When you’re training at home, in a small space, or a crowded gym space one of the first options that seems to go out the door is farmers walking over a distance. No one wants to give up on carrying exercises, though because there are so many benefits to loaded carries. The good news is you absolutely don’t have to.
You can do most of the kettlebell carrying exercises you would do over a distance by standing in place and marching. This is actually a great way to emphasize the challenge to your balance, midsection and learn to link yourself together from the legs to the shoulders.
Additionally, if you're not keen on getting down onto the ground for core exercises marching drills are a great way to train your midsection while still standing.
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Start Without Weight
When you do loaded carries in place it’s important to understand how you are linking your opposite hip to the opposite shoulder like an “X” across your body. You can start to feel this coordination and connection without any weight to begin. Practicing it without weight will help you learn to stay tight through your midsection while balancing.
The fun people at Original Strength do a great job practicing this through the cross crawl exercise. Learn to do the cross crawl or marching smoothly so you keep yourself braced through the midsection and stacked over the feet and hips.
As you get comfortable doing the cross crawl practice it slowly, work on gripping your feet to the ground and bracing through the leg you are standing on so you feel a connection from the big toe all the way up to the hip and groin. This is where much of your balance, stability, and strength comes from during these exercises. As you add weight to the exercise the challenge to stay stable and connected to the ground will increase.
Load One Side
When you’re doing carrying exercises in place and don’t have farmer's handles or a trap bar to scamper all over with, you can get more back from your efforts by focusing on unilateral marching drills.
Doing these exercises with a weight to one side or an unevenly weighted load will challenge your obliques, lateral stability, balance and control of your torso and hips.
Go For Time or Steps
Since the typical way of programming a carrying exercise over a distance is out the window when you’re training in a small space, your best options are to program for time or the total number of steps. I like to use a Gymboss timer for this because its smaller and easier than using a phone timer in my opinion.
Remember that when you are marching for time though the goal is not to beat the clock and get as many repetitions as possible. Instead focus on maintaining balance and control with a slower pace for each step. More steps isn’t better, better balance and control is better.
Suitcase March
The suitcase march can be done with a dumbbell or a kettlebell. Start by deadlifting one of the two off the floor so that it is hanging by your side.
From this position brace your midsection, lean forward very slightly, and march in place. Draw your knees up above the waist band (or as high as you’re able to) and avoid rocking side to side due to the weight while you march.
Starting with your feet closer together will help you avoid rocking side to side.
Bottoms Up March
The bottoms up march is done with a kettlebell and challenges your grip and shoulder stability as well as the core.
This is a great exercise for maintaining healthy shoulders and feeling good. You won’t be able to use as heavy of a weight for this exercise, so make sure you’re staying squared up and braced through the midsection.
Waiter’s March
The waiters march is another great exercise for developing shoulder stability.
Pressing the dumbbell or kettlebell overhead also challenges you to keep you abs tight with the rib cage down one the side with the weight locked out overhead.
Keeping the ribs anchored down with your abs challenges your shoulder mobility to keep the weight pressed up well.
Crossbody March
The crossbody march is a combination of the suitcase march and the waiter’s march. To do it you’ll need two implements, one to press overhead and one to hold at your side. They can be dumbbells, kettlebells, or a combination.
While you’ve got more total load than the waiter’s march this can actually make keeping your trunk braced easier since you are lowering your overall center of gravity.
Kettlebell Rack March
The kettlebell rack march allows you to use a load that really challenges your upper back and shoulder to a large degree while still challenging your core and obliques.
Additionally, since this exercise is done with the weight held against the front of your shoulder and outside of your arm it’s not as grip intensive. This can make it a good option when including these types of carrying exercises with other exercises like deadlifts or pull ups.
Sandbag Shoulder March
If you don’t have access to dumbbells or kettlebells at home (maybe they’re still on backorder), then a sandbag is a great tool you can put together to have some weight to throw around.
You can get a great sand bag from Iron Mind or you can use a sturdy back pack or a surplus navy bag with some duct tape.
Load up your bag so its heavy, get it up to your shoulder and start marching with your core tight. This is another option if you’re looking for something a little less grip intensive for your workout.
Pinch Grip March
If want to really emphasize your fingers and gripping muscles you can also include the pinch grip march. Grab two light plates and use your fingertips to pinch them together tightly while holding them at your side. Start marching and don’t let the plates slip out to fall on your toes. The extra strain on the grip here can force you to really slow down through your marching motion, which is always a good thing in marching drills.
If you have a smaller kettlebell you can use that too by pinching your fingers around the bottom of the bell with the handle pointing down.
Slow it way down with vertical bird dogs
Slowing down all of these exercises increases the overall cahllenge to the midsection hips and legs to stay balanced. The longer you’re on one leg the longer you have to exhibit that control. Slow is good!
If you need some help and you want to slow it down more you can try progressing from the cross crawls to working on the vertical bird dog series popularized by Dan John on the RKC forums. Each of these carrying drills is very similar to the bird dog and crawling exercises you may be used to doing on the ground.
Wrapping it all up:
Choose whichever of these exercises works best for you and your goals or match up to what you have on hand for equipment. All of these options are a great way to develop core strength that will help you to brace through your midsection, move more weight in the gym, and be more resilient. When you're working out in small spaces all these marching drills are great for adding more core exercise to your workouts.
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