I’m a huge fan of all different types of carries.

Sandbags, kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, large HEAVY rocks, logs, kegs, you name it!  If you can carry it in some way shape or form, I’m all about it!

Now when I talk about carries, I’m talking about all different types.

It doesn’t always have to be with two arms either!  You can mix it up and go one arm and two arm type carries as well!

Here’s a few different variations:

  • Overhead
  • Rack
  • Farmers
  • Zercher
  • Bear Hug
  • Head Lock

Those are just a few.  All of those different variations can be used with different tools. Some work with multiple tools while others work well with just one.

When it comes to doing carries, I like to do them towards the end of a session for a finisher.

But, when I’m doing extremely HEAVY carries, like farmer walks or Zercher carries, I hit them more at the start.

Overall, carries will help build up some serious strength and stability.

The reason carries build strength, is simple: you’re carrying around heavy ass loads!!!

Doing this overtime, you’ll get stronger!  Period!

The key is to keep progressing!  Once you can carry a certain load a certain distance, obviously, you want to try and carry it further next time.  That should be the goal everytime.  That or carrying a heavier weight the same distance.

Pretty basic.

Now when it comes to stability, I like carries even more becasue you force yourself to stay locked into place while you carry a load.

The overhead kettlebell carry for example is great at working on your shoulder stability.  You put your shoulders under a lot of time under tension, which helps with endurance and strength but will also help with overall stabilty too IF you carry the bell in the right postition.

You want to make sure and have your shoulder blades locked together nice and tight and to also keep the bells straight over head if possible.

These can get brutal!

What carries even more brutal is when you combine them into a “carry medley”.  So with this you basically string a bunch of different carries together.

You want to try and go without letting the bells touch the floor, but in video below, for the double KB carries I did, I set them down so I could pick up some additional bells to make the farmer carries heavier.

As I mentioned above, you can also throw in SINGLE ARM carries and varirations as well.  In the video, I hit the same carry medley but with a single arm as well.  For the farmer walk, I threw in a BJJ Gi to enhance the grip factor.  Using the Gi makes it a really THICK grip which increases the difficulty.

ALWAYS FUN!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJlOyUfR7s[/youtube]

I like to do these a lot.  They really tax the shoulders and help them stay healthy.

BOTTOM LINE – If you’re NOT doing different variations of carries, you need to start!

Let me know in the comments below what type of carries you do!

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