Heavy Pulls

In strongman competitions the Truck Pull is a common event. The athlete wears a harness attached to a vehicle that is to be pulled over a set distance. They assume a 4-point starting position with hands and feet on the ground and use their lower body strength to drive forward pulling the vehicle forwards.

Figure 13. Truck Pull

The Heavy Sled Pull is an exercise that can mimic the demands of a truck pull but the load can be easily adjusted allowing multiple players to utilise. The player can be connected to sled by a harness, by a belt around the waist, or they may just pull the rope which focuses more on their upper body.  Heavy Sled Pushing also has very positive training effects and can be a challenging exercise, producing very high levels of physiological stress.

Figure 14. Heavy Sled Pull

Sled Pushing and Pulling can be great forms of alternative conditioning for building lower body strength and are very versatile.  Heavy Sled Pulls or Pushes share many movement similarities to acceleration phase sprinting, although the Sled Pull has somewhat smaller step lengths and step rates, longer ground contact times and a more horizontal trunk position. The Heavy Sled Pull, and Push may improve acceleration sprinting performance and ability to break and make tackles.