We all love new ways of training our core, waking up in the morning and struggling to get out of bed as your abs refuse to cooperate 🙂

So I’m continuing the series of my favourite core exercises by sharing with you the weighted carries.

The exercise is SO simple to describe and do, I’m going to add a bit of science and anatomy. Stay awake at the back! (Or jump to the bottom of the post to see the description and pictures)

Some core anatomy
The core is more than your abs and lower back, it’s a complex system of several muscles. The whole region is sometimes called the Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex and some consider virtually everything apart from our arms, legs and neck to be the core!

I like the latter as it makes sense to me as a personal trainer and also from my own experiences. That’s why I love exercises that integrate the whole body rather than isolation work.

The benefits of carry training is to work deep postural muscles which rarely get trained with the usual exercises you might know. And you can imagine how this helps in the real world, carrying the shopping, your luggage at the airport or even your kids – this is functional fitness at its best.

And carries are so easy to do. Find a heavy weight, lift it up and go for a walk! Keep your body as upright as possible, keep your abs braced and keep breathing. Walk ten steps, turn around and back again. Rest between 30 – 60 seconds, then repeat. Do this for about 5 sets or until very sweaty 🙂

When you do the overhead carries, use a lighter weight – one you can safely carry overhead for the time needed. Also keep your shoulder tightly packed to your body, don’t shrug and keep your elbow straight. If your arm fatigues faster than the rest of you lower the weight and rest before carrying on.