Slosh Sled Dragging: Advanced Chaotic Sled Dragging

With the popularity of sled dragging and prowler pushing over the last several years, it becomes necessary to look at more advanced applications for our athletes to continue to evolve. Where the Prowler’s main function is anaerobic alactic/anaerobic lactic metabolic training, sled dragging has primarily been used as a restorative means.

Let’s first look at when and why we use sled dragging in our programs.

Benefits of Sled Dragging

-       Increased level of conditioning and muscular endurance (general physical preparedness or GPP).

-       Increased kinetic segment and joint stability

-       Decrease DOMS or delayed onset of muscle soreness

-       Increase or speed up recovery from heavy or high volume training sessions

-       Concentric only training for rehabilitative purposes

When to Use Sled Dragging

-       Before your workout as part of your warm-up

-       After your workout as part of your recovery or rehab

-       On an “off” day to speed recovery and restoration, and

-       During the workout as a supplemental general strength training means (for the application in this article)

In my opinion we’ve only just begun to explore the many opportunities that sled dragging can provide to help develop our athletes. My earliest recollection of the use of sled dragging was from Westside videos, Q/A and articles discussing the benefits of sled dragging and how they utilized it in their powerlifting protocol. As the Westside protocol became more popular, so did their techniques and exercises.

You can now see sled dragging in most athletic training facilities and warehouse gyms used as a “finisher.”

Now, most coaches apply sled dragging linearly and in predictable patterns; i.e. forward, backward, lateral and even rotational.  This is fine when we are focusing on recovery, but if we hope to broaden the adaptations to sport specificity, we must get innovative and think “outside the box.”

I wrote the Chaos Manual in 2005 to address this very issue, bridging the gap between strength training and sports performance (GPP=>SPP); because in all essence, strength training is GPP for sport events.  Read more about the Chaos Theory here.

After we started utilizing a tire with the sled for backward and rotational dragging, I had another idea, something bigger and really cool.

Breaking Ankles

While the majority of strength training is linear and predictable (strength training movement patterns; horizontal push/pull, vertical push/pull, hip dominant, quad dominant and rotation), sports are not.  In fact they are chaotic.  The movements are random and cannot be predicted.

Agility drills, jump training, plyometrics and actual practice can start to prepare our athletes for the high intensity demands of the sport.  But what about a sled dragging technique that allows greater articulations of the lower kinetic segments with an extended time under tension (TUT)?

Slosh Sled Dragging

After studying the movements of football players and basketball players, I had an epiphany one night.  This was the inspiration for slosh sled dragging.

Notice the athlete’s posture; the torso, the hips, the knees and the ankles.  Each leg drive is different and each position is non-advantageous. We know that our ability to generate force and power changes drastically dependent upon the joint angles of the engaged segments. Because of the tempo and duration of the concentric, eccentric and isometric contractions in this unique exercise, we are able to develop real-world strength and stability in these non-advantageous positions. This will provide our athletes with an amazing foundation of strength and stability required for more high intensity means such as the sporting event, practice and plyometrics.

As a side note, we also found it better to break each single run up by repeatedly switching from side to side instead of doing one run on the left side and one run on the right side.

Alternatives to Sled Dragging (in a Commercial Gym)

Now you’re probably saying “Smitty, these non-linear sled drags sound fantastic, but my gym doesn’t have a sled and I’ve never even tried even the most basic variations.” Have no fear.  Plate pushes are a great alternative to sled dragging and can be done anywhere in place of boring treadmill running… Thanks Mark Young.

Place a 45 or 100 pound Olympic plate on the gym floor with the smooth side facing down.  Get into a low athletic stance with your hands on top of the plate, approximately in the middle of the plate. Drive forward pushing the plate across the floor. Don’t be fooled, this is highly metabolic and will jack up your heart rate very quickly.  Try several runs with minimal rest (30-60 sec) between runs.

Chaos Sled Dragging Video

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