Pushing Sled Exercises

Pushing sled exercises have a place in sport-specific routines, particularly for football and track. If you're a member of a commercial gym, it's unlikely you'll have access to one, as they are usually found in specialist strength and conditioning facilities. If you are lucky enough to come across a sled though, you can use it to increase your speed and acceleration and to build whole-body strength and power.

  1. Speed Exercises

    • Sleds are a highly effective tool for increasing your lower-body speed and power and pushes and pulls should be staple speed exercises in your program. For pushes, stand with the sled in front of you with one hand on each handle and your body 45 degrees to the floor then sprint as fast as you can. For a greater challenge, hold the handles closer to the floor or add extra weight plates. As a change from pushing, go for some sled pulls. Attach one end of a harness to the sled and the other end around your waist, then sprint hell for leather. With any speed sled drill, the key is maintaining your acceleration. Your speed with a sled shouldn't drop below 90 percent of your regular sprint speed,” notes coach Mike Boyle in "Advances in Functional Training."

    Upper-Body Exercises

    • Sleds can be a replacement for upper-body pushing exercises like bench presses and pushups. Crouch down with one leg in front of the other as if you were about to sprint, then push the sled as hard as you can using just your chest, shoulders and triceps. For sled pulls, to work your back and biceps, attach a thick piece of rope to either handle and pull the sled towards you. You'll need long lengths of rope to leave enough room between you and the sled. Keep a low body position throughout, advises Sean Keefe, co-founder of Strength and Performance in Manchester, England. Both these exercises have a multitude of variations to work your upper-body in different ways. Change the height you hold the handles on pushes or try pushing with just one arm. For the pulls you can use different thicknesses of rope, attach a lat pull-down handle to the rope, pull with just one arm, sit down on the floor, stand up or adopt a split stance with one foot in front of the other.

    Programming

    • When planning your sled sessions, consider what you actually want the sled to do. If you're using it as a replacement for weight training, then keep your reps in the eight to 12 rep range and add as much weight as you need to make each set challenging while still using perfect technique. As a conditioning or fitness tool, your main emphasis should be more on training for sustained periods of time. Timed sets work really well, where you perform exercises back to back at maximum intensity for 30 to 45 seconds with no rest in between. Complete a circuit of four or five exercises, take a brief 60-second rest, then go for another three to four rounds.

    Considerations and Limitations

    • While sleds may be versatile and extremely useful for boosting your in-game performance and general conditioning, for best results you'll need other forms of training too. Combine your strength work with the sled with regular weight training or body-weight moves. Pick two of these and two sled exercises each session and for your conditioning and fitness workouts, alternate between sled speed drills and regular sprints, either on the flat, on a treadmill or up hills. If it's your first time using a sled, ask a qualified strength and conditioning coach to show you the ropes.