First day trying out sled drags with my DIY tire drag sled.

Start out light, start out easy, ease into things.

The Andy Bolton program I’m modelling after said for the first week:

• 6 trips
• 75 yards
• 45# on the sled
• 45 seconds rest between trips

So I based upon that. Andy’s program starts you on 45# figuring that’s enough for most people. It progresses by reducing the rest between sets, 5 seconds per week. Once you’re at 30 seconds of rest, it increases the number of trips one per week. At 8 trips, you can see about upping the weight and “starting over”.

The deck block made the whole sled about 80#, and the tire on concrete will give fair resistance. So I tried without the block, but the tire was too light, felt like there’d be no workout, and just bounced along the pavement. I found a 7-8# rock in the landscape border and put that into the tire. That was a good choice as it held the tire down and gave me just enough work.

I don’t recall if I did 6 or 8 trips… I lost count. And I only rested perhaps 30-ish seconds between sets, with almost no rest before the last set… just turned around and kept going. I walked, tho with a brisk pace. I faced forward and just held the ropes and dragged the tire behind me.

Oh, and before I dragged I walked a few hundred yards to warm up. While walking I did things like arm circles, neck circles, and so on… things to loosen my upper body up. After I dragged, I walked a few hundred yards again to cool down.

It was not the toughest workout… but I was sucking wind by the end. I felt it in my glutes and calves. So it was good for a first workout. Let my body adjust and adapt and I’ll slowly increase the workload.