Loaded carries are high up the list of “Things most guys don’t do that they probably should”.
Why?
Many reasons.
Certainly far more than I could ever hope to cover in a single email.
But I’ll give you one of them:
Back health.
Let’s not beat about the bush. Back pain – especially lower back pain – is a crippling affliction. Moreover, once you get it, it’s extremely difficult to get rid of because most everything you do in the gym (or in life generally) involves the back to a greater or lesser degree.
Consequently, back injuries can stick around for years, disrupting your training by making it difficult or even outright impossible to perform the most productive lifts (barbell squats, deadlifts, presses, etc.), interfering with your sleep, and forcing you to spend the mornings hobbling about like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz pre-oil can.
It is a miserable existence.
I should know, because I spent much of 2012 to early 2015 feeling like someone was rubbing shards of glass covered in lemon and salt into my spinal cord.
I couldn’t deadlift. I could barely squat. And maybe two nights out of seven I’d be woken in the early hours by terrible stabbing pains.
All this was the result of a lower back injury I picked up training for a powerlifting meet at university. An injury I sustained partly because I was young and stupid, and partly because I had a weak back.
Sure, I was “strong” in that I was deadlifting and squatting north of 180kg for reps at around 80kg bodyweight. (Not astronomical numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but I think they’re respectable).
However, I was sorely lacking what I can only describe as “dad strength” – that inexplicable ability for physically unremarkable fathers to carry their kids around, move furniture, and shift heavy objects without breaking a sweat.
What I’m saying is, I had strength, but my ability to apply that strength outside of the choreographed confines of the gym was non-existent.
Loaded carries solve this problem nicely.
Not only do they get you used to handling unpredictable, shifting loads but they allow you to expose yourself to those loads in a safe and controlled manner.
Even better: You can progress them just as you would any other lift to build even more dad strength and an even healthier back – with the right know-how.
The only caveat is, if you are already struggling with lower back pain and/or injury, you need to find and pay an appropriately qualified professional to sort it out for you before you even think about adding these to your training.
I shouldn’t have to say that, but I’m utterly amazed at the sheer number of blokes I’ve met in the gym who whinge about pain in their back, knees, shoulders, and so on yet aren’t prepared to take steps to fix it.
Strange.
Anyway, I talk about loaded carries a fair bit in February’s issue of The Phil Tyreman Letter.
This one is all about building a strong, healthy back – arguably the most important part of your body to keep in tip-top condition, yet it’s chronically undertrained by most for various reasons.
And I’ll tell you straight, one thing that’ll put an end to your ability to train hard enough to get results once and for all is a back injury, no doubt about it.
So, if you’re serious about training long-term (i.e. for a decade or more), you won’t want to miss the next issue.
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Thank you,
Phil Tyreman