3 Ways To Add The Sled To Your Workout
I’m blessed to be able to visit a lot of gyms, and once you get around to a few there are a lot of commonalities you often see between them:
The folk who insist on doing curls 2 inches away from the mirror.
The rusty kettlebell that is just too sentimental to replace.
The unabashed older gentleman in the change room drying all parts of his body with the hand dryer.
And of course, the underutilisation of key pieces of equipment. In this case, we are talking about the sled.
The sled (or prowler, depending on the model) can be more than just a burner on the legs. In fact, I dare say it can be a game changer when we understand how to use it properly. I have successfully used it in many muscle gain and fat loss programs, but have found it to be most impactful when we use it in the pursuit of performance gain. If you are looking to add weight to your deadlift or take another minute off your 10KM PR, it’s about time I introduce you to the wonderful world of the Sled pushing and pulling.
Why the sled?
When we push a sled it gives us a very unique type of contraction on the leg muscles, we only load the shortening phase of the repetition (concentric), not the lengthening (eccentric). Because of this unique stimulus, we don’t create as much muscle damage and thus can recover faster from our sled work.
Why is it good?
It means I can add more leg volume to someone's week without beating them down. Sled work won’t replace a quality squat or deadlift, but is a great volume increase for the ‘hardgainer’ looking to build their legs.
For the endurance athlete we can use the sled to build acceleration, lactic tolerance and of course muscle stamina.
It’s also worth mentioning that anyone can do it! Because it is a very easy skill to master I have used sled work to help all ages from teenagers to advanced age.
Here are some things you can do to add sled work to your program.
Muscle
Add some heavy sled pushes onto the end of your leg days.
Load the equivalent of your body weight onto the sled/prowler, (60% BW if it’s your first time) then with your arms fully extended, chest facing the floor, drive your toes into the ground and push the sled to the end of the track. Move the handles to the other side of the sled, then push back to where you started. Aim to keep the sled moving for 30-45 seconds in total, usually 2–3 up and back laps of the track.
Frequency: 1–2 times per week.
Load: Bodyweight+
Sets: 3–4
Reps: 30–45 second efforts.
Speed
Load the sled 5–20% of your body weight, You need this to be light so you can move with speed. Each set should go no longer than 9 seconds.
With the sled at one end of the track, hold onto the tall handles about ¾ of the way up, bend your elbows and stick your chest in between the handles. Snap the handles to engage the upper back and midline. Diggin’ your toes into the floor, explode as fast as you can to the other end.
Once the sled comes to a dead stop, quickly move to the other side of the sled, grab the low handles, keep the arms fully extended and explode the sled back to the starting point. Be sure to stay low when you push it back.
Rest for 90–120 seconds (to fully recover those fast-twitch muscle fibres), then repeat 3–5 times in total.
Frequency: 1-2 times per week (at least 2 days in between speed work)
Load: 5-20% of bodyweight
Sets: 3-5
Reps: up and back. If it takes you more than 9 seconds, just push to one end.
PRO TIP:
If Speed training is your jam do some research on Joe Defranco's Heavy Sled Drags. His principles on position and horsepower when using the sled are game changers.
Endurance
When training for endurance I like to use a push AND pull method. This will add a little more stress to the legs, particularly the glutes and hamstrings, but is nonetheless effective for developing strength endurance, stamina and resilience.
Load the sled with 50-100% of your body weight. With fully extended arms and chest facing the floor, push the sled to the other end of the track, and focus on transitioning the weight smoothly from leg to leg. Once at the other end stand tall, grab the top of the tall handles, sit back to load hips, keep the chest proud then proceed to pull the sled back to the starting position. Focus on small steps that use the glutes and midline to stabilise the hips.
Once back at the starting point wash, rinse and repeat for the remainder of the time.
Frequency: 1–2 times per week. Preferably on your heavy strength days or mixed conditioning days.
Load: 50-100% of body weight.
Sets: 3-6.
Reps: 1.5-3 minutes.
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