Bench presses and push-ups are a brilliant way to strengthen your shoulders and tone your core muscles, but the Farmer's Walk is one of my favorites.

If you're not familiar with this "shoulder exercise," just grab a trap bar or two heavy weights like the best adjustable dumbbells or kettlebells and just walk. If you've ever carried groceries home while feeling a slow, burning sensation in your shoulders, you've already done the farmer's walk exercise.

But this movement, also known as the farmer's carry, is a popular strength and conditioning exercise that works far more muscles than just the shoulders. The farmer's walk is known as a cardio exercise that not only targets key muscle groups, working the arms, back, legs, and trunk muscles, but also raises the heart rate.

I decided to give it a try and walk around my apartment every day for a week. See what happened to my body and how 50 Arnold Presses turned out in another challenge.

The Farmer's Walk is a versatile full-body exercise; you can carry two weights or you can carry one weight and challenge your balance and stability on one side (single side). Either way, you can expect to increase your muscle strength. Other benefits of the Farmer's Walk include building muscle tone, improving grip strength, and developing lower body power.

This movement is considered isometric and isotonic (open in new tab). Isometric movement refers to static movements that load muscles without stretching or contracting them (in this case, the shoulder and trunk muscles), while isotonic movement includes dynamic movements such as walking.

Muscles that can be trained with farmer's carries include the biceps, triceps, shoulder complex (frontal, medial and lateral head), rectus abdominis, oblique muscles, deep trunk muscles, quadriceps, calves, hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae and other back muscles, tensor fascia latae and tensor fascia major, In addition, heavier loads can also train the chest.

The farmer's walk requires postural stability, control, and balance under load, as the shoulders are held in a tense position. Other muscles, including the trunk and legs, are working under load, which helps build strength throughout the body. Research (open in new tab) has shown that the Farmer's Walk may be an "effective lifting alternative to the deadlift" that provides similar activation with less stress on the lower back muscles.

A variety of weights can be used, but here kettlebells are used as an example.

Method Stand with feet hip-width apart and place two kettlebells on either side of your feet. Bend your knees to a squat position and distribute your weight evenly across your legs with your chest out. Grasp both kettlebells, engage your core, and set your shoulders back. Stand facing forward with chest out and pushing off the ground. Begin walking with control, without leaning backward or to one side.

Walking works the entire body.

Movements or workouts that target more than one muscle group or joint at a time are called functional exercises. If you are looking for a way to incorporate functional exercises into your next workout, I encourage you to try the flexibility exercises we practice.

I chose to do 8 sets of Farmer's Walks in my apartment for a total of 45 seconds with a 15 second rest, while measuring the distance. If you prefer, you can set the distance or the number of steps. I picked up a 35-pound kettlebell (a decision I would later regret) and got to work.

Beginners can opt for lighter weights or use a shopping bag if they want to achieve a fast-paced cardio workout, but I chose to use it as a powerful finisher to fatigue my muscles.

My shoulders were on fire, but the next day I felt it in my legs, core, and back muscles. Placing weights at both ends of the apartment allowed me to sneak in some deadlifts and also reset my shoulders and core. It helped me keep my form, but did nothing to relieve the muscle soreness.

By day 4, I was getting bored in my apartment (and my dog was following me), so I moved to the stairs outside. It was no surprise that I felt my quads and glutes working much stronger and had to hyper-tense my torso to prevent the load from getting to my lower back. I preferred to activate my lower body, so I continued this way for the remainder of the challenge. Maybe it was because I was breathing too hard.

The first few sets felt comfortable, but the last set tested my posture, control, grip, and core strength. Tight torso, shoulders down, back straight, maintaining grip and moving forward step by step.

I have a rotator cuff injury in my left shoulder, so as soon as I noticed fatigue I went into protection mode. This meant that each time I walked, I reset the weights so I could adjust my shoulder, retrain my core, and regrip the kettlebell.

The rotator cuff muscles surround the shoulder joint and help stabilize and support the shoulder throughout movement. When the primary muscles begin to fatigue, the weak stabilizing muscles are no longer properly activated and are unable to support the body. Internal shoulder rotation (stooping) prevents proper switch-on of the rotator cuff muscles (open with new tab).

As a result of special attention, I could feel this exercise anywhere I wanted without straining my shoulders or back. My grip strength still needs serious work, though.

Next: this full-body workout takes only 30 minutes, 6 moves, and 1 dumbbell

If you're interested in trying the Farmer's Walk, you might want to add it to finish this shoulder workout. And if you need more ways to get fatigued, here are some of the best walking workouts we swear by.