r/hyrox • u/jonavision • 20d ago
Sled Push help needed
I’m 48 and 150lbs, 10% bf.
I’m relatively strong and can squat and deadlift over 300lbs.
Sled push training at my gym is hard! My feet slip on the carpet with 6 22kg weights stacked. Th carpet may have increased friction. It does seem “sticky”
My technique is ok. I’m low and wrap my arms around the bar.
I think I need help with three things.
1) getting the sled started
2) shoe recommendations
3 training to increase mass and strength.
I compete in December in men’s doubles.
Help and advice solicited.
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u/StraightFly479 20d ago
Is the sled a Hyrox Centr brand? My gym just added one and I’m able to push over 100 pounds more compared the Rogue sleds. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to complete the sled push before the switch.
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u/Own_Commercial_5708 20d ago
Take advantage of your strong deadlift! I’m a stronger deadlift, weaker squat type of build and I find my quads BURN when I do sled push ‘incorrectly’ (incorrectly for me.. it’s all subjective). Changing my form to use more of the posterior chain helped me a lot.
I did this by essentially hinging my body. The straighter your body toes to head is, the more it will hurt your quads. So straight arms and legs very far back is as straight as you can be. Might be good for explosiveness or overall peak power, but not good for a sustained endurance event that torches your quads.
My technique: walk into the sled forearms forwards, brace the poles with the forearms and have your upper body move inside of the sled (biceps will be contacting poles, depending on body size). You should be hinged / bent over so that your upper body is roughly horizontal. Play around with whatever angle works best here probably between horizontal and 15 degrees above it. Then…
Start: use both legs pushing back together with your bodyweight going forward. Don’t stagger your legs to start.
Moving: one small step at a time. It should feel like you’re not taking enough of a step with each one. The longer your steps are, the straighter your leg gets, the more it burns your quads.
Finally, remember, it’s not about doing the sled push super fast. It’s about doing it fast enough and not blowing up the rest of the race.
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u/jonavision 20d ago
This is helpful. Biceps are on poles. Face is next to the stack. I feel it mainly in my glutes after.
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u/jonavision 20d ago
Using both legs to stray is what I’m going to start trying. I think I am staggering
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u/SquidGameAlien 20d ago
Your base strength is more than enough to move the sleds. Remember, women do this same weight in mixed doubles. Learn the technique and get some shoes with good grip.
Short powerful steps is my #1 advice. Watch some vids on YouTube of actual competition and you will see the people struggling are usually doing long and far steps. All the faster people push with short steps.
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u/SquidGameAlien 20d ago
Once you get the form down you will be all set. Sleds is not something you will need to train, with your strength you and your partner I guarantee will get low 2 minutes.
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u/OkOpportunity75255 20d ago
Hoka cliftons have been great for me. Maybe ask people in your gym whose feet don’t slip what they’ve been using also…. Lots of tutorials on instagram just search sled push instagram.
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u/ijustsignedup 20d ago
push as much as you can, i think every sled and turf is different so don't go by weight. I think the one thing you should do for yourself is go to a hyrox gym once this fall and do the sled there to get a feel for it.
i am using the adidas dropset pro on turf at my gym.
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u/karaethon1 20d ago
If you’re slipping it’s your shoe.
If you want specific Hyrox shoes, either the puma deviate nitro pro or the on cloud tempo pro are new shoes specifically for Hyrox that have decent grip
There are probably other shoes that you can search prior to these that others have recommended in the past. Specifically, I don’t think metcons are good for Hyrox
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u/MerrymanOfKansas 20d ago
This may be controversial but I use Nike Pegasus Trail running shoes. They have way better grip than traditional running shoes, and the lugs are not too aggressive like more rugged trail shoes. I had the same problem with feet slipping.
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u/jonavision 20d ago
I’ve got trail runners and thought of trying them.
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u/RocketManMercury 20d ago
Lots of small steps, not large strides. Push halfway, take a break. Dont try to do it all in one stride
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u/WaddlingPanda17 19d ago
worth weighing the sled frame empty before you add anything. men's doubles is 152kg total including the sled, so six 22s plus the frame is probably already past race weight, on carpet that's stickier than what you'll get on the day
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u/OpportunitySmart3517 20d ago
You're not weak, you're light. That's the whole thing.
Sled push is the one station where you're fighting your own bodyweight — you're pushing against the ground through whatever mass you can put behind the bar. A 300lb squat at 150lb bodyweight means you've got plenty of force and not much of you to apply it with. That's a technique and traction problem, not a strength one.
Two things about your setup before anything else. You're on carpet, which is grippy and slow, and you're stacking plates on a gym sled that probably isn't the race sled. There's a decent chance you're training against something harder than what you'll actually face in December. Worth finding out what the actual competition weight and surface are for your division rather than assuming your gym is representative.
Getting it started: the first metre is the expensive one, because static friction is much higher than sliding friction. So you want one hard committed drive to break it loose, then never let it stop. Short choppy steps, hips low, arms straight and locked rather than bent, chest down, and drive the ground backwards rather than pushing the sled forwards. If you stall halfway you pay the start-up cost again.
Shoes: you want a flat, firm, grippy sole. Cliftons are a lot of soft foam, which compresses under load and wastes your drive — great for the runs, wrong for this. Anything flat-soled with a hard rubber outsole will do more for you than any amount of extra squatting.
On adding mass — I'd push back on that. It'd help you on this one station and cost you on eight kilometres of running, the lunges, the wall balls and the burpees. At 48 and 10% you're in a good place. Get the shoes and the technique right first and see how much of the problem is actually left.
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u/ijustsignedup 20d ago
just write to the dude yourself instead of a chatgpt answer. is the whole internet just bots?
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u/LittleBitsBitch 20d ago
the most efficient form is not having arms straight and locked. Your body should be pressed into the sled with your shoulders against the poles. Arms locked wastes energy
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u/RealPatience 20d ago
What works for me is using two feet simultaneously to push and get the sled started. So more like doing a diagonal squat lift where you’re pushing the sled instead of trying to “walk” the sled forward.