Moving Muscle

I found myself in an interesting situation recently when a good friend of mine asked if I could help move.  Now we have all been there and the first thing we do is try to come up with excuses, but we know in the end we will be there to help.  In this situation we weren’t moving a house, we were moving a gym, and we didn’t do it once, we did it twice.  It’s one thing to move couches, tables, and chairs and another to move tons of dead weight, but always looking at the positive, it gave me an idea for a workout.  If you have ever seen a strong man competition, there is an event called the farmers walk.  Growing up on a farm I am very familiar with this terminology.  We used to carry hay bales in each hand, buckets full of rocks, weeds, dirt, etc.  The key is to balance without falling over, but keeping enough of a forward lean to keep everything moving in one direction.  While doing this you will be using grip strength, core, glutes, hips, hamstrings, lower back, trapezius, arms, etc.  Basically a whole lot of muscles you usually don’t use.  The first time we moved, I found myself very sore the next two days, and I have been training four times a week for over 20 years, but this type of lifting uses different body parts that we typically don’t train directly.  Two weeks later, when we moved again, I found myself not as sore as the first time, so in a way I had trained for it.  Focusing on the technique you want to make sure you lift up a little on your sides (using traps and shoulders) in order not to rub or hips or depending on width of object take out your shins. 

Exercises
Farmers Walk- Barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, plates, buckets, water jugs, etc. Almost anything that can hold weight is easy to use.  Grasp handles tightly then lean forward to get momentum going.  The key is balance and grip strength.  Try to use shoulders and traps to lift up to avoid anything scraping legs or calves. 
Single Dumbbell Deadlift-Stand directly over heavy dumbbell and perform a good squat with back straight.  Grasp bar with both hands and stand straight up.  Depending on how you position your feet, you should feel the pressure on your quads and glutes.
TIP-The time to use these strategies are as finishers at the end of workouts.  You will already be a little fatigued in the forearms and core so you don’t want to use this before a workout, because then you might be a little weak before your heavy lifts.

…For more information and tips, check my website, www.chadamartin.com