SANKA YA DEAD?
NO MAN!
Firstly, what is the prowler?
The prowler is a tool used in many private training and strength & conditioning facilities and even now in some mainstream gyms.
Its effectively a metal sled that you push or pull, you can add weight to the sled to make it heavier.
And although it may be fairly new to the mainstream fitness scene the style of pushing and pulling something heavy is as old as time.
At TP we've had the prowler as a staple right from the get go.
It’s a bit of a swiss army knife of the gym, its use spreads far and wide whether you're a newbie who has never stepped foot in a gym or a seasoned vet who regularly squats double body weight, the Prowler can be an appropriate tool for many jobs.
At TP we use the prowler in many ways;
– Warming up
– speed development
– power
– strength
– Endurance
– Injury rehab
– Pain reduction, yes the prowler can have a therapeutic role too.
– Pre game or competition prep – freakishly works very well!
– Conditioning – aerobic or anaerobic.
- Active recovery
Why we love the Prowler and why you should to.
Versatility, efficiency and effectiveness!
Not many moves provides so much within a limited time frame and with such little complexity.
You can get down and deep into all sorts of the best protocols, but you simply can’t get it wrong, however you cut it!
Prowler work can be done very often, multiple times per week compared to more traditional strength training methods, think squats, lunges etc.
This is largely due to one main difference that sled training has in comparison.
Its to do with the different phases of a lift;
During a lift you go through a cycle known as the stretch shortening cycle (SSC) - This is primarily used to describe plyometric movements but you move through the SSC during any movement when a limb changes direction.
Lets take a squat as an example, there are 3 main phases you go through, these are;
Eccentric (aka negative or lowering phase); This is the phase when you are descending under the control of your muscles, the quadriceps muscles are active and working here but they are also lengthening, this is what defines the eccentric part.
Amortization - Also known as the transition phase, essentially its the small phase in-between the down and the up, a very rapid amortization phase is crucial in the production of power during plyometric exercises as the energy stored is rapidly released. During standard exercises this phase is longer perhaps even further negated by a pause and the energy stored is allowed to dissipate to provide more muscular stimulus.
Concentric - This is the phase of a movement whereby you overcome gravity or load driven by the contraction and shortening of the primary muscles to power you up as in the squat.
Its missing half the lift
when you push a prowler the effect of the eccentric phase is significantly dampened.
This is known as Eccentric less - effectively when you perform prowler/sled work you're in a way performing half the amount of work that you would when squatting as you are not performing the lowering phase under load as you would when descending to the floor with a bar on your back,
All that work you perform on the prowler is primarily concentric, its the push or the "drive" phase.
Why is this important?
This eccentric phase is responsible most of the muscle damage you acquire when training. But this is almost entirely taken away. Think about it the next time you push the prowler, each step forward against the weight is pushing only, its concentric, the eccentric is almost completely unloaded, There’s no active lowering phase.
That is why there is a much lower level of DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness) when using the prowler, unlike splits squats that can be a real pain in the ass for days after training because the eccentric portion (as well as the range of motion & subsequent stretch) is more pronounced.
A lower level of muscle damage and less soreness means you can recover much quicker and thus repeat the movement much more frequently.
This is one reason why it stacks so well with traditional resistance training, especially if adding lean muscle is a goal,
whilst traditional resistance training will stimulate growth via multiple pathways including muscle damage, this pathway is significantly reduced on the prowler so its primarily driven by two other factors, mechanical tension and metabolic stress.
3 mechanisms of hypertrophy
MECHANICAL TENSION. - Is basically the magnitude of stress that a muscle is subjected to. Muscle fibers detect this tension thus signaling an increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis. This is established as the primary mechanism that drives hypertrophy (muscle growth).
MUSCLE DAMAGE. - The performance of high tension exercises (mainly of a eccentric and concentric nature) results in micro tears in the muscle. Eccentric contractions cause more damage to the muscle than concentric contractions. This is why you feel D.O.Ms (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) a day or two later. This damage triggers events that signal protein synthesis and the rebuilding of damaged muscle.
METABOLIC STRESS. - This is the accumulation of metabolites (lactate, phosphate inorganic (Pi) and ions of hydrogen (H+)) that occurs in some types of strength training when the available energy becomes too low, this build up of metabolites is said to cause a stress to the muscle fiber triggering an anabolic response similar to when stimulated by mechanical tension, the difference with metabolic stress is it can occur with significantly lighter loads so long as they are taken very close near to absolute failure.
So although in a muscular sense recovery is fast it still doesn't mean it doesn't cost you something, its going to cost a lot of fuel especially if you hit it frequently, which you can if you fuel your body sufficiently.
When it comes to muscle development the prowler may not provide much damage but you sure as hell can bet you can accumulate some metabolic stress alongside a dose of tension.
Here’s some of my favorite ways to use the prowler.
1.Up to speed.
The cool thing about the prowler is it is an awesome tool for someone who is new to strength training.
As opposed to the traditional strength work we do, as discussed the Prowler by nature is “Eccentric-less” which means that it is also an awesome way to increase someone's capacity to do more work whilst allowing recovery, This is great if you're new to resistance training as you are going to ache a lot when you first begin. but the prowler helps to offset this to a degree while allowing a higher volume of weekly work. A great way to bring someone back up to speed without eliciting too much muscle soreness .
2. Level up.
From whatever level you come in at, Prowler drills will “level up” your ability to move and apply force.
They won’t just increase your athletic ability, they may simply help you walk and move easier in daily life too;
Everything about it demands getting the body in alignment, and of special importance is the patterns it encourages from the ankle to the hip, through the spine and the shoulders;
- Triple extension of the ankles, knees and hips which is vital for sprinting and jumping.
- Hip separation which is the concurrent flexion of one hip and extension of the other.
- Stacking & packing positions of the shoulders, rib cage and pelvis, this makes for a great opportunity to discuss and practice breathing and bracing techniques that transfer to lots of other areas.
- Practice moving safely and creating lots of tension under high loads without the fear of injury, failing a lift or getting to sore.
- simplicity, you don't need to learn the skill first for more than a few feet before you can crack on and work like a dog.
3. Speed and Power
"The sled may slow but you will go!"
we sprinkle our program with maximal prowler pushes right up to the point it barely moves and I have to say it’ll probably attribute more speed gains to this than any shuttle runs you’ll do!
If you want to get faster, yes technique and ACTUALLY SPRINTING is numero uno, but marrying it to an increase in the the force you can put down into the ground adds to the recipe and doing so in a way that mimics similar patterns has benefits.
The Prowler is the perfect tool, it puts those two components in action. positioning and tension are crucial here or the prowler won’t move!
That’s the reason why most of the time we like to work up to some really heavy Prowler sets & you’ll know this works if you’ve also been to any STRONG sessions of ours.
You can’t get the Prowler wrong. Technically it’s beautifully stupid-simple. It improves technique, not just for sprinting but in all lifts as it demands total body tension, the “core” must be solid to enable force transfer from the legs through the mid section into the Prowler.
That may need teaching many times during traditional compound moves but almost always happens naturally on the Prowler.
If pure speed and power is what you’re after then a heavy Prowler to push and pull is what you need.
Add in some sprints and your good to go, but make sure its short and sweet as they require full recovery – not burning heavy legs and a sick bucket, that's next.
4. GRIT.
Sanka, you dead?
Sometimes, everything technical and sciency just needs to calm down and take a backseat and watch good old grit and determination do its thing!
It’s not about mechanics or anaerobic conditioning – let’s just see how far you can push yourself, test your capabilities and never give in, sometimes that is the most important component.
This is where challenges come in, every now and again, not all too often as they are hard to recover from – we can throw down a real tester!
Can you keep going when things get tough or do you give in as soon as the boundaries of your comfort zone become stretched?
The purity of the prowler is perfect for testing these physical and mental boundaries, its honest hard work, you cannot half do a heavy set of pushes or pulls, you can't cheat, you've got to see it through and get it home.
5. Muscle.
As we looked at above, the prowler has 2 of the main components of muscle growth ticked, mechanical tension and metabolic stress, but we also saw that it is missing muscle damage to a great degree, that doesn't mean its not useful it just means for the prowler to be stimulatory enough for muscle growth we've got to go deep into the other 2 components by maximizing protocols that cause muscle fiber fatigue and produce decent metabolic accumulation. This means we need to utilize protocols that are long enough to produce that build up, we use blocks of 2's and 4 lengths of 12mtrs at a time for this (So 30-60 seconds of work). that's short a enough time to ensure the load is significant enough to provide high tension but long enough to induce massive muscular fatigue and metabolite accumulation, by the way this work BURNS!
Try this; load up the prowler so you cannot move it fast, no matter how hard you try. this is different from place to place.
- Push it for 10 to 15 mtrs then pull it 10 to 15 mtrs back to the start using some straps and handles.
- do it again immediately
rest 60 - 90s
repeat 3 to 4 times
Do that and your quads will feel ready to explode.
The backwards sled drag need special mention here, the return leg is where the work starts, this is where your quads will hit combust in a metabolic furnace, but you've got to keep the metal moving, keep your arms locked and lean your weight back, keep the steps small and dig your way through the fire that hits 35 to 40 yards in!!
7. Conditioning.
Everything that we do has a purpose, it has a role within the context of developing people. If your "coach" cannot answer why you're doing a certain workout or exercise or they just hit you with burpees you might be better off writing your own workouts!
PS; I don't like nor hate burpees, they have a place (especially if they are in your competition) but most of the time they are a lazy coaches copout, its an easy way to make you tired and think a workout is badass!
Getting battered in a workout isn't better, getting better is better!
Conditioning is about the bigger picture, to help someone be able to improve, do more work in a given timeframe, recover faster, that might mean they need a stimulus to drive positive adaptations, not just made to feel sick.
We use varying conditioning methods that aid improvements of cardiac output, endurance and capacity which all go into the recipe of helping individuals become more robust and able to produce more adaptable work.
The prowler is a perfect tool for the job as it is scalable and safe, as I said burpees might make you hate life but it doesn't make them great, sprinting might be the best exercise you can do but only if you can actually SPRINT (fast running isn't sprinting) if the last time you hit top speed was in school then you're more likely gonna be hopping from that popping in your hammy before you get "conditioned". The prowler can bridge that gap, its hard, its stimulatory, its progressive, its simple and its very safe.
Here's just a couple of prowler protocols crafted here at Thorpe Performance for you to try the next time you wander into a gym that houses this versatile piece of metal.
TEAM THORPE - PROWLER SETS.
THE PYRAMID
You and your team have 10 minutes.
Begin with the prowler loaded with just 2 plates (60kg)
each team member must push the prowler 12 mtrs out and then drag it back.
You will do 5 rounds up adding a plate (20kg) or two each time up to a peak of 140kg (or more).
then you go 5 rounds down removing a plate each round going back down to 40kg
do it fast as possible.
2. THE STANDARD
This ones a solo mission.
load up the prowler with 2x your Body weight.
aim to complete 16 lengths; 1 length pushing approx 10 to 15 mtrs and 1 length pulling back to the start.
10 minute time cap
Note; A clever idea is to work up to this challenge over a number of weeks/months performing this once a week or every other, begin at body weight and work your way up to 1.5 then 1.7 then 2xBW.
remember the gym you push in, the prowler you use, the turf its on, whether its outside or inside, cold or hot do affect what constitutes "heavy" where you train so take that into consideration rather than using any arbitrary loading schemes.
No other bit of kit gets quite so much hammer as the prowler, its simple, its safe and its use will bleed progress into myriad of different performance and training arenas, want to build muscle? prowler will help. Want to lose fat? yep, prowler will help. want to improve running ability? prowler.
Like I said the prowlers somewhat of a swiss army of knife of strength & conditioning equipment and we love it, it brings a tear to my eye and fire to my quads just thinking about it.
Give this no nonsense exercise a go and you won't regret it, well at least once the burning in your thighs has vacated.
Want to give it go? then drop us message.
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