04 Feb Why the Suitcase Carry Matters More Than You Think
Article Rundown
- Builds lateral core stiffness and teaches you to stay rigid under uneven load
- Exposes left-to-right imbalances and forces the body to correct compensation
- Carries over directly to squat walkouts, posture, and frontal-plane control
- Develops real-world strength, grip, and resilience you can’t fake with machines
Why the Suitcase Carry Matters More Than You Think
One of the most misunderstood core exercises out there is the suitcase carry. On the surface, it looks simple: grab a kettlebell in one hand and walk. But when it’s coached and executed correctly, it becomes one of the most powerful tools we have for building real-world core stiffness, injury resilience, and transferable strength.
When I coach the suitcase carry, everything starts with getting locked in and rigid first. Before we ever move, I want the posture set — tall, stiff, and controlled. I cue the same “arm-wrestler” brace we use in other core drills. No leaning. No shifting. No compensating. That stiffness is the entire point.
Why Suitcase Carries Beat Farmer’s Walks for Core Control
This is one of the reasons suitcase carries can be superior to farmer’s walks in certain contexts. Carrying weight in both hands is easier. It hides weaknesses. The moment you load one side only, the body wants to tip, lean, and cheat.
But life doesn’t load us evenly.
Carrying groceries up stairs. Holding a child. Working a physical job. Competing in sport. These are uneven loads. The suitcase carry trains you to resist that asymmetry instead of compensating through the spine and hips, which is exactly how people slowly destroy their bodies over time.
The goal is to train the musculature to stay stiff no matter what’s happening externally.
Stiffness Over Speed: Coaching the Walk
Once the carry starts, I’m watching for one thing first: posture. If I see the torso lean toward the weight, we stop and correct it immediately. You should feel the obliques on the opposite side light up hard, along with the glutes and hip stabilizers.
Grip often becomes the limiting factor, especially with slick kettlebells. That’s why chalk matters. Grip weakness will expose itself quickly, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s feedback.
When switching hands, I cue staying stiff the entire time. No relaxing between sides. That transition is part of the training effect.
As speed increases, the demand on the core increases. You don’t get sloppy — you breathe, stay rigid, and move with control.
How This Carries Over to Squatting and Walking
This exercise has massive carryover to the squat, especially the walkout. The ability to maintain lateral core stiffness while moving under load is huge. It’s also frontal-plane athleticism — something most people completely ignore.
People ask about belt squat marches all the time. They have value, but I prefer suitcase and farmer’s carries because you’re not stapled to a machine. You’re testing grip, posture, and whole-body control at the same time.
This even applies to something as simple as walking. If you can maintain stiffness and posture during loaded carries, you’re reinforcing the same patterns during everyday movement.
Progressions: From Suitcase to Bottoms-Up Carries
Once the suitcase carry is mastered at a given weight, the progression is the bottoms-up carry. Flip the kettlebell and hold it upside down while walking.
This raises the demand significantly.
Any looseness in the system shows up immediately — through the grip and through the core. It becomes both a grip developer and a high-level core control drill. Not everyone is ready for it, and that’s fine. Some very strong people can’t do it initially. It’s a progression, not a requirement.
Proximal Stiffness Leads to Distal Power
This is where everything ties together.
Exercises like the suitcase carry, stir-the-pot, and the McGill Big Three are irreplaceable. They build proximal stiffness — and proximal stiffness leads to distal athleticism.
If the core is loose, power leaks everywhere. A loose squat has no force transfer. A stiff squat has no energy leakage. The hips drive, and the force goes exactly where it’s supposed to go.
The mistake people make is trying to be extremely mobile and extremely stiff at the same time. The spine can adapt to be flexible, or it can adapt to be strong — but trying to turn a willow branch into an oak tree under load doesn’t work. I know that lesson personally.
You have to tune the body for the demands you’re trying to meet. That stiffness takes time to build, but once it’s there, everything else gets stronger and more controlled.
That’s why the suitcase carry isn’t just a carry. It’s a foundation.
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