Written by Shane Mclean | ACE CPT
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
You’ve probably seen people at the gym pushing and pulling a sled (also called a prowler sled). They push and pull the sled up and down the turf at the gym, and then collapse. If you’re unfortunate enough, you may witness someone suffer a bout of the prowler flu. If you haven’t seen or experienced this before, we’ll leave it up to your imagination. Trust us, it’s not pretty. That's because sled push and pull exercises are hard work, but with that comes a lot of benefits.
The basic sled push and pull exercise is very simple to perform, but (depending on the load) it's not easy. All you have to do is load the sled, then either push or pull it for a certain distance. It's brute strength-type work that's great for improving conditioning, joint-friendly muscle development, and mental toughness.
This article will cover:
- What sled pushes and pulls are
- How to do sled pushes & sled pulls
- Muscles worked with sled pushes & sled pulls
- The benefits of sled pull and push exercises
- Programming tips
- Various other exercises using a sled
WHAT ARE SLED PUSHES AND PULLS?
The sled push involves pushing a prowler sled forward for distance or time. All you have to do is grab hold of the vertical handles and push. It's commonly performed on artificial turf or any other slick surface. Generally speaking, it's a great exercise to build powerful legs in a manner that's easy on the knees. There are also many other benefits of doing sled pushes. It is compound exercise that will improve your anaerobic capacity, explosive power, and mental toughness. You can add weights to the sled and adjust your body's position to help achieve both aesthetic and performance goals.
The sled pull has you pulling the weighted sled. You can do this walking backward or forward with a pulling strap and belt attached (or just a rope that you hold onto), or you can simply hold onto the handles and pull while walking backward. Where the sled push is more anterior muscle focused, the sled pull is more posterior chain focused. As with the sled push, it's a strength-based cardio exercise that's easy on the joints and will have you breathing hard and heavy.
HOW TO DO THE SLED PUSH:
- Load a prowler sled and stand facing it at arm’s length.
- Grip each bar with one hand either with your arms straight or elbows flexed.
- Hinge at the waist keeping your spine neutral and your chest/head up.
- Drive your feet into the floor to push the sled forward.
- Place one foot in front of the other in a run or sprint.
- Rest and repeat.
HOW TO DO THE SLED PULL:
There are different attachments for sled pulls. The most common are straps with handles or a strap with a belt that allows you to pull hands-free. Assuming you want to incorporate upper body and lower body strength at the same time, we will describe the sled pull using the former.
- Load the sled and attach the straps to the base of the sled (there should be a designated attachment point).
- Face the sled, grab the handles of the straps in each hand, then pull the straps taut.
- From here, you have a few options for how you can pull:
a) Simply pull walking backward with your arms extended and torso upright (this is the standard sled pull, as is the sled pull walking backward with the belt attachment).
b) Walking backward with arms extended and upper body leaning forward in an athletic stance.
c) Using your arms and back, pull the sled powerfully in toward you. This will create slack in the straps so you can walk backward, then pull again. With each rep, you'll take a few steps back until the straps are taut, then pull. You can also do this with a squat and reverse lunge format - squatting/lunging down and up, pulling the straps, walking backwards a few steps, and repeating.
MUSCLES TRAINED IN THE SLED PUSH:
The sled push emphasizes the lower body, but there are a few upper body muscles trained which makes it a full-body strengthening exercise.
- Quadriceps: When you’re pushing with your body leaned forward, the quads are trained through hip flexion and knee extension. The quads are the main driver of the sled push.
- Glutes/Hamstrings: You get a lot of the power from the sled push by powerfully extending the hips, and this occurs thanks to your glutes and hamstrings. The glutes and hamstrings are also primary muscles for the sled push.
- Adductors: Your adductors are involved in flexing the hip and stabilizing the knee when your foot hits the ground.
- Calves: When walking forward, your gastrocnemius (posterior calf muscle) does all the work in terms of the calves.
- Abs/core: Keeping the mid-section stable allows the bigger lower body/upper body muscles do to their job.
- Hip flexors: Bring the knees up towards your torso to help preload your quads and glutes to propel yourself forward at speed.
- Chest, Shoulder, And Triceps: Contract isometrically to stabilize the upper body as you push the sled forward.
MUSCLES TRAINED IN SLED PULL:
The standard sled pull is mainly a lower body exercise, but it emphasizes the posterior chain more (if pulling while stepping backward). That said, if you are doing a sled pull variation that involves pulling the sled toward you with your arms, your upper body pulling muscles will be the main driver.
Based on the standard sled pull that has you walking backward with your arms extended, or using a belt attachment, the primary muscles worked are your:
- Hamstrings: When walking backward, your hamstrings are flexing your knee and extending your thighs and hips. So, with backward pulls, the hamstrings are the primary target.
- Glutes: Your glutes will stabilize your hips and core and help to extend your hips as you walk backward. The glutes are also a primary focus with sled pulls.
- Quads: Your quads stabilize and extend your knee during sled pulls. The quads will be activated to a higher degree with forward walking sled pulls using a belt attachment (sled is behind you)
- Calves: When walking backward, you move your foot back rolling from your toes to the heel, which works the anterior tibialis (shin muscle). gastrocnemius (posterior calf muscle) does all the work in terms of the calves.
- Anterior Core/Erector Spinae: Stops you from excessively rotating from side to side to allow the bigger muscles to do their job.
- Forearms/Biceps/Back: Your forearms will work to grip the straps as you walk backward with the heavy load. As for your other upper body pulling muscles, they will work isometrically to stabilize everything. However, if you are actually pulling the sled through arm flexion, then your upper body pulling muscles (biceps and back) will work isotonically (stretching/contraction).
BENEFITS OF THE SLED PUSH AND PULL:
These two exercises do not tickle and will have you feeling the burn from the get-go. But they offer a great many benefits for all fitness levels and ages.
1. Adaptability To All Fitness Levels & Ages:
The sled push is adaptable from beginner to advanced levels, and young to old trainees. There is nothing complex about pushing or pulling the sled as it is a natural human movement that’s simple to perform. To make it harder, all you have to do is add more weight.
2. Strengthens Knees & Joint-Friendly:
There are three different types of muscle contractions - concentric (shortening), eccentric (lengthening), and isometric (force but no movement). The eccentric is where most of the muscular damage and force happens. The sled push and pull are mainly concentric muscle actions, which helps take stress off the joints.
For older people and those with bad knees, sled pushes and pulls are particularly beneficial as they are easy on the knee joint. You can build muscle and strengthen the lower body in essentially a risk free manner.
Think about it, the sled doesn't move you, you move the sled! It's not like squats where you have a load bearing down on you.
And not only is it good if you have bad knees, but it will actually make your knees way stronger! This makes it an awesome exercise for athletes, heavy lifters, and seniors alike.
By the way, backward sled pulls are the best for making your knees stronger.
All in all, if lunges, squats, and single-leg work hurt your knees, sled pushes and pulls are truly the best alternative for building lower body muscle mass and strength.
3. Total Body Strength & Conditioning Workout:
Not only will the bigger muscles of the legs, back, chest and core are trained but your lung capacity is too. Because these movements are a hybrid between strength and cardio, they will improve your strength and conditioning.
4. Improved Power, Strength, And Muscle:
To push or pull a heavy load requires power and strength. And with the sled, you can easily progress by adding more load, increasing the distance or time, and doing more sets. Over time, your strength, power and muscle mass will increase tenfold.
5. Improved Speed and Acceleration:
When it is your goal to improve speed, quickness, and acceleration, the sled is a very useful tool to improve these capabilities. Athletes and runners can develop serious speed and quickness specific to running and sprinting with sled pulls and pushes when varying load and distance. If you can run fast when pushing or pulling a load, imagine how fast you will run without it.
Of course, sled pushes are also hugely beneficial for athletes like offensive and defensive linemen. It doesn't take a Masters in Exercise Science to put two and two together on this one.
6. Lower Chance of Injury:
Because you are moving the sled, not the sled moving you (or bearing down on your joints), it's a lot easier on your joints and you’re much less likely to get hurt when performing these exercises. No bailing necessary. If something hurts, you just stop! Sled pushes and pulls are straightforward and low-risk exercises for almost all fitness levels.
7. Increased Calorie Burn:
The sled push and pull tests your anaerobic fitness like never before. And because your body has to play catch up to get more oxygen into your body when you’re recovering, this means increased calorie burn for you.
8. Grip Strength:
Gripping a heavy sled for extended periods of time will improve your grip strength and endurance. Make no mistake.
Now that you know some of the amazing benefits sleds can provide you might be thinking about purchasing one. Check out our post that covers the Best Weight Sleds on the market.
PROGRAMING SUGGESTIONS:
The sled is a great tool to improve your power, strength, and conditioning in a joint-friendly manner. Here are programming suggestions to get the best out of your sled training.
Note: When you’re unsure of load, make note of how fast you push it. If you feel slow, lighten the load accordingly. If it feels it's too easy, add load.
- Power: Put at least your body weight or a little less on the sled and push as fast as you can for 25-40 yards. Rest one to two minutes and repeat up to 5 times.
- Endurance: Put a light load on the sled around 25-50% of your body weight and push the sled forward at around half of your usual all-out speed. Rest for one to two minutes and repeat eight to 10 times.
- Speed: Use a load of around 10-25% of your body weight and go all out 100% for 20 yards. Rest for at least two minutes and repeat five times.
- Warm Up: Do several sets of both pushes and pulls as a warm up. Around 10 minutes of total time is enough and will definitely prime your knees for the workout to come.
- Finisher: If you want a fat burning finisher, do around 5-10 minutes of sled pushes and pulls with very minimal rest.
Tips:
- Take it easy: If you’re new to these moves begin with a lighter load and do no more than three times a week. When the sled load begins to feel easier, it’s time to add load.
- Vary Your Load And Distance: Switch up your load, distance, and when you do it to avoid boredom, overuse injuries, and to maximize the benefits of the sled push and pull.
- Knee Strength: If building up knee strength is important to you, do two times the amount of sled pulls walking backward as you do sled pushes.
More Sled Exercises & Variations:
Backward Sled Push:
Sled Drags:
Lateral Sled Pulls:
Bent Over Sled Pulls:
WRAPPING UP:
A power sled is a great tool that can be used by all training levels to improve so many areas of health and fitness. It is simple to use, doesn’t require any specialized instruction, and is easier on your joints than other strength tools. We highly recommend adding it into your training routine - ASAP.
Related: Unconventional Leg Workout with Sled Work by IFBB Pro Terrance Ruffin
Shane Mclean
Author