Farmers Walks in Base Building?

[Ginjadave]

Hi Guys,

Firstly thanks in advance for anyone who takes the time to read this post and responds with constructive feedback.

Im running a base block starting next week, standard template. Recently I've been reading a lot by Dan John (I'm presuming most people on here know who he is but apologies if I'm being too presumptuous)

Dan advocates incorporating the 5 basic human movements into any workout plan, a Push, pull, Squat, Hinge and a loaded Carry. This seems like a very sound logic to me and hence I've decided on the following Template for the SE on my upcoming base...

Push up
Goblet squat
TRX Row
2H KB swing
Farmers walks (Light weight for long distance, thinking maybe 1 minute walking)

What do people think about light weight but long duration farmers walks? Does this fit in an SE cluster or is there a glaringly obvious reason they will be crap I'm missing and should swap them out for something else? bang for Buck I've found little else that matches farmers walks and it also helps that i love doing them and they keep my motivation high.

Any opinions Welcome

Cheers

Dave

[Maxrip13]

The idea with farmers walks is to go hard and heavy. Otherwise you will not feel much from them.
I also wouldn’t really call a minute that long for farmers walks.

Nothing wrong with doing them though and they will definitely add endurance. Give it a go,but if you do them normally with in HIC or as a finisher I wouldn’t worry too much.

They will assist in prepping tendons for heavier lifting later and they won’t suddenly change your SE to Strength work.

[Walrus Freud]

I'm new to TB and thus obviously have very little experience to share. I have used farmer's walks as finishers for some time, though, and since I love them I'm also trying to fit them into my TB training. In my case I 'm trying to put them in a HIC. I aim for walking intervals of 60-70 seconds. The problem for me so far has been that if I use a heavy (for me) weight when doing the walks, grip strength recovery quickly becomes the limiting factor. Switching to lighter loads doesn't feel like a good solution, since that kind of negates the purpose of the farmer's walk, at least the way I like them. My plan now is, I guess, a semi SE cirquit kind of thing:

1. Farmer's walk for one lap (about 60-70 seconds, puts my heart rate around 160-170)
2. Short rest
3. Air squats (20)
4. Short rest.
5. Burpees (20)
6. Short rest.
7. Repeat 1-6 AMRAP for 20 minutes.

That should keep my heart rate up and might give my hands enough time to recover between the walks. I hope it at least gives you some ideas. If you find a great way to incoroprate farmer's walk, please post it so I can steal it

[Ginjadave]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the Replys.

I agree Maxrip and i would usually do farmers with half bodyweight (40kg) at least in each hand and usually shoot for a 100 yard walk, 50 out and 50 back but that would be for MS days as a finisher rather than part of a Se circuit.

This will be my 3rd block of base over a 2 year period and I've never factored them in before and just wondered if i should do anything different with them during BB/SE. When i say light i don't mean stupid light, just trying to keep it in the Se realms so thought maybe 28 kg Kb per hand, maybe il go for 90-120 seconds instead

[Maxrip13]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the Replys.

I agree Maxrip and i would usually do farmers with half bodyweight (40kg) at least in each hand and usually shoot for a 100 yard walk, 50 out and 50 back but that would be for MS days as a finisher rather than part of a Se circuit.

This will be my 3rd block of base over a 2 year period and I've never factored them in before and just wondered if i should do anything different with them during BB/SE. When i say light i don't mean stupid light, just trying to keep it in the Se realms so thought maybe 28 kg Kb per hand, maybe il go for 90-120 seconds instead

Go for it mate. Experiment with it and tell us what the go is:)
I don't see how it would cause anything negative and it's a type of endurance.

I would still just go heavy though and not waste my time with anything light.
Go heavy and go for time, but your idea would work also.

[BlackPyjamas]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the Replys.

I agree Maxrip and i would usually do farmers with half bodyweight (40kg) at least in each hand and usually shoot for a 100 yard walk, 50 out and 50 back but that would be for MS days as a finisher rather than part of a Se circuit.

This will be my 3rd block of base over a 2 year period and I've never factored them in before and just wondered if i should do anything different with them during BB/SE. When i say light i don't mean stupid light, just trying to keep it in the Se realms so thought maybe 28 kg Kb per hand, maybe il go for 90-120 seconds instead

Go for it mate. Experiment with it and tell us what the go is:)
I don't see how it would cause anything negative and it's a type of endurance.

I would still just go heavy though and not waste my time with anything light.
Go heavy and go for time, but your idea would work also.

I agree with Maxrip, I wouldn't try and squeeze Farmers into SE. Unless you went heavy enough that you couldn't keep going for more than 60-90 seconds without dropping the weights.

Just trying to think outside the box here, but if you want to get creative, you could try and incorporate them into your E. Kinda like a "heavy hands" brisk walking session. But then you'd have to go light enough to keep it up for 30 minutes+.

Personally I find Farmers best as a finisher after any kind of training SE, HIC, MS, anything really.

[Ginjadave]

Tried this for the first time last night as I've just started a Base block.

Actually worked surprisingly well. I did 60 second walks with 34 Kg in each hand and they were just slipping out of my hands when time was up.

My cluster is

Push up
KB swing
Goblet Squat
BW Row
farmers walk

Have to say the forearms were caned by the end of each circuit but heres the main thing... I really enjoyed it and kinda looked forward to the farmers at the end, for the motivation along and actually really enjoying myself when training i think its worth it for me.