Dragging the Line: Power-Mass-Speed Development by Sled Pulling

Robb Rogers, M.Ed., CSCS

All athletes need fitness, strength, power, speed and endurance (or work capacity) to some degree.  Whether you are a body builder looking for another way to add mass, a power lifter searching for that new total, a sprinter looking for more speed endurance, or a team sport athlete looking for a little more acceleration and quickness, dragging a sled can be a fun and different way to train these qualities.

One of the earliest modes of moving loads has come back into vogue as a low tech lower body strength, power, and mass developer.  Using a weighted sled and a harness to pull loads is a strong component of “dinosaur” or throwback training.  All athletes need to move.  Excluding sport techniques and tactics, the faster athlete with more mass and greater fitness will come out on top.  As Bill Parcells said “You can have all those little quick guys. I’ve never seen a big guy get little in the fourth quarter.”

Sled dragging is an excellent training method to increase size, add power, enhance endurance and build functional strength.  Depending on whether you use a shoulder harness or a waist harness (which is closer to the center of gravity) you can load or unload the athlete through their core.  Depending on the load and technique you can train speed, strength or power.  The distance (or time) of the pull can also be prescribed for speed, power or endurance.  The direction the puller faces can change the stress on the lower body from the glutes and hamstrings to the quads.    

The qualities that all athletes need can be trained with the sled.   Everyone needs fitness.  Fitness is the foundation upon which all other qualities are based. The longer you can pull, the heavier the load, the faster you can move are all qualities of fitness.  Fitness is trained using good quality reps and adequate recovery.  Strength is the pillar of the fitness pyramid.  Without strength, power and speed are impossible.  According to Vern Gambetta, one of the foremost authorities on conditioning the more load you can absorb (eccentric strength) the more force you can produce (concentric strength).  Strength training is the catalyst used to create power and speed.  Strength training also consists of quality reps and adequate recovery. Power is the frame of the pyramid.  Power ties strength and speed together.  Power is usually thought of as the ability to move the body faster (acceleration), higher (jumping) or moving an implement quicker (bat speed) or farther (shot put).  Power training is high quality reps with extended recovery time.  Speed is the top of the pyramid.  Speed is the icing on the cake.  Speed can only be trained when the athlete is fit, strong and has developed a good power base.  Speed is also high quality reps and extended recovery.  Work capacity (or endurance) according to Gambetta is the ability to tolerate a workload and recover sufficiently in order to perform adequately for the next work bout.  Work capacity may be simple endurance such as how far (two and one half hour marathon) or how long (max rep pull-ups) you can perform.  A more complex example of work capacity is exhibited in a tennis match when the athlete is able to perform high quality, agility-mobility movements many times with only a relatively short recovery bout over the course of a two and one half hour match.

The sled can be used pulling for distance or multiple reps, either of which will enhance fitness.  The load will be moderate and the movements will be anything from a fast walk to a run.  For strength, I would defer to Louis Simmons of Westside Barbell, a true guru of strength development.  Louis coaches his athletes to load maximal loads onto the sled and power walk them for moderate distances. Power walking with heavy loads is functional in movement or what the Russian literature refers to as “Special Strength”.  Special strength is strength training that involves a normal movement (such as walking or running) or a sport technique (such as jumping or throwing) upon which a load is added in order to increase the strength needed to execute the movement.  The load can be very heavy (as in the case of power walking) or needs to be very light so as not to change the technique needed to execute the skill/movement.  In most skill drills or power movements the 10% rule needs to be in effect.  Once again citing Vern Gambetta, only 10% of bodyweight needs to be added to the sled when sprinting in order to not change the mechanics involved in sprinting/acceleration.  For power development the sled can be pulled from a dead stop up to full speed. For speed development the sled will need to be pulled for an additional 20 – 80 meters.  For speed endurance, the sled will need to be pulled up to 100 – 150 meters.  In order to change the stress on the body and develop other skills and movements the orientation of the body will play a major role.  If you turn and walk backwards or backpedal, then the quads will become the dominant muscle group used to propel you down the field.  If you turn sideways and shuffle, crossover or carioca, then the lateral musculature (gluteus medius, vastus lateralis and the adductors) will receive more stress than when going forward or backward.  I prefer to load my athletes at the waist, closer to their center of gravity, in order to teach them to move by propelling the pelvis/hips rather than leaning/falling into movements and leading with the head.

For athletes and coaches that do not have easy access to hills and ramps the sled is a perfect way to create resisted movements for the lower body without loading the spine.  Your imagination is the limit as you design drills, workouts and challenges for your athletes using the sled. 

How to drag a sled

I prefer to load at the waist in order to teach the athlete to drive movements from the hip/pelvis.  If you load at the shoulder with a shoulder harness, then the load is through the spine/core but the movement is initiated by leading with the head/shoulders.  If you push the sled with your hands then the athlete is usually extremely bent over at the waist.  This creates a lot of mechanical stress on the diaphragm and can cause the heavier/thicker athletes problems with their breathing. 

Strength

Power walking – For beginners, load the sled with a load about equal with the bodyweight of the athletes.  Coaching point – with these heavy loads it is critical that the athletes plant the full foot on the ground and push through the heel with each step.  If they try to push off of the forefoot, then the arch is at risk.  Big arm swings, rhythmic steps and use the glutes to drive through the heels for 50 – 100 yards.  If you turn the body to go backwards or sideways then I usually pull off 1 plate (25 kgs) in order to accommodate the weaker movements/musculature. 

Power/Speed/Endurance

Acceleration/sprinting – Load 10% of the athletes weight (fat free weight with the bigger athletes) onto the sled.  Have the athlete use the normal techniques for stance (two point, three point, four point), starts (lead step, crossover step, etc.), and emphasize sprinting mechanics.  Remember you are attempting to develop acceleration power and sprinting speed/endurance so it is best to utilize maximal rest intervals between each work bout.  The starts are short (up to 20 – 30 meters), the sprints are longer (up to 80 meters) and the endurance training is the longest (up to 150 meters).   Each rest bout should be a minimum of 3:00 up to 5:00 minutes to ensure quality efforts in each work bout.  It works best if you put the athletes in groups of three per sled so they can pull from one end to the other and switch.  Mike Boyle, the director of Performance for Athletes Performance located at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles has used loads of up to 300 pounds and had his athletes sprint 20 – 50 yards up to 5 reps for power acceleration.  High level athletes with years of training can withstand high level training   

Work Capacity

According to Tudor Bompa - Flexibility improves from day to day, strength week to week, speed is month to month and work capacity is developed from year to year.  Workouts that leave beginners bent over the trashcan are easy for the veterans in the group.  The key concept to understand is what type of work capacity are you targeting with the sled.  Do the athletes need strength, power, speed, and endurance or work capacity?  You get what you train.  If you need more speed/quickness, do not expect to develop it with long slow pulls.  Improving work capacity is relatively easy.  Just do more work.  More reps and more sets will improve the capacity to do work.  The quality of the work will determine the quality of the training response. If the rest periods are slightly restricted, say from 5:00 minutes to 4:45, then 4:30, then over time you can increase the ability to recover, a slightly different type of increase in work capacity.      

Incorporating Sled Dragging into your Training.

In training our athletes we emphasize different qualities on different days. 

For example:

Monday         Tuesday        Wednesday              Thursday      Friday

Speed            Power            Recovery                  Strength        Work Capacity

Assisted         Resisted         Games                       Resisted         No Sled Work

Pulls                Pulls                                                    Pulls                Circuits

Tubing            Sled                                                    Sled

Pull                  Pull                                                      Pull

Starts &          Starts                                                  Sprints &

Sprints                                                                        Power Walks

Assist             Resist                                                 Resist

Up to               Up to                                                   Up to

103-106%      10-15%                                              Max

Top Speed     Bodyweight                                        Load

I have found that prescribing training programs in this format creates the best return on my athletes’ time and effort invested.  They are best rested (hopefully) on Monday for the speed training. Tuesday is power/acceleration drills and following that day with a recovery day on Wednesday helps the athletes to be eager to heavy and hard on Thursday.  After Thursday we go light (bodyweight up to 10 – 15% of bodyweight) and get a lot of work done in a short amount of time.  

Types of lifts done in the weight room following the sled pulls.

Mon                Tue                 Wed                            Thu                 Fri

Snatch            Clean              off                                Squats            Bodyweight

Plyos               Jerks                                                   Dead lifts        or DB

                         Pulls                                                                            Circuits

These lifts are only the some of the lower or total body lifts prescribed.  Some of the other leg lifts I might assign are as follows:

Mon                Tue                 Wed                Thu                 Fri

3 way              Single Leg     Off                   3 way              DB Super

Lunges            Squats                                   Balance          Circuits

                                                                        Sqts                With Lots

                                                                                                Of Legs

3 way              High Box                                Box                 -Lunges

Step – ups     Step – ups                             Balance          -Step - ups

                                                                        Squats            -Squat jumps

                                                                                                -Split jumps

The upper body lifts are cycled in as they best fit.  For instance:

Mon                Tue                 Wed                Thu                 Fri

Bench             Shoulder         Off                   Incline             DB Circuits

Press              Press                                      Press              -Push – ups

DB Incline       Shoulder                                 DB Bench

Press              Press                                      Press

Triceps           Dips                                        DB Floor

Extensions                                                     Bench Press

Pull – Ups       Lat Pulls                                 Rows

Lat – Pulls      Inverted                                   Pull – Ups

                        Pull – Ups

This is an example of a four-day split routine for someone preparing for a speed strength sport such as football or rugby. 

References

Bompa, T., “Theory and Methodology of Training.”  Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1983

Boyle, M., Personal Conversation, Chicago IL 2004

Faccioni, A., ”Assisted and Resisted Methods for Speed Development: Part 2”.

Modern Athlete and Coach 32:8-12, 1994

Gambetta, V., “Building and Rebuilding the Athlete Seminar” Chicago IL, 1992

Lockie, R.G., A.J., Murphy, and C.D. Spinks.  “Effects of Resisted Sled Towing on Sprint Kinematics in Field-Sport Athletics”. J. Strength and Conditioning Res.  17(4): 760-767. 2003

Parcells, B., Personal Conversation at New England Patriots, Foxboro MA 1994

Simmons, L., “Dead Lift Training”, “Overcoming Plateaus”, www.westside-barbell.com 2004

Zatsiorsky, V., “Science and Practice of Strength Training” Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishing, 1995

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