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The first time I discovered heavy carries was during my freshman year of high school.
I was following Elliott Hulse when he first came out on YouTube, and at the time most of his videos were all about strongman training. The pure strength and power necessary to lift heavy loads and walk with them was mind blowing.
I would look at strongman training videos and try to reenact the same movements at my high schools weight room.
This place was awesome, it had all the tools I needed to implement heavy carries and strongman type exercises.
Now obviously since I didn’t have a lifting partner or strength coach to look at my form while walking with heavy ass weight, I didn’t realize the importance of keeping proper posture during the movement.
Something I know I didn’t execute well when I first began carrying heavy shit.
For a majority of people, they’ll most likely look like this when they first start implementing heavy carries.
That’s okay, at first. The trick is to imagine a pencil between your shoulder blades and not dropping it. Retracting your shoulder blades and keeping an upright posture will guarantee you get the most out of this exercise.
The reason most people have a rounded back and a forward shoulder lean is because of muscular imbalances that occur from everyday life and improper workouts. If you don’t fix this problem you’ll worsen it by using the form in the picture above.
Now I’m not the only strength coach that LOVES heavy carries.
Dan John, someone that’s highly respected in the strength and conditioning community has this to say:
“Find that missing ingredient and you’ll build more muscle faster, drop fat quicker, and kick any ass on any field of play.
And I’m going to tell you what that missing ingredient is for most trained men.
Ready?
It’s the loaded carry.
The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I’ve attempted in my career as a coach and athlete.”
Now I don’t know about you but that’s a pretty prestige testimonial for this exercise from someone that knows their shit.
He loves it so much that he identifies it as more important than the squat or deadlift.
So you must be wondering why in the hell I love this exercise so much.
And I’ll tell you.
No, it’s not because heavy carries make you look crazy and intimidating in the gym. That’s just part of it.
The true reason I love this exercise so much is because I honestly believe that it helped stop my scoliosis from progressively getting worse than it already was and still is.
Most people don’t know this, but I’ve had scoliosis since I was in 7th grade.
A year after my brain surgery I receive the news about my scoliosis. I remember back then I was upset, thinking why me?
Why did I have to have something else wrong with me? But you know what.
It really isn’t a big deal. It’s just something I was dealt with and luckily for me I was able to stop it from making me a deformed human being.
To tell you the truth, the worst part was when I hit high school, my curvature got to the point where I needed a back brace to try and prevent my spine from curving more.
I wore my back brace to school once, and never again.
It wasn’t because I was being bullied or anything of that sort. It was just so damn uncomfortable sitting in class with a back brace on.
Luckily, like I mentioned earlier, I was first introduced to heavy carries in my freshmen year.
I did all kinds of strongman training exercises. From farmer walks, all the way to stone loading.
Heavy sandbag carries were my favorite though and I would do them multiple times a week.
Now there are a ton of benefits to adding heavy carries into your training program and the first one is the reason why I was able to save my spine.
3 Ways You Can Benefit From Heavy Carries
Activation of the entire abdominal area
According to Stuart McGill, performing strongman type movements like the heavy carry activates and stimulates the entire abdominal wall, obliques, and all to create a strong trunk (mid section).
He even goes as far as to say that heavy carries are a “moving plank”
Which is a big statement because planks are the best exercise to train your core to brace or tighten up in order to protect your spine.
If you can make the plank into a moving movement then you have yourself the ultimate core exercise.
In order for you to lift a heavy object and walk with it, your core needs to be strong.
If it’s not, you’ll be able to tell from the first steps you take.
Since heavy carries are truly a full body exercise and require full body strength, you need to make sure you have no strength leaks.
These leaks will most likely show up in the mid section of most trained people.
Don’t steer away from heavy carries though. This exercise is perfect for strengthening the midsection since there is a ridiculous amount of activation happening in the core when you perform this movement.
That is why I give so much credit to heavy carries. Since I started doing them at a young age my midsection became strong enough to stop my spine from becoming worse.
To this day, my midsection is the strongest part of my body. Even during deadlifts my spine stays straight no matter how heavy I go.
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Increases grip strength better than any other exercise
Grip strength is really important if you want to become the strongest you can become.
If you have a weak grip all your other lifts will suffer.
You won’t be able to deadlift as much as your body is capable of lifting because your grip won’t be able to hold on to the weight.
You won’t be able to push the barbell as heavy as your body is actually capable of pushing just because your hands are weak.
To me, that’s some bullshit. I want to be able to lift as much as my body actually can. I don’t want an avoidable issue like a weak grip to stop me from becoming the strongest I can be.
So by adding heavy carries to your program you can work on increasing your grip strength.
It’s that simple, and way more fun than hold on to a barbell for a period of time.
Application of real-world strength
This benefit is pretty self-explanatory.
Performing strongman type exercises like the heavy carry will produce the kind of strength you need in everyday life.
If you want to bring in all the groceries in at once to avoid a second trip to your car, you can do it thanks to heavy carries.
If you need to lift a rock up and put it down somewhere else because you do that type of shit then you can thank heavy carries.
If you have to save someone’s life because their car just crushed them, then you can thank heavy carries for allowing you to lift the car up.
Anything in life that requires strength and your bodies ability to work as a unit can be greatly improved through heavy carries.
Do yourself a favor and make life easier by picking up an object and walking with it.
Stay Strong,
