Though deadlifts are great, if you want big traps and shoulders, then you need to do your carries too. People forget these are postural muscles with a lot of slow-twitch endurable fibers that respond very well to extended time under tension protocols. And it's a lot easier and safer to accomplish this with farmer's walks than deadlifts.

One of my favorite ways to program farmer's walks is doing drop sets for 10 straight minutes to end a workout. This will supersize your shoulders, boost your grip strength, and burn fat all over.

Here's how it works:

  1. Start with the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can carry for at least 30 seconds or have access to.
  2. Carry it for as long (or as far) as you can and then exchange it for a weight that is 5 to 10 pounds lighter.
  3. Carry that new weight for as long as you can and then bump the weight down again in the same manner.
  4. Repeat this process for 10 straight minutes, taking no more than 15 to 30 seconds between each weight exchange.

For example, the last time I did this I used the 90-pound adjustable dumbbells from PowerBlock. I started with the full 90's and carried it for max time or distance. Then I bumped the load down in 10-pound increments to 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's, and 40's until the 10 minutes was up. The adjustable dumbbells option comes in handy for this if you have space limitations or don't want to buy or have access to a lot of different sized dumbbells.

Why do I love this finisher so much? Because it's low-impact, easy on the joints and gives you an epic upper body pump. If only it could do your taxes too. 

And for more drop set workouts you can do at home to build muscle and burn fat, check out my MetaShred Extreme program!