Pick Up a Weight and Walk – Men Over 50 Can Build Real-World Strength at Home with These 6 Carry Exercises

Compound exercises are a brilliant way to get more bang for your buck when you’re strength training, and carries are some of the best.

Not only do they engage almost every major muscle group – including your core, glutes, biceps and shoulders – but they also train something you already need in daily life: carrying heavy objects from one place to another, whether that’s shopping bags, luggage or a loaded backpack.

The farmer’s carry is perhaps the best-known carrying exercise, but it has its limitations. Unless you’ve got superhuman grip strength, you can only increase the weight and duration of your carries so many times before your grip and forearms fail before the rest of your body does.

That’s where smart progressions come in. By changing the position of the weight, you can challenge your core, shoulders, upper back and balance in different ways – without simply making every carry heavier.

Bryan Mataya, a fitness coach who specialises in helping men over 50 build strength, may have the answer. In a recent Instagram post, Mataya shared a six-step carry progression designed to help men over 50 build functional strength – the kind that helps you keep doing what you want as you age.

‘The goal after 50 isn’t just building muscle – it’s staying strong enough to do what you want for the next 30 years without your body limiting you,’ he wrote in the caption.

‘You do NOT need more machines, more exercises and more time in the gym. You need to become harder to break,’ he added. ‘Master these carries and you’ll build a stronger body from head to toe.’

Here’s the six-step progression Mataya recommends – and why each carry works.

Mataya’s 6-Step Carry Progression for Men Over 50

Because these carries rely on kettlebells and dumbbells, you can do this progression at home if you have a few pieces of equipment to hand. You could also improvise by adding weight, such as canned goods or bottled liquids, to sturdy bags.

Farmer’s Carry

Benefits: Builds grip strength, core stability, posture and work capacity.

Before you move on to the more complicated variations, you need to nail the basics. Mataya recommends building to the point where you can carry your bodyweight for 60 seconds.

Benefits: Forces your core to resist side bending and builds real-world strength.

The goal here is to reach the point where you can carry half your bodyweight in one hand without your torso bending to the side. It’s a simple way to train the core’s ability to resist movement, rather than just produce it.

Benefits: Challenges your upper back, core and shoulder stability while teaching better posture.

Being able to carry a heavy weight in a front rack position, while moving, is a useful way to train posture while building strength across your upper back and shoulders. Mataya uses a kettlebell, but you could also use a sandbag to challenge your stability further.

Single-Arm Overhead Carry

Benefits: Improves shoulder stability, rotator cuff function and total-body control.

This move can help you get stronger at holding weight overhead while keeping the rest of your body stable. The key is reaching the point where your arm stays strong throughout the carry, without fighting to keep your shoulders level.

Double Overhead Carry

Benefits: Builds full-body stability, core strength and upper-body muscle endurance.

Mataya says this move is ‘one of the best tests of shoulder strength, mobility and control’. You should aim to keep your lower back and rib cage neutral throughout the movement – meaning you’re able to resist your back arching and your ribs flaring as the weights move overhead.

Offset Carry

Benefits: Builds core strength, coordination, balance, stability and resilience.

The final boss of carries. The offset carry brings together everything you’ve trained throughout the progression, requiring you to keep your core solid while holding one weight overhead and another by your side. Maintaining your balance and form throughout is the key.

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