Sled training

Vet Thrower

In Brian O'Driscoll's book he says that the gym exercise he got the most out of was sled sprints, which he did for strength and speed.

When doing them for strength, he would do 330kg :eek: for 5 sprints (not sure for what distance, but he mentioned a running track in the UCD gym). He said this was more than anyone else on the Irish team, and that Sean O'Brien was next best at about 280kg.

For speed, he would do about 30 sprints. I forget how much weight he used but it was over 100kg.

So what are good standards for lesser mortals - both sled pulling and sled pushing (prowler)?

I had a vague idea that a good standard for prowler sprints was your bodyweight for 10 trips in 10 minutes, where 1 trip is about 10m out and back.

Hanley

Literally impossible to say because it depends on the type of prowler, and the surface it's being pushed on.

On concrete, it's easier.

On astro turm, it's a bit tougher.

On any sort of rubber surface it ****ing sucks.

....and it's probably great for strength/endurance/maintenance if you've already built that base, but if you haven't then you can't beat the basics .

Just some observations

Alf Veedersane

I would have thought that it translates really well for rugby because you're driving into rucks, mauls etc in a not too dissimilar body position to pushing a prowler. And sled-pulling works well too.

But the benefits can depend on the sport you're training for. If you were a sprinter and you started adding too much resistance, it will change the sprinting technique and won't be much use from that point of view.

But for a Joe Soap that may not be in sports-specific training, the resistance will depends on quite a few variables, especially those that affect friction as Hanley pointed out, to know what is a good standard.

If you're puking your ring up at the end, you've done well

Oregano_State

I've started doing sled pulls for sprinting recently, specifically acceleration work. I've used 10kg as the weight, over a distance of about 20m. Alf is right in saying that if you were to put the weight up significantly it would really alter the mechanics. I can't imagine what I'd look like trying to sprint while dragging 100kg behind me. I don't think I'd be moving very fast anyway.

Gael23

I felt like vomiting the last time I did a 70kg pull which is just over my bodyweight!