Suitcase carry
A farmer's carry with one weight instead of two. Walking tall while the load tries to fold you sideways.
The movement
2 stages
Walk level
01 Walk level
One heavy weight at the side, both shoulders held at the same height.
02 Small steps
Short, quick steps with no lean toward either side.
How to do it
Setup
- Lift one heavy dumbbell from the floor to your side with a flat back and both feet planted.
- Stand tall and level, shoulders square, free arm relaxed.
Execution
- Walk with short, deliberate steps for the set time or distance.
- Keep your shoulders level and your ribs stacked over your hips the entire way.
- Set the weight down with a flat back, then carry it back in the other hand.
BreathingSteady and unbroken. If you cannot talk in short sentences, the set is too long.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Both shoulders stay level for the whole walk.
- Walk a straight line at an even pace.
Common mistakes
- Leaning away from the weight, which looks strong and cancels the exercise.
- Hitching the loaded shoulder up toward your ear.
- Loading one side more minutes than the other across the session.
Worth knowing
- The pickup and the set-down are single-arm deadlifts and deserve the same flat back. Swap hands at half distance rather than gutting one side to failure.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
Take away one of the farmer’s carry’s two weights and the exercise changes species. The load now pulls you sideways every step, and the muscles down the opposite side of your trunk, the obliques and the deep muscles along your spine, have to refuse the bend for the whole walk. It is the walking version of holding a side plank.
The standard is symmetry. Anyone can carry a heavy dumbbell by leaning hard away from it. The exercise is staying so level that an observer behind you could not guess the loaded hand. The moment the free shoulder drops or the loaded one hitches up, the trunk has stopped doing the work you brought it here for.
One dumbbell also makes this the most portable serious core exercise in the library. Half the weight of a farmer’s carry gives more trunk work, and it slots into the end of any session in two or three out-and-back lengths per hand. Level shoulders for the full distance is the rep. Add weight only when it stays true to the last step.