Sled Workouts For Mountaineers

In this episode, I explore sled training for mountainers and share five different workout approaches that I quite like for mountaineers with this type of equipment.

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode,

[0:03] we are talking a little bit about sled training for mountaineers. And we're going to be talking through a few different ways of utilizing this piece of equipment to incorporate in your training to help you in the mountains. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, sled training is kind of as simple as it sounds. A lot of gyms these days will have a weight sled where it's literally just a sled, which you put on weight, which you can push or pull up and down the gym. A lot of mountaineers will have sort of have seen people pulling sleds outdoors and loading up a sled, putting on a harness and pulling around an oval or whatever it may be. And that's kind of what we're talking about today.

[0:42] Now, a lot of mountaineers who have an expedition, which requires this type of thing, may be familiar with this type of training. In the sense, if you're going to go do something like Denali, where you literally have to carry a sled probably in your training you've considered using a sled as your training because you want to be doing that but even beyond mountaineers who specifically have to prepare for this type of thing any mountaineer regardless of their expedition this type of training can be really really useful it's a very very versatile piece of kit it's a very very useful piece of equipment and you can expose the body to a lot of different challenges and a lot of different things using this. So the idea for today is just to explore, I think we're going to be talking about six, five different ways of using the sled, which I use with my mountaineers in different situations to give you a few different options on how you can incorporate this into your training.

[1:35] Now, with that being said, let's get into it. The first type of training with the sled I want to talk about is probably the most simple approach, but it's doing a long, steady cardio session with the sled. Now, typically when we're talking about longer cardio for mountaineers, we talk about running, hiking, cycling, or whatever may be. And that stuff is definitely good for the most part. But sometimes we need a bit of variation. sometimes we need something just a little bit different and the sled can be quite useful if we're doing something that's sort of medium distance if we're doing a cardio session which like 45 minutes an hour maybe up to 90 minutes if you're really brave this can be a really good option now essentially what you'd involve here very very simple is essentially you think the same principles as a longer cardio session long duration minimal rest low intensity so if we're using a sled, we may say, hey, for 45 minutes, I'm going to put a small amount of weight on the sled and I'm literally just going to go up and down, up and down, up and down for 45 minutes. If I'm using a heart rate monitor, I'm going to focus on zone two. If I'm not using a heart rate monitor, I'm going to focus on nose breathing, breathing in and out through my nose, and I'm going to accumulate time here.

[2:49] Now, the beauty of this type of session is it can just be a nice way of getting a bit of variance in regards to your longer cardio sessions. It obviously is a little bit repetitive. It's also a little bit boring sometimes, but it's just a nice thing of mixing up from running all the time. It's a nice way of just giving different forces to the legs and different forces to the body. And it can work out really well. If you've never done one of these before, give it a go. You may love it and be like, oh yeah, that felt like a really cool session. You may hate it and be like, oh, I'm never doing that again. But either way, it can be quite useful.

[3:21] Now, a couple of important things when it comes down to this. Practicality with this type of session. You can do this in the gym, but in all honesty, may be a little bit dull. In the sense, if you're just doing it in a gym space, at most, you may have 10 meters to push it back and forth. And if you're doing that for 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or whatever it may be, yeah, you might just not have a huge amount of fun. Practicality, this is probably better done outside. So, you probably need your own sled, which you can make your own, or you can buy them online. If you just go into Google and type in how to make an exercise sled, or you can buy one or whatever it may be. Practicality, this is probably only going to be more lean towards outside. On top of that, when it comes down to the sled, there's many different ways you can use it. You can push it, you can pull it, you can move it with different ways in the body and this and that. This type of longer session is probably going to be a bit better as a sled drag in the sense you put a harness on and you're pulling it back and forth, as opposed to a sled push where you're holding onto a handles and you're just pushing it forwards. Purely for the fact that when you're doing your longer sessions, sometimes your wrists can get a little bit sore from that compression, just pushing against weight for so long, and it's not so much fun. But longer steady state session, it's pretty simple, but it can be a decent option for you to slide in, get a bit of variance in regards to your workouts.

[4:42] Next up is heavy intervals. So this one is a really, really, really good option of if you have been doing hills or stairs or box step sessions for ages, that sort of muscular endurance work where you're really, really loading up your legs. And if you've been doing those and they're getting a little bit boring, or you just need a bit of variance, a heavy sled push session or a heavy sled pull session can be really, really good.

[5:08] Essentially, what you do here is you basically get a sled, you load it up very, very, very heavy. And essentially, we're going to push it for intervals from anywhere from like four minutes to maybe eight minutes at a time. The idea behind this is what we're trying to do is get a nice burn on the legs. We need a little bit of exertion, a little bit of force so you're not just cruising along but you want to be challenging yourself this is heavy sled push this can be a really nice session of just preparing the legs for elevation as i said and you could do an entire session like this of four minutes pushing one minute rest and do that four or five or six or seven times can work out really well or if you're looking for a little bit more variation this can be nice as breaking up into almost like a circuit-based session. In the sense you may, if you have a nice space in the gym or you're outdoors doing this on an oval, you could push a sled for four minutes. You could have a minute off. Then you could do box steps for a minute, have a minute off. Then you could do walking lunges for four minutes and have a minute off. Or if you're in the gym, you could do incline treadmill for four minutes or whatever it may be. And you could use this as a sort of a circuit-based session. So instead of just having to do the same thing over and over and over and over, but this can fit in pretty well there. And I've used that for quite a few people who, particularly on longer term training plans, where they just need a bit more variance, a little bit more excitement, this can work out pretty well.

[6:28] Now, one thing I didn't mention before, longer steady state session, if you are doing those progression, as always, we want to see progression. You can look at progressing the first session I was mentioning before by adding a little extra time or adding a little extra weight. For these heavy intervals, either if you're progressing week by week, add a little extra weight or add extra intervals. Works out pretty simple. So that's number two.

[6:50] Number three is doing moderate weight, quick intervals. So what this involves is we're not loading up a huge amount of weight in this particular one. We're only putting on 20, 30, 40 kilos, depending on what sledge you're using, whatever it is. And essentially what we're trying to do is we're trying to do quicker intervals from anywhere from like two and a half minutes up to three and a half minutes at a time.

[7:16] So they're not sprints. They're not super long, burny sessions, but these moderate intervals, 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes at a time, then we have about 90 seconds off. Now, if you've heard me talk about interval training before for mountaineers, you'll probably know one of my favorite workouts is what I call aerobic power intervals, which is essentially a very particular method of interval training, where we're working the top level that the body, a top intensity the body can sustain while still predominantly using the aerobic energy system as a fuel source. And I often talk about using doing this on the bike or an elliptical or a rower or whatever it may be. These moderate intervals are exactly that, but we're doing it with a sled. We're going quick for two and a half minutes, resting for 90 seconds. Repeat that six, seven, eight, nine times. The key to this workout, as I said, we're not loading up so heavy that we are slow. We're not loading this up so heavy that the legs are getting really burny, but it's more of a cardiovascular response. So we have a moderate amount of weight and we're pushing the speed for this amount of time. This can be really, really, really useful on the cardiovascular side of things to help you up steep hills, to help you up steepest sense, help you feel a bit more comfortable, and help you with those sustained outputs on tougher sections. The heavy intervals we were talking about before, they're really good for building up that muscular endurance and reducing that leg burn. And these moderate intervals or these aerobic power intervals, they're really good for that cardiovascular response.

[8:40] Slightly different way of going about it, but can be really, really, really effective. Now for progression, typically what I would recommend here is either looking at speed, So try to get more distance covered in that amount of time per week, or add in extra intervals. Works out pretty well.

[8:58] The next way of using the sleds, which I quite like, is using them for sprint intervals. So essentially these intervals, and this is specifically sprint intervals when we're turning into like a conditioning session. So this wouldn't be the first thing I would lean to as a mountaineer. However, this can be a really useful way of just finishing off a session if we want to just get a nice little burnout at the end of a session, or it can be a nice way of just getting exposed to some slightly higher intensities every once in a while, which can be useful for mountaineers. So what you would do here is basically load a sled up with just a small amount of weight. We don't want a huge amount of weight. This doesn't want to slow us down too much, but it just needs enough that we need to give a little bit of oomph. And then what we would do here is we do sprints for like 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off and repeat that 10 times or 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Repeat that 10 times. That's like 10 minutes, but that in itself can be really, really, really challenging. This can be a really nice way of just exposing the body to those quicker speeds which can be useful every once in a while but again just giving some extra variance, you can do this type of conditioning on a stationary bike on an elliptical on a rower but again the sled is a really really good option if you're looking at progressing this i would sort of say just add an extra interval each week and do 10 one week 11 one week the next 12 next week and so forth but this can be a nice thing to just tack on at the end of a conditioning session or a strength session, but it can be another way of going about it.

[10:27] And then number five, this is one that I would sort of say nine out of 10 mountaineers probably wouldn't need to do.

[10:35] However, I'll talk about it because some people may get some benefits. Some mountaineers out there really want to do sprint training and not just sprint training in the conditioning sense that I said before, where we're just going as quick as we can for those shorter periods, But sprints training in the more traditional sense where we're doing absolute all-out sprints and then having quite large rest periods to let the body recover, to let the body get back to normal, and then going quick again.

[11:02] But some mountaineers out there do want to do this type of sprint training for one reason or another, whether they like this as a slightly different stimulus for the legs to build up strength or whatever it may be. Some people may just want to improve their ability to accelerate in certain situations. Some people may have other running goals and they may want to improve on that or whatever it may be. Some mountaineers out there do want to do a bit of sprinting, which is fair enough.

[11:26] However, one thing that a lot of people fall into, particularly endurance athletes who may be useful doing lots of running. When we're looking at sprinting, maximal sprints, and we're doing this on flat surface, sometimes this can be a little bit tricky. Very, very, very, very common for people on flat sprinting to pull up with hamstring discomfort, Achilles discomfort, or whatever it may be, because there's a lot of force that goes through this. Now, a really, really simple solution that a lot of endurance athletes go to, or a lot of just everyone goes to, if they're doing these sprint sessions, they'll do it on a hill. And they'll basically just charge up the hill, go really, really, really, really quick. And just because of the angle, this takes a little bit of pressure out of those hamstrings, out of those Achilles. Now, if you don't have access to a hill, a sled can be an alternative option. Even though you're doing the sled on the flat, it can just sometimes just change the mechanics a little bit, just help you feel a bit more comfortable and reduce the likelihood of those hamstrings or the Achilles getting uncomfortable. So if you're a mountaineer who is wanting to do this type of sprint training, you may sort of set up on an oval and you may get on the sled and you may go absolutely all out for five seconds or 10 seconds, maybe up to 15 seconds. And then you maybe have two or three minutes rest, proper recovery, and then go again. This can be a nice way of just exposing the body to these higher forces and those higher speeds, but in a way that is a little bit more manageable for, you know, the person who may not be sprinting pretty regularly.

[12:54] So there are a few different options for you there. Like in all honesty, I really like the sled for mountaineers. Practicality doesn't work out for a lot of people. It may be difficult to get to it in the gym. Maybe you don't have, you know, access to your own one, whatever they do. But if you do, you know, these things can be really useful. The long steady sessions are great of just mixing things up and giving a different exposure. Also can be really good for just mental grit of just pushing something back and forth for 40 minutes can be a challenge in itself. The heavy intervals can be a great way of just mixing up the traditional elevation training of stairs and hills or whatever it may be and exposing the body to that. The moderate intervals are just a nice way of exposing the body to those longer, sustained, quick intervals, which I quite like. The conditioning sprint intervals is just a nice little finisher for certain workouts. And those sprint intervals are potentially a more comfortable or safer option if you're looking at that more traditional sprints. Any of those options can slot quite nicely into a mountaineer's program at certain stages of the year. And if you have been doing the same things over and over and over, hopefully that just gives you a few different options, which you can play around with.

[14:00] Some people love it. Some people hate it. But either way, it gives you a few different options. So with that being said, I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope that makes sense. I hope it opens a few options up for a few people. And I hope a few mountaineers out there can experiment with some of this and see how it goes. Now, as I always say at the end of these episodes, if you were interested in getting a little bit of personalized help with your training for mountaineering, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find a little bit more about my online personal training for mountaineers, just go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. On that page, there's a big video, talks a little bit about our program. And if it sounds like something you'd like to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page. You can book a call with our team and we can have a chat from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening today. Hope you've enjoyed it. hope you got a bit out of it and we'll talk to you very very soon bye.

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