How to make a drag sled and workout with it

How to make a drag sled for a great workout is easy, and in this blog post I am going to show you how to, step by step!

It’s cheap, simple and fast to make, and you can use it for a variety of exercises, for both the lower and upper body. You’ll not only increase your strength, but improve your cardiovascular fitness and recovery capacities at the same time.

I built my first sled in 2008 when I took my strength training diploma with DIF, the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark.
Back then, push sleds (like the Prowler) weren’t all that common or affordable.
So using an old tire and dragging it became one of the conditioning methods of choice of powerlifters, athletes with a reputation for hating doing cardio.

Those guys knew and understood the healing power of doing lots of reps with lighter weight to increase blood flow and promote healing and recovery. As you can see, sled dragging and Indian clubs have at least one thing in common: high reps.

Making a sled was one of the first project all future coaches were put through. Over the last decade I have made several, using more or less the same construction.

Why add sled dragging to your routine?

The basic sled dragging exercises can develop some solid strength in the glutes, calves, hamstrings, quads, and midsection. And you also improve your aerobic and anaerobic conditioning at the same time. It’s not just for your legs! You can also use it for upper body exercises.

The sled is also great if you have some nagging injuries that prevent you from doing deep knee bends at the moment, or you can’t tolerate loading a barbell on your back because of spinal compression.
Instead of simply giving up on training your lower body, you can work around the issues, and as you become stronger you might find that you can once again perform those activities. Becoming stronger solves many issues by itself.

Sled dragging with a tire in a nutshell

• It’s one hell of a conditioning workout.
• It’s versatile and fun, and has a fast learning curve.
• There is hardly any eccentric loading, which means there’s very little delayed onset soreness associated with it, and the risk of injury is relatively low.
• There are no compressive forces on the spine.
• It works your lower body as happens in may sports – to drive you forward
• It complements Indian clubs perfectly.
• You have to train outside, getting some fresh air and sun at the same time.
• As good as the fancy looking and expensive prowler push sleds

Things you will need to build a homemade drag sled

First step, go and visit a garage and collect on old car tire. They will gladly give it away for free as they usually have to pay to dispose of them. You could at the same time ask for an old punctured bus or tractor inner tube, and use that to make a sandbag while you’re at it.

Next, go to the hardware shop and buy an eye bolt with washer and nut, not the type you screw into a wall.
Buy some wooden boards while you’re at it, to create a base inside the tire. If you’re a DYO kind of guy or girl, break an old pallet, and use the free boards.

The last bit of supply, you need is some sort of rope that can fit through the eye bolt, or if you can splurge, get some flat nylon webbing. I prefer the webbing one uses to create rock climbing anchors.
I suggest about 6 meters in length, as you also have to make handles!! If the rope is too short, it create an acute angle when dragging, lifting a part of the sled off the ground, making for a bumpy ride.

If you have a suspension trainer, you can of course simply use that.

For the people planning to use weight plates only, buy a floor flange fitting and about 20 cm length of pipe to secure plates in place.

How to make a drag sled

Let’s go about it. Drill a hole through the tire. Push the eye bolt through, with a washer on either side of the tire, and lock the nut in place.

Next, cut the boards so that they can fit inside the tire, and screw them tight into place from the other side. This will create a base in which you can add loading in various forms.

Push the webbing or rope though the eye, and bind some knots to create 2 handles. If you’re fancy, you can saw the webbing instead. The sling will center itself as you move. That’s it you’re ready to go out and use your drag sled!

Keep things moving

I prefer to have a free moving rope through the eye bolt, instead of a fixed center. You’re free to experiment though.
With a free moving rope,  you’ll be forced to control the rotary forces by keeping the rope the same length on each side when holding on to the handles. Remember that we’re moving a less than perfectly stable sled, and we’re doing it on outdoor surfaces. It’s not going to be a perfectly smooth ride, but that’s where the fun is.