Sled Workouts: Why You Should Be Doing Them

Did you know you can train your chest with the sled? Or did you think you could only push it? In fact, you can do a ton with sled workouts. While it’s the simplest piece of equipment in the gym, it possesses the most versatility and is often underutilized.  You can train your entire body if you know what to do. You can also train strength, power, speed, and even muscle growth. Anaerobic or aerobic training? Both. This article will lay out the best sled workouts to train your entire body.

Table of Contents

• The Sled
• What Type of Movements Can You Do on a Sled?
• Anaerobic Sled Workouts
• Sled Workouts
• Wrap Up

The Sled

Let’s briefly discuss the sled. 

The sled is a relatively simple piece of equipment. It generally consists of a large platform that sits on two skis that slide on the ground. Depending on the style, either one or both sides have vertical poles you can push. 

In addition, many styles allow the use of horizontal multi-height push bars. Finally, depending on the style, the sled will have either one or two poles to hold weight. In fact, some styles have a platform on which you can place sandbags or kettlebells.

Either way, a sled allows dynamic movements which a person can either push or pull on the ground. This makes it highly unique as no other piece of equipment in the gym can replicate this.

What Type Of Movements Can You Perform On A Sled?

We’ll review some of the different movements you can perform on a sled. Ultimately, these are exercises that train different parts of the body. 

Note that these terms aren’t always universal among all facilities or trainers. Words like “pull” or “drag” can be used differently among different people. Luckily, the exercise works the same regardless of what you call it, but just keep this in mind.

Sled Lower Body/Conditioning Exercises

The first group of exercises will be those that we traditionally think of when we think of sled exercises—well, at least most of them.

These exercises will be different variations of pushing and pulling that can be used to either;

• Strengthen the legs with heavy loads
• Improve conditioning with lighter or moderate loads

Sled Push 

The sled push is the classic sled exercise. A trainee gets behind the sled and then faces it, grabbing the handles. From here, you simply push the sled for the prescribed distance or time.

Now, there are several different variations that you can use. 

High Bar Vs. Low Bar

The first option is whether you want to push on a low or high bar.  

Pushing on the high bar (or high on the poles) is the most common way to perform the sled push. This position places your body around a 45-degree angle and actually allows you to use your body weight to push the sled. The high bar will allow you to push the maximum weight on the sled.

On the other hand, the low bar will place the body in a laid-out position. This position allows you to put the body in a horizontal position, so there’s virtually no way to use body weight to push the sled. Ultimately, this means just about all of the work is being performed by the legs.

Straight Arms Vs. Bent Arms Vs. Body Contact

The other option you have is how to press the sled. There are primarily 3 options you can use:

1. Straight arm – A straight arm works really well with light loads that you can push with speed. The stretched-out position allows longer strides.
2. Bent arm – A bent arm position works better for heavier loads. The straight arm can fatigue the chest and arms, while the bent allows the body to get tight on the bar. However, because the body is up to the bar, taking longer strides is harder. Therefore, it’s usually performed with smaller, short steps.
3. Body contact – Body contact is a relatively new style that has become popular with Hyrox. You stick your head between the poles so your shoulders come in contact. You then wrap your arms around the poles to help keep you tight. This is essentially a more extreme version of using bent arms and is used to push heavy loads fast.

These can be useful for training different physiological systems and performance adaptations. 

Forward Sled Drag

The next sled movement is the forward sled pull (drag), which is like resisting running. 

To perform this movement, you’ll need either a harness or belt. If you don’t have a specialized option, you can always attach a dip belt to the sled with a chain or rope.

Set up the harness belt so that it’s in front of the sled. Get into your harness/belt and run or walk with the sled. Depending on your goal, you can use either heavy or light loads.

Reverse Sled Drag 

For the reverse sled drag, you set up the sled in the same manner as the forward sled drag, but you’ll need to use a belt. Further, as you could probably guess, you turn around to face the sled. This means you will pull the sled backward with the belt around your waist.

Lean back into the belt so your body is angled backward. If you want, you can also hold onto the belt. From here, you’ll simply walk backward, pulling the sled. 

Unlike the forward pull, the reverse pull consists of repeated leg extensions. This makes it an awesome quad workout. Seriously, these can cause some serious burns.

Reverse Sled Pull

The reverse sled pull is similar to the reverse sled drag. However, you perform this by walking backward while holding onto handles. You can either attach some sort of handle system (TRX) or use rope. Sometimes, if necessary, we will wrap rope around the poles to shorten them and then hold each side as a handle.

From here, you walk back similarly to the drag. However, you’ll also be training your back and grip because you’re holding onto handles or ropes. If you use this version, be sure to pull with your scapula pulled back.

Sled Back Exercises

These are some of our favorite sled exercises. We’ll discuss different ways to utilize the sled in a manner that targets the back to build mass, strength, and power.

Sled Back Row

The sled back row is similar to the chest press as you use the sled as resistance. While the setup is similar to the power row when you perform the row, you do so without the hip extension or the explosive manner – it’s as if you’re doing a standing back row while using the sled as weight.

Rope Pull

To perform the hand-over-hand pull, you’ll first need to be able to attach a rope. If you can do that, you’re set.

Connect the rope to the sled and then lay out the rope. From here, you have two choices;

• Pull sitting down- Ideally, you can have a foot support to push against as you pull. This variation allows you to pull large amounts of weight and involve your lower back with hip extension.
• Pull standing up- Stand in an athletic stance with soft knees and an erect torso. Pull with a hand-over-hand method, reaching far with every grip.

Power Pulls 

A power pull is an explosive movement that combines powerful hip extension and a row. You set up the sled in the same manner as you would with the reverse sled drag. However, you must use the rope or a set of handles.

When you load the sled, use a relatively heavy weight. If it is too light, you can pull it into your shins.

Hold the handles so the rope is tight, and get into a ¼ squat position. You will then simultaneously perform a powerful row while performing hip extension – the movement is similar to a kettlebell swing or a Romanian deadlift. Consider pulling the sled as far as possible (using heavy weight) when you pull.

You’ll then back up until the rope is tight again and repeat for total distance.

Power pulls can be intense, especially multiple repeats. These are highly challenging on your anaerobic metabolic systems.

Sled Chest And Shoulder Exercises 

The next group of exercises is going to train your upper body pushing muscles, including your chest and shoulders. 

For some of these, you’ll need something similar to a TRX to hook to the sled. You can use two ropes if needed, but it’ll be more challenging (or fun!)

Sled Chest Press

The sled chest press involves performing what looks like a chest press on the sled. Therefore, to perform it, you need a sled with two poles or a high bar that allows you to do a chest press at chest level.

After loading up the sled, face it and grab the handles around chest level. Start the movement by getting your chest close to the poles with bent arms—think about it like the bottom position of the press. Stand with an offset stance, one foot in front of the other, and your torso as vertical as possible. You’ll then brace your core and press until your arms are fully locked out.

Sled Push Press 

These are pure strength exercises to give your upper body pushing muscles an intense workout. You’ll also give your lower body some love as well.

Sled push presses must be used with a heavy load, or you’ll fall over. Get up close behind the sled and grab the poles. Your starting position should have your knees and arms bent as you crouch behind the sled. 

Keep your feet planted when ready, and you’ll drive the sled forward by extending your legs and arms. Once fully extended, reset and go again.

Sled Isolation Exercises 

Yep, you can even do isolation exercises as long as ideally have a TRX setup. You could use a rope with two ends but this can be harder.

All of these will have you connect the TRX to the front of the sled and then use the weight for resistance.

Chest Fly

Stand in front of the sled and look away from it holding each TRX handle in a hand. Stand so the handles pull your arms back slightly, steady your feet. You’ll then perform a chest fly as normal. The ROM will be a bit smaller (and a bit unusual) so use light weight and go for reps. 

Reverse Fly 

Perform the reverse fly in the same manner. Look at the sled and hold the handles in each hand. Stand far enough back so your arms are pulled in front slightly. Keep a tight core and perform a reverse fly.

Bicep Curl

Stand in front of the sled and hold the handles with an underhand grip. Stand back so the strap is tight. Brace your core and perform a curl.

Overhead Triceps Extension 

Face away from the sled and hold the TRX handles in each hand above your head. Bring your elbows up as if you’re going to perform an overhead triceps extension while leaning forward. You’ll then extend your arms up over your head.

Front Lat Pulldown

Stand back from the sled while facing it. Hold the handles and stand back so your arms are drawn out in front of your body. Face your hands down and get in an athletic stance. Try to lean your torso as far over as possible. You’ll then pull your arms back towards your back (think of doing a freestyle stroke).

Anaerobic Sled Workouts

Before we get into some full sled workouts, we first want to lay out some rep schemes for single exercises. You could insert These simple sled workouts into any program to add some conditioning.

Ramping Sets (Anaerobic Strength)

Ramping workouts can be utilized with pretty much any of the above sled exercises. To perform these, you simply use multiple sets and increase the load every set — ramping up the load. 

Regarding sets, you can use any amount, but 5 is a good number. Your objective is to end with a near maximal load, so another method is to simply ramp up with a minimum of 5 sets until you hit your max, similar to finding a 1RM

EMOM (Anaerobic Conditioning)

EMOM stands for “every minute on the minute” and is a classic rep scheme to improve anaerobic conditioning.

These work best with all the exercises except the sled chest press and back row.

You can use either a 5-minute EMOM or a 10-minute EMOM, which serve slightly different purposes:

• 5-minute EMOM: These will utilize heavier loads, so they will be a bit more strength-based
• 10-minute EMOM: These work better with lighter loads and focus more on endurance.

Sled Chest Press And Back Row Super Set 

We love using these as a burnout set towards the end of an upper-body day. Theoretically, even if you perform the chest and back on opposite days, you could still use this sled workout as it won’t interfere too much.

Choose a weight that works for both of them. We want the switch to be fast, so don’t mess around with changing weights.

Start with the chest press and perform presses for the entire length. Once you reach the end, you’ll perform back rows until you get to the starting point. You’ll then immediately return with chest presses and repeat the entire process. 

Choosing a weight for this isn’t a science; we treat it as a burnout set or simply a volume builder. Ideally, you will stop reaching failure (not being able to complete the whole distance) by rounds 3-5. 

Sled Workouts

We’re now going to go over some simple sled workouts. Not all of these will work for everyone depending on the sled you have as well as your attachments.

Also, realize that not every sled is set up the same way. This means that you may need to make alterations to the workout. For example, some sleds let you hook up attachments or have poles on either side. Therefore, you can just perform one length, rest, and then perform another length. 

On the other hand, for some sleds, you may need to perform one length and then pull the sled back before you can perform another. For these, you may be better off performing supersets with exercises that complement each other.

Sled Strength Workout

For our strength, it’s generally easier to just use maximal weights along the length of your track. For each set, try to ramp up the weight so you find your max on the 5th set.

• Sled Power Row – 5 Lengths 
• Sled Push – 5 Lengths
• Sled Push Press – 5 Lengths
• Sled Reverse Drag – 5 Lengths
• Sled Chest Press + Back Row – 3 Lengths

Sled Superset Workout

This superset workout will alternate between a sled movement moving forward and one moving backward. You’ll get a bunch of work done fast with these. Again, depending on how your sled is set up, you may need to adjust.

• Sled Push Press + Sled Reverse Drag (Hold Handles) – 5 Lengths
• Sled Forward Drag + Sled Power Row – 5 Lengths
• Sled Reverse Drag + Sled Back Row – 5 Lengths
• Sled Chest Press + Low Bar Push – 5 Lengths

Volume/Muscle Growth Sled Workout 

This volume sled workout will use a variety of exercises that you’ll run through fairly quickly; you could even consider this a muscle growth workout. The only issue we have with that is it can be tough to know what weight to use and track for overload.

With that said, we’ll lay out a basic format that you can follow but the idea is to use a weight that has you approaching fatigue within the rep scheme or you can just use the length of your track.

When we do these, we generally will work through the exercises fairly quickly. To be clear, we are not rushing through the exercises. However, when we complete a set, we’ll take a quick breath, get the sled back in position, and perform another set. For many of the exercises, you’ll need to pull the sled back to get in position again, so you’re almost constantly moving. 

If you want, you could pair some of the exercises as a superset if it makes sense.

Obviously this is a full body workout so this can work great if you need to get in the gym and get a quick workout in. You’ll use quite a bit of exercises but for many, you’ll just do 2 sets.

Note we have a rep scheme. However, sometimes it’s easier to just use the length of your track. 

Single Use Of Sled Exercises

Finally, let’s not forget that you don’t need to use the sled for an entire workout. You can easily treat the sled exercises like regular exercises and insert them into a normal workout. In fact, this is how we normally use the sled.

For example, on back day, you can easily throw in some power pulls or sled back rows. On chest day, we like to do a burnout set with sled chest presses until failure.

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Sled Workouts: We Love Them!

We love sled workouts. Like, really love them. This can be either as a single exercise or an entire workout. As you can see, if you set up a TRX and a belt on one, you can perform a ton of exercises. It’s a unique stimulus to add to any workout just to mix things up a bit, training both your muscles and conditioning simultaneously. 

With that said, we do feel like their strongest benefit is for anaerobic conditioning. Nothing else in the gym can replicate pushing or dragging heavy weight. Therefore, this should have a significant role in your training. Either way, start throwing some sled work in your training for an awesome, strength building and calorie burning workout!