The prowler, or push sled, is a tool currently being used by professional athletes and teams from many sports fields to improve their athletic qualities. In Spain it is still quite unknown, but in the USA, rare is the gym that does not have one, and the best physical trainers in the world use it to train their athletes. It is indicated for intermediate and advanced users in strength training and physical conditioning.
Why work with a Prowler?
It is a great tool to improve any athletic ability, from strength, power, endurance, or even volume (used by NFL, NHL, NBA, strongman, etc) players. Another advantage that the use of the prowler presents is that it minimizes the eccentric work of the body, and therefore, allows us to add extra work to our weekly workouts, increasing blood flow, and the elimination of lactic acid from our muscles. In short, after a session with prowler, we feel cleaner.
Why don’t you do eccentric work? When lifting a load, for example in a bicep curl, we do a concentric work, when we flex the arm. When the arm is extended again, the biceps muscle performs an eccentric contraction, stretching the muscle.
This eccentric work is the one that causes most of the muscle damage, leaving the body fatigued after a session of leg work. Without going any further, you can see the fatigue produced in the quadriceps when walking down the mountain, for a long period, which will undoubtedly become sore for a couple of days. Pure concentric work is an excellent recovery method, because it facilitates blood flow, avoiding microtraumas in the muscle fibers, caused by the eccentric phase. That is, after a prowler session, we will be dying, but in perfect condition to train the next day. Therefore, we can include more workload in our planning , which will lead to greater muscle gain.
Qualities worked
The scope of work that can be covered with the prowler is total. Endurance, speed, strength, power, muscle hypertrophy, even active recovery. It is an excellent tool to optimize the physical preparation of any athlete. As for the muscles worked, it involves practically the entire body, but especially the posterior chain (back, glutes, calves and hamstrings). In drag, the hamstrings are even more in demand.
Training track
The ideal is to have about 30 meters of track, in order to optimize its use. During this distance is when the body works the acceleration until it reaches its top speed, or constant.
The minimum working distance is 10 m. Coaches like Joe de Franco use this distance because it is more feasible to find surfaces of those dimensions that meet the requirements. The work surface is very important. It should be fairly smooth. Concrete that is not finished with a fine finish, or tiles that are rough, will not work. In the garden area, if the grass is wet, it will slide, but if we load it with too much weight, the garden will be damaged. Asphalt is a good surface to work on. The concrete of warehouses or polygons, or the paving stone of parks, are also good sliding bases
Training design
With the prowler, you can work in 2 ways: pushing, or dragging. In pushing exercises, due to the high intensity it requires, it must be included in the routine as a finisher, on leg training days, since after several series, all we want is to lie down on the floor, and get oxygen. Ideally, you would work with him 2 days a week. One without load (the empty prowler, weighs about 50 kg), and another with load. The maximum load must be the one that allows us not to lose too much speed, at most 15-20%, performing the movement technique correctly.
The training volume is about 300 m divided between 5-10 series, depending on the distance we travel per series (between 30 and 60 m are the recommended distances). Minute and a half rest between series. The prowler has various push rods. Tall vertical bars are the ones that are normally used. If the individual is very strong, and wants his quads to burn, he can use the low horizontal bars. Regarding the use of the prowler as a drag, it can be dragged, with the help of a sling, rope, etc., from the front or from the back.
It ranges between 300-800 euros, so not everyone can afford it financially, but it is an investment for life. Those who have been able to acquire one do not regret their acquisition.
Fountain:
T-Nation
