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6 different ways to use the prowler you love to hate

Love the prowler’s versatility, and love the results it produces, writes David Last in this week’s advice column.

IN MOST GYMS, we are starting to see a far better setup when it comes to gym equipment and layout on offer. Long gone are the days where we had clunks of gym machinery taking up the whole gym floor that really only isolated one body part at a time.

Nowadays, people are more aware of what type of setup and equipment they need for a good effective workout. It’s great to see a lot more people start to take an interest in movement, mobility, and strength training and that can be reflected in how a lot of commercial gyms are designed. It’s pretty standard to see gyms kitted out with racks, barbells, resistance bands, kettlebells and so on, along with some open turfed space.

In a lot of my previous articles, I have given you smart ways on how to get the most out of each piece of equipment. I have covered as much as I can from bands, bells, mobility tools and so on. Today I am going to focus on the sled, or the prowler as others like to call it.

In a previous article I included 5 ways to increase your power on the field or in the gym. A lot of tools were covered, from battle ropes to medicine balls, and this is where the prowler could have fallen in as well.

Anyone that uses the prowler generally has a love/hate relationship with it, and I’m no exception. I love it because it’s so versatile. I also love the extraordinary results it produces in an extraordinarily short period of time. The prowler is the ultimate piece of equipment when it comes to getting the most bang for your buck in the least amount of time. Bodybuilders can use it to add extra volume and put size on, athletes can use it to get faster, or gym goers can use it as a nice finisher to their session.

Performing high intensity work and rest intervals of 20-30m sled sprints is something that is far more beneficial in terms of burning calories than going for a 30-minute jog. Doing things like hill springs or kettlebell swings are also a far better choice here and is something I have mentioned before in a previous article.

In most gyms I generally see the prowler being used in two ways. I tend to see either the light and fast approach, or the slow and heavy approach. These both are great ways of using the prowler and something you should continue doing but there are also a lot of other ways that you can incorporate the prowler into your workout.

Below is a snippet of my session last week where I spent 20-30 minutes on working the prowler. On that particular day the goal of this session was to keep my heart rate in a certain zone and not to push the body too much. I generally stayed away from high-intensity sled sprints and wanted to get a light sweat on, moving a load that wasn’t going to be too taxing on the body.

I put together these different variations below which I hope can give you a handful of different ideas for when you use the prowler next time:

David Last / YouTube

I hope you’ve found this information useful and if you need any more advice, you can pop me a message at the links below.

David Last is a personal trainer based in Dublin. For more information you can follow him on FacebookInstagram and Twitter. Or you can send him a direct message here.

You can also see some of his previous articles here.

Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:

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    Mute Hibernicus
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    Dec 15th 2023, 1:54 PM

    I like GAA too! If only I cold find a way to wriggle out of my PAYE obligations, I could then throw out a bit of the cash I’d save to my pet sport and everyone would say I’m a great fella.

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    Mute Richard Ford
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    Dec 15th 2023, 1:55 PM

    @Hibernicus: There’s always one who has nothing good to say.

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    Mute Hibernicus
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    Dec 15th 2023, 2:59 PM

    @Richard Ford: You misunderstood, I am inspired & keen to emulate the great man!

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    Mute Rocky R
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    Dec 15th 2023, 3:36 PM

    @Hibernicus: the man owns and runs a Swiss based company where he is clearly doing pretty well. This is also where he pays tax. I appreciate that might be a difficult concept to wrap your head around when you’ve likely spent your life in the one village.

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    Mute Richard Ford
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    Dec 15th 2023, 3:51 PM

    @Hibernicus: . Well then please do your very best to do so. All donations gratefully accepted Hibernicus.

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    Mute Paul Odeier
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    Dec 15th 2023, 3:59 PM

    @Hibernicus: typical

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    Mute Hibernicus
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    Dec 15th 2023, 5:53 PM

    @Paul Odeier: succinct!

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    Mute David o'shanahan
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    Dec 16th 2023, 8:49 PM

    @Hibernicus:you come across as a great fella.revenue are crying out for great fellas

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    Mute Mike Kennedy
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    Dec 15th 2023, 4:29 PM

    As I said to Shane below, we are a tax haven. Tax avoidance is the way of the world. We gratefully accept multiple billions from corporations who base their headquarters here to avoid tax. We can’t have it both ways. People be careful not to fall off their high horses.

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    Mute Shane Griffin
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    Dec 15th 2023, 2:59 PM

    Fantastic balanced journalism from the headline down, exactly why I decided to pay for a subscription.

    I look forward to the day when I can stop paying tax like all the smart people and donate an iPad to the club raffle for a gushing write-up in the local paper.

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    Mute David Staed
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    Dec 15th 2023, 4:23 PM

    @Shane Griffin: When are you expecting to become one of the smart people?

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    Mute Mike Kennedy
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    Dec 15th 2023, 4:25 PM

    @Shane Griffin: how do you feel about the fact that Ireland is a tax haven? Do you think we should send back the multiple billions we receive from tax dodging corporations every year???

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