Push & Pull More Sleds!

Sleds are often over looked in most gyms. They sit in a corner and accumulate dust or worse, the gym owner doesn’t buy any because they don’t see the value! Well, they have a lot of value and will give you a big bang for your buck, time, and effort in your fitness gains. Today I talk about how important they can be and how under utilized they are.

Today at Live in Victory CrossFit we did 5 max effort sets of a loaded 100m sled push. The goal was to select a weight you could make the full distance without stopping and go for broke. You then got as much rest or recovery as you wanted between efforts. The value to this workout is that it is extremely hard, but non-destructive. This means my members will end up fitter from it, yet come in tomorrow with some leg fatigue but not much soreness. The stimulus from a very heavy or very fast sled push is a very different response than that from Fran or Karen. The sled provides no eccentric loading so you get fitter without much lag in training time for the lower body. 

Because of its lack of eccentric contractions, the sled is a great “extra” thing to throw in your training. Choose loads that are light and fast or slow and heavy in the style of a march. The two opposites provide a very different response but both are something we need. You can see tremendous changes in strength, endurance, and body composition from consistent sled work. The goal is to load it heavier and move it faster over time. Good things will happen!