Sled Work for Strength and GPP
Read time: 3 mins
One of the most functional and cost effective pieces of equipment a gym can have is a sled. When utilised correctly, the sled offers multiple ways to enhance your General Physical Preparation (GPP) levels and expand the base of your strength pyramid.
As an athlete, maintaining and exceeding the GPP level needed to compete in your sport is essential if you want to improve sport performance.
Simple but effective
Minimal technique that needs to be coached for many sled exercises.
Low impact.
No eccentric (negative) component, only concentric contractions.
High volume, low stress. Without the eccentric stress, the nervous system is spared. That means sled work can be done at high volumes and frequencies. So it’s great tool to use during de-loading phases or on a recovery day.
Nutrient delivery: Repetitive concentric only muscle contractions deliver lots of blood and nutrients to working muscles. This makes using a sled great for warm-ups, for pump work, or for finishing any workout.
Sled work is a fantastic form of single-leg or unilateral training,
Sled work is pretty much devoid of an eccentric load. As such, the amount of muscle damage created is very low. That means you can recover quickly. The eccentric phase of a lift is usually the lowering or negative portion where the muscles lengthen and stretch, This create the majority of the muscle damage and DOMs (Delayed Onset of Muscle Damage). Eccentric-less work removes that portion. When pushing against a sled, each step forward against the weight is concentric… there is no negative phase.
Strength:
Opt for very heavy sets of 10-50 meters with an ideal distance of 30 meters.
Conditioning:
You can go as high as three minutes per set. I prefer to stay in the 50-70 second zone with either a challenging weight or a challenging speed.
When you do frequent (even daily) Prowler/sled work, do one version per day for 3-4 sets. While very little muscle damage is done, you still use a lot of fuel when doing them, so you can end up releasing too much cortisol if you go too heavy on the volume.
You will see powerlifters, fighters, and track and field athletes using the sled. Here are a few ways to include sled training in your training program.
Warm Up Exercise
Using the sled to warm up is a great way to prepare for a lower body training day. Keep the sled weight low, and pull from multiple directions. You can start out dragging the sled back and forth for a few laps, then transition to pulling the sled backwards, as well as lateral sled pulls to warm up the hips.
Recommended distance is 20-30 yards moving continuously over the course of a 10 minute warm up period. This will properly warm up the hips and legs for squats or deadlifts, as well as elevating the heart rate and getting blood moving.
Accessory Exercise
Sled pulls can be used as an accessory exercise for both upper and lower training days. Once again, you can pull the sled forward, backward, or laterally step. Heavy forward sled pulls place great demand on the hips, glutes, hamstrings, and calves depending on your foot strike.
Drive off of the ball of your foot you will utilise your hamstrings and calves more
Strike your foot heel to toe you will utilise more glute and hamstring
Heavy backward sled pulls are a good way to target the quadriceps
You can also add in a load carry while dragging the sled for added intensity. A good way to target the hips and trunk are heavy lateral side steps. Focusing on maintaining a braced trunk, and laterally step leading with the right leg one trip, then the left leg on the return trip. You can attack the upper torso as well.
By attaching a tricep extension strap to the sled rope you can perform walking presses or walking tricep extensions. Each of these exercises should be performed using the heaviest weight possible while still achieving the amount of trips prescribed. The optimal amount of trips and distance is 8-12 trips done at a distance of 15-20 yards. A short rest period can be taken between trips.
Finishing Exercise
On max effort and dynamic effort days you can use a sled as a way to train GPP, and finish your training day. Add a light to moderate amount of sled weight, and drag it for distance. This is done until an adequate amount of fatigue is achieved, and then the workout is ended. The distance is around 100-150 yards per trip
