Ep. #677: John Welbourn on Pushing & Pulling a Sled for More Stability and Power

Dec 23, 2020

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If you’ve spent much time in the gym (especially CrossFit gyms), you may have seen someone pushing a huge, weighted sled across the turf.

By the end of it, they’re gasping for air and all they’ve done is move a bunch of weight from one side of the room to the other.

What are they up to?

Are they training to be one of Santa’s reindeer? Or is this an almost-too-obvious exercise for unlocking massive strength potential?

The truth is, there’s no shortage of people doing unconscionable, foolish things in the gym, so is this one of them?

I haven’t done much sled pushing or pulling in my day, so I invited an expert onto the podcast to tell us all about it. That expert is John Welbourn, who spent 9 years as a starter in the NFL and is the CEO of Power Athlete Inc., a strength and performance company that specializes in large group training sessions.

He was also the architect of the CrossFit Football program, which was the main reason CrossFit began focusing on strength and performance. So, he knows a thing or two about training really strong people.

In this episode, John and I chat about . . .

Why the Prowler sled is good for you
Core strength versus trunk stability
How to program sled pushes and pulls
The importance of building aerobic capacity
Why having good conditioning is beneficial for strength training
The value of varying intensity in your workouts
And more . . .

So if you want to know if you should be adding sled exercises to your workouts and how to do so, listen to this episode!

4:48 - Mike and John’s thoughts on Gavin Newsom’s handling of COVID-19

9:51 - Mike and John’s thoughts on Mark Rippetoe

12:20 - What is the value of pushing sleds?

20:54 - What type of workout is pushing and pulling sleds? How would you program that?

Mentioned on The Show:

Power Athlete Website: https://powerathletehq.com/

Power Athlete Podcast: https://powerathletehq.com/radio/

John Welbourn’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnwelbourn/

Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: https://legionathletics.com/coaching/

Want free workout and meal plans? Download my science-based diet and training templates for men and women: https://legionathletics.com/text-sign-up/