How To Sled Pull for HYROX - A Biomechanical Breakdown

in this video we're going to be talking about the sled pool and everything you need to know about the sled pool whether you were in the open category Pro doubles male female I've got you covered now you will have to pull a heavy sled for 50 m which is broken down into four laps four lengths of 12.5 each time now females open category you'll be pulling 78 kilos including the weight of the sled females in the Pro you'll be pulling 103 kilos males in the open 103 kilos as well and male Pros 153 kilos like I said heavy ass weight you better make sure that you plan and prepare to pull your sled properly especially when the feedback from many highrock races is that the carpet and turf always bunches up making the sled pull feel way way harder than it is in training now just for some figures anyone who wants to be a good Level Pro or in that top Elite 15 you should be aiming to do this exercise in 3 to 3 and 1/2 minutes or less now for everybody else between 5 and 6 minutes seems to be what is the average time however I can assure you after this video you should be pulling it in the fours certainly sub five minutes now if you feel like those times are way out of your reach maybe you find a sled P very difficult maybe you're small you can't get leverage maybe small hand you don't have a good grip strength it's not the end of the world because the sled pole isn't an exercise that will win you the hro race however it can really mess up your overall time now I've heard horror stories of men in the Pro category doing it between 10 and 20 minutes and in some circumstances not even completing it but like I said don't worry I've got you covered in this video and stick around to the end cuz I've got some great exercises that if you do will have a fantastic transfer to the sled poool let's get into it one of the most important constraints with the sled pool is that you're dealing with the athlete box and it's 1.8 m long so we want to make sure that we utilize the whole Space so first up go to the front of the line reach as far forward as you can and grab the Rope now your grip Position will greatly depend on what you want to bias in the elbow flexors whether that's an underhand neutral or overhand grip we'll talk about about that a little bit later when we go into these specific exercises and your strengths and weaknesses so as much as we do want to utilize the legs on this exercise there will be a big contribution of the arms especially as you get to the back of the box and you get that sled closer to you now these ropes tend to have some elasticity to them they're about 12.5 M long 1 and 1/2 in thick with you're practicing make sure that you get a little bit exposure to this kind of rope you want to take the slack out of the Rope just like when you do a deadlift you take the slack out of the bar when you do deadlifts so that you don't put stress into the back and into the joints same thing here if we can take the slack out of the rope from early we're going to minimize the use of the elbows and the joints and we're going to maximize Energy Efficiency now some of you from this position will adopt a more hip dominant stance and some of you will adopt this lower body position stance now that greatly depends on your height it depends on your strengths and weaknesses do you prefer deadlifting hip dominant athlete or are you a good squatter can you squat nice and upright are you this strong quad dominant athlete this is how we go into the hip Drive which is the hip extension of extending the hips up to start that sled moving forward chest up high for me personally and then we extend and do the dry phase it's all about hip and leg power now when you're doing that hip extension that drive part of the movement some of you may want to bend your elbows don't do it that will not contribute at all to moving the sled and you're just going to put more stress on those elbows and muscles and shoulders which will put you at more risk of injury so when you are doing this hip extension long arms as if they are part of the Rope leaning back and driving the hips up when you drive and extend the hips up you need to lean the shoulders back so that your top position you're at a slight angle you do not want to squat the weight up that sled isn't going to move too far if you can apply Force diagonally into the ground toward where that sled is pretty much you're going to create a lot more distance and then you can start that next phase so before you start your backwards steps we want to end up in this leaning back position in relation to the floor once you get to that top position after the initial dry phase you then start stepping backwards with your feet have a little look over the shoulders and then that's one rep completed so we've gone straight arms we've taken a slack out the Rope we understand the drive the initial movement of the sled to get it going now we're talking about the backward steps now you have 1.8 m utilize the front all the way to the end that way you're going to have to do less reps and you can maintain more momentum because if you stop and have to go again trying to create momentum on that sled is going to be very very difficult now when you're taking your backwards steps it's really important that you do not step and have this wide stance as you are trying to drag the sled backwards you're putting yourself at a mechanical disadvantage keep your feet as underneath the hips as possible now I highly recommend keeping them in line with the hips or even a little bit closer closer as you sled drag backwards this is going to line up your foot ankle knee and hip to put you in a leveraged position now from the front to the back you should be taking anywhere between four to six steps let's see how many I get in here one two three four now one of the biggest problems I see done with the sled pull is that with the steps that people take their feet are turned out too much externally rotated and in some cases internally rotated now if that is you when you do any sled work you need to work on your hip rotators and your vmos which we'll talk about a little bit later a really good little tip is that when you are taking your backward steps make sure your toe is in line with the heel on every step toe in line with a heel toe in line with a heel toe in line with a heel this will just give you a reference point in terms of technique and position so that you know how many steps you need to take to go from the front to the rear of the box if you take shorter steps you're doing more reps and if you take longer steps you'll see that if I step right back my knees bending more which means my quads are going to fatigue way faster because the quads are having to work harder because more of the knee bends occurring now there are three things for these backward steps to be good they need to be strong efficient and fast in order for you to do that you have to train your knee extensors your quadriceps now there are four main quadriceps during that sled pole we are only bending our knee between 5 to 15° which means the muscle that works the most at those angles is the VMO the vastest medialis oblique which is the teardrop muscle right here which crosses that knee joint it provides stability and like I said that 10 to 15° of knee extension so you have to focus on getting that muscle strong efficient so that you can move that sled fast without fatigue if you're someone with weak knees if you get knee pain tendonitis issues or your knees collapse then it's certainly a muscle that you should try strengthening now a really important tip for when you're doing the sled pull is managing the Rope you do not want to be falling over it getting it under your feet cuz you're just going to get injured waste time and worst case scenario get penalized by the judges if it ends up in someone else's Grid or Square so manage the Rope when you're doing your backwards sled drags some people have it in between their legs but they may kick it and fall over here so I would recommend getting it out to the side in front of your foot really important so that it's not behind you as you do your sled drag as you get to the end of the box simply pull it over to one side and then there you have your position where you can start your sled drags again without the Rope there now if you're strong you have a strong upper body maybe you're competing in the open or doubles you may get away with using just the upper body when you do your Sledge rag now that's okay however I don't recommend it because you're going to waste so much more energy and strength in that upper body when you can just simply use the legs to get it done faster and conserve more energy so that's the technique of what I would recommend using on the sled pool let's get into some of those exercises that has transfer to helping you do that sled pool well first of all you'll need good grip strength and grip strength is very very specific just because you can lift a heavy ass deadlift weight doesn't mean you can pull a sled on a rope so get specific and do exactly that get exposure to pulling a sled at different loads different speeds different hand and grip positions maybe even do it standing seated kneeling and you could even spice up your training when you're doing your pull exercises by using rope and towels to do PS generally speaking as you get closer to your competition that's when the work gets more specific the further away you are from competition have a play try different things with your grip underhand overhand neutral grip standing seated play with different positions so you can build overall athleticism and pulling ability now as much as we want to utilize the legs when we do that sled pull we are going to use the biceps a little bit in different positions so it's worth pointing out that the biceps are the strongest muscle that crosses that elbow joint and those biceps will work hardest when the Palms are face up so if you have strong arms think about using an underhand grip when you do your sled pull when it comes to training the biceps from a fiber composition perspective 50 to 60% of the biceps are fast switched muscle fibers which means they're going to respond really well to heavy loads and fast explosive movements where the other 40 to 50% are slow twitch which means they'll respond to lighter loads and faster speeds point being vary the weight and Vary the speeds that you train in an underhand grip do bicep curls do rope pulls do vertical pulls do horizontal pulls with different hand grips now during your sled pull you may opt for a more neutral to overhand grip if you are going to move into this neutral or overhand grip you're going to be using different muscle groups the bicep has less leverage you're going to use the bracho radialis the brachialis and the pronat teris muscle now those muscles are usually very neglected with training and undertrained so if you do not train those muscle groups in a neutral and overhand grip in your prep for your hro race the chances are if you do that overhand grip when you sled pull and you're pulling a little bit you'll probably get injured exposure to those muscle groups in your prep is very important think about zman curls overhand grip curls overhand grip rows and pull-ups secondly after you've taken the slack out the bar to initiate the drive you need a strong pair of hips some of my athletes have used rack pulls from above the knee some of them have used rack PS from below the knee with a snatch grip conventional deadlifts trap bar deadlifts and all of those strong hip extension patterns that can make you strong one of my favorites is to use the zert to good morning because the good morning will strengthen the posterior chain while strengthening those elbows and biceps the key here is to develop a well-rounded posterior chain there's two muscles in the calves there's multiple hamstrings that Flex the knee and extend the hip train them all lower back glutes upper back and posture and actually going back to that lower back for me it's probably the most important thing when it comes to sport performance and hro performance because that lower back provides stability when we run when we do the sled work and every other station that you do in the higho games and lastly strengthen those knee flexors the quadriceps I mentioned earlier about those vmos being critical for sledg drags do sledg drags do back squats front squats paw squats quarter reps in the bottom quarter reps at the top do lots of split squat variations and ply metrics and guys of course do not forget about poster when you're doing your sled pool if your knees are collapsing in if your back is bending like a banana when you do your sled drag or you're using your arms and your shoulders too much you're creating what we call Energy leaks if you are just training high intensity all the time running all the time hro workouts all the time and neglecting your strength and accessory work the chances that you're going to get injured are very very high you need to create balance in your body and good posture so that you have structural balance during your H rock race you will be fatigued and under stress the brain will then tell the body from an acute perspective to create mechanical leverage at its easiest way possible if you you round your back it's essentially shortening the distance that you have to pull that sled right because you are mechanically shortening the moment arm and getting closer to it your body thinks that's right because it makes it easier but the risk of injury goes way way up if you let your knees collapse inward you're creating too much internal forces in the knees and hips too and if you bend your elbows and shrug too much when you're fatigued and using that sled you're going to blow out a bicep so in your preparation in your training plan make sure you practice good techniques because that is fundamental to success and efficiency to be honest there are many different exercise variations that you can use you just have to know what to use and when to use it based on your injuries strengths and weaknesses do you have good overhead range of motion to pull on the ski do you have the ability to get into the bottom of a squat so that when you do your W balls you're efficient do you need to develop aerobic power or capacity how about lactate threshold do you need to improve it or do you need to improve your ability to buffer that lactate once it's built up make sure you're not following a cookie cutter plan it's a recipe for the disaster you're either going to overtrain or get injured have a program and a plan that is built for you remember over 8 12 16 weeks of preparation that is not your race you have enough time to fix injuries to get strong to develop your weaknesses and to feel confident in the athlete that you should be and there you have it the sled pool thanks for watching please like And subscribe to the channel supposedly that helps with the algorithm so I can reach and help more people and if anyone would like online coaching specific for your individual needs there is a link in the descript description below fill out the form let's book a call and see if we're a good fit thanks for watching and see you on the next one

Channel: Steven Collins

Views: 4,263

Keywords: hyrox, sledpull

Id: a4q1hlmSQic

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024