Depending on where you grew up, you may have encountered a “farm kid” or two in your class. Did you notice anything different about them? There’s a better than average chance they were in shape, had veins popping out of their arms and were even feared by many. That’s because they were in fact bad mamma jammas.

Instead of breaking out the Atari after school, they were summoned to the haymow to throw bales; then feed the cows, push wheelbarrows full of rocks and do any number of other laborious tasks. They were hard workers, they had responsibility and they could likely kick anyone’s hiney butt they saw fit.

This brings to the table the exercise named after farmers, conveniently called farmers carries or farmers walks. Take inspiration from the farmers because they obviously knew what they were doing. Why do you need this exercise in your life? Read on for five ridiculously good reasons.

They Build Popeye Forearms

Take a look at your forearms. Are they shaped like bowling pins and are they solid as a rock? If not, start doing farmers carries at the end of your workouts two or three days a week and watch the transformation occur before your very eyes.

Balanced definition in your forearms will help fill out your physique and give you a leg up on your poses if you enter competitions.

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You’ll Get Better Grip Strength

This one is pretty obvious. If you sister two centuries at your sides and walk across the gym floor, you need to squeeze those handles pretty tight. This automatically improves your grip strength, which can prove beneficial for such sports as wrestling, mixed martial arts and football.

If you want to turn the volume up one more level, wrap grippers around the handles to make them fatter. The wider the grip, the harder it will be to hold the weights and the more you’ll improve your grip strength. You can also weave towels through kettlebells and hold the ends as you waltz across the gym floor. Kettlebells themselves work fine too.

They Build Calf Definition

Calf raises are well and fine, but they can be boring. Execute a series of farmer’s carries and you’ll quickly break through the boredom. The only catch is you need to walk on your tiptoes. If you want to challenge yourself even more, find a hill and walk up it.

If you don’t have access to dumbbells, you need not worry. Just find two heavy objects you can carry at your sides, like pails filled with stone or nails.

They’ll Increase Your Overall strength

Power output cannot be overstated. Just simply walking with heavy objects dangling at your sides will make you stronger through your whole body. This can translate to daily activities like shoveling snow, pushing a truck out of a ditch and carrying bags of concrete to a job site.

They’ll Improve Your Core strength

You may be wondering how this is applicable. Well, any time you hold heavy objects at your sides while walking, you need to engage your core muscles to maintain an erect posture. This, in turn, leads to a stronger core. Remember the time under tension rule. If you want to get even more core recruitment, carry only one weight. These are often referred to as unilateral carries, but it’s just a single arm farmers carry.

Now you’ve been thoroughly educated on why you’d want to add farmer’s carries into your workout. Grab some heavy weights, walk across the gym floor and make yourself a better gym goer in one fell swoop.