Farmer’s walk research covers biomechanics and strongman performance, not norms or health
Is there research on the farmer carry and ageing?
The finding
Better performers had longer, faster strides and shorter ground contact. No study links carry capacity to mortality or to independence in older age.
- Authors
- Hindle BR, Lorimer A, Winwood P, Keogh JWL
- Published
- Sports Medicine – Open 5:49 · 2019
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1186/s40798-019-0222-z
How it was studied
Systematic review of 11 biomechanics studies of the farmer’s walk.
The numbers
McGill and colleagues (J Strength Cond Res 2009) modelled spine load and muscle activity in strongman events and found that carrying events challenge different abilities from lifting events.
What it does not show
Small samples of trained men.
What Longstanding does with it
The farmer carry is in the battery because carrying bags and luggage is a goal people name for 85, not because evidence ties it to health. Its percentile is labelled estimated.