The Power Sled Workout

Power training is a great way for athletes and fitness enthusiasts to increase functional strength, conditioning and performance. Listed below is an in-depth power sled workout that you can incorporate into your fitness routine.

The Warm-up

Your warm-up should resemble your workout as closely as possible, but should increase your heart rate and warm your muscles and joints at the same time.  Spend at least five minutes with jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, and light jogging to raise your heart rate and warm the body.

The Workout

Bear Crawls. Pulling a weighted sled with a strap around your shoulders while mimicking a bear crawl is a great way to start your workout.  Start out with a distance of about 100 meters, going as fast as you can.

Sled Dragging. Following the bear crawls, you should unstrap the shoulders, grab a hold of the straps with your hands, and begin to back pedal back to your starting point.  It will be pretty tough about mid-point of the sled drags, but keep a consistent pace throughout.  You will traverse over a distance of about 100 meters.

Chest Press. Your task is to use your straps to perform a standing chest press.  Perform one rep and the sled moves close to you.  You will then step forward and perform another rep.  Complete enough chest presses so that you travel a distance of 50 meters.

Standing Rows. Keeping the same premise as the exercise before, your task is to complete standing rows over the distance of 50 meters to where you started.  The best way to move the sled is to use power in your trapezius and rhomboids.  This will enable the sled to gain enough momentum to travel a great distance; otherwise you will need to perform double the reps to reach the distance.

Wood Chopping. Use the straps on the sled to prepare for this exercise.  You should be in front of your weighted sled and the sled should be at one of your sides.  Bring arms straight out in front of your body and perform some horizontal wood chopping to work your abs and obliques.  Perform about 50 meters of the wood chops, as you did with the exercises before.  Switch sides and return back to where you started to work the other side of your body.

Pull Through Sled Drags. This exercise will mimic a kettlebell swing in that you will pull the sled handles through your legs from a crouched position, as shown here.  You will want to keep your glutes down as much as possible during the exercise and explode the sled towards your body.  Pull the sled over the distance of about 50 meters for a thigh toning and leg strengthening exercise.

Sprints.  Sprinting will be the best aspect of your power workout.  Go all out, over the original distance of 100 meters.  Yes, this will be a hard exercise and will challenge your cardio, but you will be adding incredible power into your legs and thighs.  Run the 100 meters distance, take a 90 second rest, and complete another rep back to your starting point.

Repeat.  You made it this far; great job.  Now it is time for one more set.  Repeat this workout one more time for a second set for a power building workout.

Stretch.  You will want to perform range of motion activities and light stretches following your workout.  Stretch each major muscle group for 30 seconds each muscle/group and perform two sets each.

Disclaimer: The workout you are about to witness is high-intensity in nature and caution should be used prior to completing the entire prescribed workout.  Be sure to consult with your physician if your body is not accustomed to such a workout and as always, have fun.

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