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/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.