I had the same feelings. I 100% agree that the specificity has its limitations and most (non PL) people should have wider standards for “strong” than just their 1RMs in the big 3.
I opened the article and waited for some cool strongman, or even strength-conditioning, stuff. What I found are assistance excersises.
Ps. And I get what the writer is chasing, many of the excersises listed can be good for measuring mobility and body function. But the weights in these variations are too easy for strength if we are talking anyone remotely advanced.
I have two in my backyard, one for my wife and one for myself. I used it for a bit after I first made them, but for the last year and a half they have just been an obstacle for the lawn mower. I’m not sure of their condition now that they have been through a couple freeze-thaw cycles.
Dumbbells aren’t built for carrying, and in fact work against you when you try to carry them. They roll out of your hands and the weight bumps into your legs, which means you are limited in how much you can carry by your grip. Given that farmer’s are supposed to be a full body exercise, limiting the load you can carry works against you. With an actual set of handles, you will be able to carry significantly more weight, load the body more, and get more out of the exercise.
Can’t speak to carryover of farmer’s to static movements. They’re different things to me really.
Often, in the world, the ground is uneven. Or the object is lopsided or unbalanced, or you carry it on one side of your body.
When you’re not ready for these conditions, the akward weight can cause your trunk to twist, or the hips to move crooked, or the back to round.
If you’ve practiced 1 legged or 1 sided stuff you know how to use your midsection to resists the twist, bend or lean. Its not a surprise when it happens because you’ve trained to keep your pelvis and shoulders square.
30% bodyweight farmer walk, which for some women will be less than decent farmer handles, is at best a grip endurance test and has zero reflection on the strength of other parts of your body.
You are seriously better off just seeing if you can hang from a bar for 60 seconds.
A better test would be to carry bodyweight (per hand) for 100-200m
Will build good isometric strength in the upper back if you go heavy. Worth giving a shot for a 6 week block in your offseason.
I couldn’t imagine beginners even being “barbell strong” though. It seemed from the title that it was meant to apply to those that already had a solid amount of barbell training.
I may do that. I have a training block starting now that is pretty far from my next meet. We have proper farmer’s handles at my gym. I weigh about 200, pull 550, don’t do any grip work but have never missed a pull b/c of grip. So, work up to 200 lbs per hand and 30-60 second walks as a target?
I’m not too sure about all the one legged work which requires quite a good amount of the ability to balance, though. It seems like the author’s thought process was to get people to do the exercises mentioned because they’re kinda “functional” and THEN justify them.
IMO, you can get better results from:
Training EVERY muscle and not just focusing on movements - you are only as strong as your weakest link. One of the main reasons why strength is often movement specific.
Putting emphasis on core training. HEAVY Farmers Walks and pushing heavy shit around should suffice.
Putting emphasis on grip training. I have no idea what is best but it sure isn’t light Farmers Walks.
Week 1: work up to a weight that’s challenging for 60m (4x15m if need be)
Week 2: Do 15m runs, keep adding weight until you can finish the run in 10s
Week 3: Keep adding weight until you cant make 15m without dropping
Week 4: 2x50% of week 3
You can run weeks 1 - 3 twice if you’re doing a 6 week block (take week 7 off completely).
As your focus is to build the deadlift, you may want to focus on the heavier work: week 1: 15m: week 2: 10m: week 3: 5m