The Effect of an Acute Farmers Walk Exercise Bout on Muscle Damage and Recovery in Recreationally Trained Adults

The Farmer's Walk (FW) may supplement resistance training through functional tasks like lifting and carrying weight over various distances. Minimal information exists concerning the intramuscular responses resulting from FW performance, possibly impacting its application in exercise prescription. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate Creatine Kinase (CK) and myoglobin (Mb) responses following the Farmers Walk Condition (FWC) compared to a control protocol (NWC).

Fifteen participants (Mean ± SEM; age: 21.6 ± 0.5 years; height: 172.5 ± 2.4 cm; body weight: 81.8 ± 4.0 kg) completed an initial session to measure body composition, lower body power, and strength. Participants then completed two counter-balanced exercise protocols consisting of a 20-m walk performed within 5 sets of 2 repetitions while either carrying weight (FWC; average wt: 85.15 ± 25.55 kg) or not (NWC) with collection of Visually Perceived Muscle Soreness (VPMS), Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE), and blood samples. VPMS, blood samples, and Countermovement Jump (CMJ) height were also collected during recovery from each exercise protocol with significance of P < 0.05.

Significant differences were observed between exercise protocols performed including participant RPE (P < 0.01), CK (P = 0.01), and overall, upper body, and lower body VPMS (P < 0.05) post-FWC. No significant differences were noted for Mb or CMJ height.

Training variables implemented during the FWC may have indirectly minimized muscle damage and neuromuscular inhibitions in performance. Although participants reported mild soreness, the negligible physiological damage suggests the FWC is a safe and appropriate functional movement exercise.