Feet shoulder width apart. The back is straight, there is a deflection in the lower back.
• If you have a strong grip and forearm muscles, or want to strengthen them, hold the kettlebells by the handles.
• If you do not have enough strength to hold them in this way, use the following option: your arms are bent at the elbows, the wrists are tucked under the arms of the kettlebells, the kettlebells themselves rest on the elbows. Elbows are pressed to the chest, brought forward.

© kltobias - stock.adobe.com

A more difficult modification of the farmer's walk is this option: the starting position is the same, but the weights are on the shoulders, held by the fingers of the hands, the arms are bent at the elbows, the elbows are spread apart.

Farmer walk up the stairs

To increase the overall intensity of the exercise, as well as increase the stress on the muscles of the legs and abdominals, the farmer's walk can be done up the stairs. The burden is held in straightened arms, arms along the body, elbows are straightened. The back is straight, the shoulders are slightly tilted forward, the upper portion of the trapezoid is tense. We take a step up one step, transfer the body weight to the supporting leg, set the working leg on the upper step, unbend the leg at the knee and hip joint with the combined effort of the quadriceps and biceps of the thigh. We put both legs on one step, the next step is taken with the supporting leg.

You can take each step to the next step, but this will limit the time the muscles are under load and create more mobility in the lumbosacral joint.

Complexes

Watch the video: Farmers Walk Benefits - Exercise Tutorial (January 2025).