Sled Training Strategies for the Backcountry Athlete & Beyond
This month I want to provide some training tips and strategies for the backcountry athlete and beyond, as we take a dive into the benefits of resisted sled training. A simple to use, but not always easy, and highly effective piece of training equipment that doesn’t break the bank, doesn’t require a gym membership and provides a ton of transfer to backcountry athletics. At our training facility here in VT our sleds see more use than any other piece of equipment we have in the gym. This holds true for every population of athletes we train from our kids and middle school camps (ages 6-14) working to create and understand full body tension and force production, to our more competitive HS and college athletes training for speed and power, to our adult athlete populations who just want to be more durable and prepared for the sport of life.
Backcountry athletes who are training for the ups and downs of adventures in the mountains will find a ton of value in resisted sled training, here’s 10 reasons you should start implementing them in your training today!
1. Sled training is a super safe way to load the entire kinetic chain with very little orthopedic cost. In 20 years of training athletes with sleds I can’t think of an injury that we’ve seen while using them.
2. You can scale the intensity easily (increase the load or difficulty) and with very little risk. If you try to do the same thing with other lower body strength movements such as a Back Squat or a Deadlift, the orthopedic cost and risk of joint or spinal injury goes up considerably.
3. It allows you to train the anterior chain, the posterior chain, the trunk/core, shoulder stability, grip strength and foot and ankle strength/stability from the same sled.
4. They provide a lot of transfer of training to your sport or activities in the mountains. That means that the positions you are in while pushing or pulling a loaded sled require force application and force acceptance (accel and decel) in positions very similar to running, and hiking uphill and also downhill.
5. They train your grip strength and shoulder stability as you drag or push a heavy object and create tension throughout the kinetic chain, from the bottom to the top.
6. The force vectors can be more knee, hip and spine friendly than loaded lunges, squats, split squats and step ups for those coming back from injuries/surgeries. Or if you’re just banged up physically and heavy loads with compression such as squats, deadlifts, lunges carry too much orthopedic cost. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze!
7. It’s a unilateral strength movement, (single leg force application) allowing for greater transfer to your sport(s) that are happening on 1 leg at a time. This is essentially every sport or activity outside of powerlifting or olympic lifting.
8. They train the plantar fascia, achilles and calf to handle heavy loads and greater forces to help prevent ankle sprains, achilles tendinitis, calf strains and plantar fasciitis.
9. It’s cheap! When I train from my home I use a super affordable “Jet Sled” for resisted sled work. We incorporate these into our team training programs quite often.
10. It’s a really effective tool for training the full spectrum of strength. Ex: Muscular endurance = lighter loads and longer duration sets/distances for improving your strength
Adrian Guyer CSCS, RSCC, NSCA CPT, USAW2, CSAC is a full time strength and conditioning coach and owner/founder of XIP Training Systems and Ridgeline Athlete. He and his staff have worked with thousands of athletes from almost every conventional sport and also outside the lines in backcountry athletics. Adrian’s passion and success in backcountry hunting allow for an in the trenches approach to designing more effective backcountry training programs that transfer to the demands of backcountry hunting.