Athlete or Not, Everyone Should Be Pushing Heavy Sleds

Athlete or not, everyone should be pushing heavy sleds. Here’s why:⁣ ⁣

For athletes: heavy sled pushes are a direct builder of speed, single-leg strength, and power - all at specific joint angles.⁣ Pushing a heavy sled teaches athletes to exert maximal force into the ground at a 45-ish degree body angle, a position that mimics optimal posture during acceleration. This can be a game-changer for building single-leg strength at sprint-specific angles, increasing the amount and rate of force production into the ground, and reinforcing knee drive and hip separation.⁣ ⁣

For non-athletes: sled pushes are one of the best lower body exercises for strength, hypertrophy, and conditioning. They involve actual movement through space, are essentially eccentric-less, and serve as a unique unilateral exercise.

Here’s how to use them:⁣ for strength, packing on the plates and going for short distances is unparalleled for building pure single-leg strength and power. For hypertrophy, longer duration sled pushes can build up your glutes, hamstrings, and quads by imposing a brutal amount of time under tension. As for conditioning, let’s be honest: no matter the weight or distance, sled work is guaranteed to spike your heart rate through the roof.⁣ ⁣

As an added bonus, sled work is extremely joint-friendly as it’s 1) great for individuals with back issues who can’t tolerate much spinal loading, and 2) typically tolerated extremely well by individuals with bum knees, as it’s easy to manipulate the amount of knee flexion and find a pain-free sweet spot. Moreover, there’s hardly any eccentric, which means sled work can be performed more frequently without much soreness. This makes it useful for individuals who want to train their legs more frequently, or for in-season athletes who can’t afford to be sore.⁣