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posted on May 1, 2023

In the world of exercise, fitness, and strength there are too many exercises to think we could know all exercises. One easy way to help with this is to create a menu of exercises. What I mean by this is list all exercises that work your legs the most, then ones that are full body, arms, chest, etc. If you do this then you can grow your menu and pick and choose what works best for you. Today, I am going to pick one exercise out of my full body menu that is underutilized. The Single Arm Overhead Farmer Walk.

SA Overhead Farmer Walk.

How do you perform this exercise?

Grab a Dumbell and press it overhead, then go for a walk. It is really this simple, yet here are some tips.

Do not let the weight twist you. This is an anti-rotation exercise.
Do not let the weight pull you forward or backward. This is also and anti-flexion and extension exercise.
Do keep a steady gate. Try to walk as normal as you do everyday.

There it is in all its glory. The exercise you should be doing but, probably are not. There are many reasons why I believe this exercise is so underrated. First and foremost, this exercise uses all three planes (transverse, frontal, and sagittal). Second this exercise makes us bipedal. One thing we know is that humans should walk more, so walk. Last point I’ll make is that this exercise uses almost all of our muscle tissue.

How do you program SA Overhead Farmer Walks?

I would put this exercise in two places and for different reasons. Use it as a warm up or a finisher.

When using this as a warm up there is no need to go super heavy. Grab a reasonable weight that you can easily put over head and go for a walk. Walk 10-30 yards (depending on weight), switch hands and walk back. I like to mix mobility exercises in with this one. An example would be three sets of walks doing a different mobility drill for 5-10 reps between each set. The beauty of using these as a warm up is it will get the mid section ready for heavy, dead, squats, or just add some volume before you press.

Using these walks as a finisher. This is just a fun way to end a lift. When I do this as a finisher I tend to go heavier. The reason I go heavier is because I am already warm and I am not worried about fatigue for my upcoming exercises. This again can be done in a superset. Add in any rehab or just some pump exercises for fun at the end.

Give this exercise a try to begin or end your training session. Add it in one day a week for 4-6 weeks and see how you progress and how you feel.

Hamer