Thinking of Loaded Carries as Push-Pull Exercises

Thib,

I am enthralled by loaded carries (largely thanks to your work) and am looking for any excuse to perform them as frequently as possible (. I most often use the farmer’s walk, zercher carry, overhead carry, and the front rack carry with two kettlebells (I’m working toward strict pressing a 106 lbs. KB).

Given your support of the psychological and physiological benefits of the push-pull split (or in Paul Carter’s take, the push-pull-legs split), would it be useful to classify loaded carries in the same school of thought?

For example, overhead carries and front rack carries (my thinking is the importance of a strong rack position for overhead pressing) could be push day exercises, and farmer’s walks and zerchers may be considered as pull exercises (or zerchers carries on a leg day that emphasized the Zercher squat as a main lift).

All this would take into account reasonable volume and rotating intensities, naturally.

Assuming volume is kept reasonable to keep cortisol in check, can loaded carries be used 6 times a week in a push-pull split? The eccentric-less nature of carries seems to lend credence here.

Pull: zercher carries or Farmer’s walks
Push: overhead carries or front rack carries

Any thoughts from the community?

Do farmers ever take a day off? Just keep the volume very low to start and rotate intensity as you said. Probably best for all sets to feel “easy” while slowly increasing the load over time.

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I’d suggest that considering carries in push/pull categories disingenuous, since every carry heavily taxes your posterior chain and shoulder stabilisers. Even overhead carries pose a big stress on traps, for example.

To monitor volume and stress I would consider alternating between bilateral and unilateral carry days instead, which would basically leave you with high and low CNS stress days

To me the Zercher carry and farmer walk are mostly pulling by nature; overhead carries are pushing by nature, prowler pushing would be legs/pushing.

You totally can do them daily if the volume is kept in check. Don’t get drained at the end of your carries and if you crash at the end of your workout, it was too much.

Looks like I was wrong…

No, it’s more of a practical matter. Carries are, of course, whole body exercises. But you have to put them somewhere. Unless you are using a “whole body” approach you will have to categorize them where they fit the best.

It’s kinda like a power clean or power snatch.

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Thanks, coach. I deeply appreciate your insights.

Do you feel the double kettlebell rack carry is a worthwhile addition as a primary or secondary carry? For me at least, it seems to strengthen the rack position for both the overhead press (kettlebell, axle, and log) and is quite challenging to the upper back and abs.

On another note and relating to your V-Taper article back in 2015, I find the muscle snatch-overhead carry to be an outstanding exercise. I use a heavy slam-ball and hold the ball just above my head (if I fully extend my arms my lower back becomes a limiting factor). I strict press 200 at 175 and a 50 lbs slam-ball is challenging as a finisher on push days.

The close grip that the slam-ball requires and the mid-press hold along with the micro-oscillation of the carry hits my shoulders, triceps, upper back, and abs in a way I’ve been unable to replicate with other exercises. An added bonus is the ball can be safely ditched without regard to equipment damage or risk of injury and turning is much easier than with a barbell.

I appreciate your input. The alternation between bilateral and unilateral weeks is also intriguing as a deload/re-sensitization strategy. I don’t know too much about the CNS component. From my understanding and personal observation, the lack of an eccentric makes carries pretty CNS heavy of intensity and volume are kept reasonable. They do however use a lot of fuel per one of Thib’s recent articles: “While very little muscle damage is done, you still use a lot of fuel when doing them, so you can end up releasing too much cortisol if you go too heavy on the volume.”

Thank you for your input. I do tend to get carried away with loaded carries and treat them as a Herculean task because they are loads of fun (pun intended). Intensity/weight is generally moderate and I strive toward metabolic/lactic acid inducing sets (e.g. 45-70 seconds on moderate days up to two minutes on light days)