I’m Lizi Brooke, a performance coach at Supertraining in UNTIL Soho. I’ve raced the HYROX Pro category, where the sled weighs 152 kg for women, and I coach HYROX and hybrid athletes.

How do you do a sled push?

To do a sled push well, Lizi Brooke puts her hands on the bars and leans her body weight into the sled.

A lot of the time you get people pushing their arms out straight to try and push the sled, and that’s going to really fatigue your shoulders.

Personally, the best way I’ve found to push the sled is by using my body weight. So I’ll put my hands on the bars, I put my shoulders on the bars, and I’ll lean my body weight into it. It makes such a difference, because you’re using your body weight to your advantage rather than actually using your arms to try and push it.

If you’re at a lower angle, you tend to have more body weight into it, but at the same time you’re then very much stretching your hamstrings and stretching your calves. A lot of fatigue. A lot of it’s going to be your conditioning in training and how you’ve practised it.

What muscles does the sled push work?

Lizi Brooke says the sled push loads your quads while your hamstrings work in a stretched position.

In the push you want to get into that forward position, where your hamstrings are stretched and your load’s in your quads. You’re essentially learning to eccentrically use your hamstrings (working them as they lengthen) whilst you’re loading your quads. It’s quite a unique position.

Your calves are on a stretch too, and if you push with straight arms, your shoulders take a lot of the strain. That’s why squats and deadlifts carry over. They train the extensor chain, the muscles that straighten your hips and knees to drive you forward.

How heavy is the sled push at HYROX?

At HYROX the sled weighs 102 kg for women and 152 kg for men in the Open category, sled included. Women in the Pro category push 152 kg and men in Pro push 202 kg.

You push it 50 m, in four lengths of 12.5 m. Under the HYROX 26/27 rulebook, the whole sled has to pass the 12.5 m mark before you change direction.

The surface makes a big difference, so you can’t judge yourself purely on your training times. It’s all relative to the surface that you’re racing on. I’ve found in HYROX, particularly up in Manchester, the carpet might be a tiny bit looser, so it’s a lot harder to push a sled.

At a pro race last year, one of the fastest pro women in the world got a bad station and couldn’t even push the sled. It was horrendous. Her race was lost from that. You can’t rely on it being the same each time.

How do you pace the push at HYROX?

Lizi Brooke paces the push so the first length feels easy, because the turns are where it gets hard.

Actually, the first one is the least of your worries. It’s when you have to stop and turn around again and go back, and that’s when it starts to get hard. So if you’ve pushed the first one too fast, you will know when you turn around, so you have to treat it with respect.

The sled push is the second station, after a run, the SkiErg and another run. Normally when you go to the sled you go in fairly fresh, because the SkiErg doesn’t take a huge amount out of you. That can be deceiving, because you’ve still got six stations to go after that, plus another six runs. So it’s very easy to get too excited.

And I’d say breathe as well. It’s easy to hold your breath.

I would pay attention to the heart rate the whole way through. When you’ve got that much adrenaline, you’d be surprised at how high your heart rate actually goes.

I remember when I was doing my last race pregnant. I was three months pregnant, and I was trying to do it for fun rather than racing it, so I was trying to keep my heart rate in the 150s.

It was actually very hard for me to get my heart rate into the 160s when I was pregnant, because my blood volume was so much higher. My body just wouldn’t push to that extent. I suppose it was in protection mode.

In race mode, your adrenaline goes through the roof, and the stations put you in so many different positions that your heart works really hard. So I kept my heart rate under the 160s on the run, to do the stations well. The burpees and the whole-body stations still push it surprisingly high.

How do you get quicker on the sled?

In Lizi Brooke’s coaching, a first-timer’s sled push typically takes about three minutes, and practice can bring it down to about 2:20.

The first sled push is probably typically around three minutes, depending on how long you have to stop and rest between each one. And then you can get down to maybe 2:20 by practising it a lot.

You can take off a minute with sled push. Not easily, but by doing the strength training and practising it a lot. Because the main thing with sled push isn’t necessarily your strength, it’s your endurance with that strength.

So once you’ve gained the endurance to push that sled without getting too much fatigue, then you can actually take off a lot of time.

In the preparation for it, combine strength training with actual sled practice:

  • doing sleds off tired legs
  • stuff like squats and split squats, which will help build the strength
  • heavier pushes, so heavier than you actually go in the race
  • shorter and heavier pushes to start with, and then you can build them, and focus on the movement

You need to practise applying that force through the sled as well, and also getting into position, because when you’re leant over, the weight distribution changes completely.

Heavier pushes get you used to your race load, as long as you don’t get injured from pushing too heavy in training.

How do you train the sled push without a sled?

Without a sled, Lizi Brooke builds the strength with deadlifts and squats, and the position on a curved treadmill.

For a couple of clients, I’ve got them on a treadmill that you can push manually, the curved kind with no motor. You put your hands on the front and lean forward into that sled position, with your hamstrings stretched and your load in your quads.

Find a treadmill that has a resistive push function if you’ve got no sled.

What makes the biggest difference to your sled push?

Lizi Brooke puts it down to endurance with your strength, and a lean that lets your body weight do the work. Pace the first length, practise on tired legs, and expect the race carpet to feel different from your gym.

To see how Supertraining coaches HYROX, read about hybrid and HYROX strength and conditioning, the eight HYROX stations, or where we coach.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a HYROX sled push take?

In Lizi Brooke's coaching at Supertraining, a first-timer's sled push typically takes about three minutes, depending on how long they stop to rest between lengths. With strength work and a lot of practice it can come down to about 2:20.

How heavy is the sled push at HYROX?

The 26/27 HYROX rulebook sets the sled push at 102 kg for women, 152 kg for men and for women in the Pro category, and 202 kg for men in the Pro category. Each weight includes the sled. You push it 50 m in four lengths of 12.5 m.

Should you push the sled with straight arms?

Lizi Brooke of Supertraining advises against it. Pushing with your arms out straight really fatigues your shoulders. She puts her hands and shoulders on the bars and leans her body weight into the sled, so her body weight does the work instead of her arms.

How can you train the sled push without a sled?

Lizi Brooke uses deadlifts and squats for the strength. For the position, she has put a couple of clients on a curved treadmill they push themselves, leaning forward with their hands on the front. It trains the stretched hamstrings and loaded quads that the sled push asks for.