Ive decided to start doing some farmer’s walks to help up my grip strength, but have a few questions?
1.) When describing this exercise, most people tend to say walk for 100ft or so, or 20-30 seconds, and usually they are suggesting going to failure. In a max set of deadlifts or something similar, you tend to only need that strong grip for <10 seconds.
Would it be more beneficial to do shorter sets of 10 seconds or so, with more wait, and stop before failure?
2.As far as form, I haven’t seen many in depth descriptions. I have an idea what is proper, but am not sure about some things.
Shoulders should be back and down?
If using DB’s do you hold them slightly away from your sides, so they dont keep banging your legs?
Ive heard some say walk as fast as possibly, while others say if your not doing strongman it doesn’t matter?
As far as posture, do you use the same body positioning as the lockout of a deadlift, with butt flexed?
i’ve got the implements… it’s a much different feel than if you did it with dumbells etc.
about your questions about speed/walking distance: you can change it up, long distance / fast speed is a good way to mix it up… usually if it’s short distance ~100 feet it’ll be heavy and that will definitely decrease your speed bigtime.
you’ll be walking like you have crap in your pants if you keep butt flexed… just keep abs tight/good posture.
doing it with db’s sux… you won’t be able to hold them away from your body if they are heavy thats for sure.
biggest part about farmer’s is the turn IMO… make sure you use the momentum of the implements instead of going against it… wider turns usually work better.
farmer’s are not only good for strongman… they build sick grip/traps/core.
Farmers are awesome for grip strength. I’ve done them with both 'bells and handles. Handles are without a doubt easier to use. That being said I’ve had good success going them insdie th gym with 'bells too. It requires more turns tho, so I guess that helps with grip and stabilisation too.
Once you start to get up some speed you’ll probably need to lean back a bit to stop yourself from eating floor.
Ya, im just doing them to improve my grip strength.
Im hoping this will help a lot with my deadlifts and db snatches.
I did farmer’s walks after my workout yesterday, and 75lbs per hand, for 3 x 30 seconds, with 1 minute rest, followed by 5 x30 seconds with 30 seconds rest. My forearms were pumped like crazy.
Im gonna try to incorporate these into my plan 2x per week from now on.
If you’re doing it solely to improve deadlift grip, I would go heavier than 75’s. – a lot heavier. You may even want to just do some barbell holds for time with a double overhand grip.
If you are going heavy enough, your form questions will answer themselves. It’s pretty straight forward, you just pick up the dumbells and carry them in the most efficient matter possible.
I wouldn’t do any short sets. 20-30 seconds or 100-200 feet should be about right. Going to failure can be a good idea too, since your grip will always be the first thing to fail it’s not hard on your body.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
If you’re doing it solely to improve deadlift grip, I would go heavier than 75’s. – a lot heavier. You may even want to just do some barbell holds for time with a double overhand grip.[/quote]
you could do shrugs double overhand style for a set number of reps, so you dont even have to time it.
It’s funny I actually posted this on an Irish forum today abotu grip strength and forum size…
'-My personal faves:
high rep dumbbell rows (sets of 20, not done all that strict, but with a heavy a$$ weight).
Farmers walks
Reverse Curls (I used these when I was having some trouble with my wrists when benching and my forearms beefed up a bit and the pain disappeared)’
I would add in double overhand shrugs and timed holds too. Personally combining Kroc rows and farmers walks are what brought up my grip the fastest. I nearly dropped 235kg at one stage, then a few months later was holding onto 260+ without any trouble.
I cant deadlift much, my current max is 305. But I havent really been working it for strength much. Im now pretty comfortable with the form, and can handle more work, so am starting to work on strength more. Im also working on upping my DB snatch, which is at 100lbs now.
I always use double overhand grip, and actually tried straps the other day, but was weaker with straps for some reason.
I think next time I do farmer’s walks I’ll use 100lb db’s since thats the amount I use for snatch.
I also want to add in some heavy shrugs too, which should help as well. Thanks for the info, looking forward to the strong grip