The ROGUE FITNESS E-Sled: A Review
*I wanna say from the outset that I have no financial affiliation with Rogue Fitness
If you're going to drop money on a piece of workout equipment, you'd be hard pressed to find a more cost-effective, bang-for-your-buck piece of equipment than the Rogue Fitness E-Sled. It's called the E-Sled because it's the "economy sled". While being relatively cheap cost-wise, there's nothing cheap about the construction and design. It's built like a tank. I've had mine for about three years, and I've used it. A lot. It's very simple, you load plate weight, and pull to exhaustion. It cost me $95 plus shipping costs (which depends on your state).
I could see this being beneficial for any sport, or athletic endeavor that would benefit from increases in cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular size, strength, endurance, and power (of the lower body), and of course speed and acceleration. So that is to say just about every sport.
I would say this kind of sled work conditioning would be especially beneficial for football players, track athletes, strongmen competitors, powerlifters, cross-fitters, and anyone else looking for some general physical preparedness (GPP) work.
You can mix up the loading schemes:
Short distance-Heavy Weight-Slow Speed
Moderate Distance-Moderate Weight-Moderate Speed
Long Distance-Light Weight-Fast Speed
Or, any other combo you can think of - either pulling for time or distance.
I can load mine with about about 230 lbs of bumper plate weight, and the sled itself weighs about 25 lbs, so that's 255 lbs total. But if you were to load it with iron plate weight, I'm sure you could go much heavier (i.e. like 300-450 lb) depending on the thickness of the plates. So, achieving long term progressive overload will not be a problem on this thing. It also comes with a pretty heavy duty nylon towing strap. You probably won't ever need to replace it. The sled will last a lifetime.
You can pull on asphalt, concrete, grass, astroturf, etc. Obviously what you pull on will affect the amount of friction, and therefore the amount of resistance. I prefer asphalt, but this has the effect of generating a scraping noise, which may be annoying to some. I personally don't even notice it. You can pull forward or reverse to train your posterior or anterior chain muscles, respectively.
Here's how a typical workout might go:
-Toss sled and weight in Jeep
-Drive to nearby empty parking lot
-Pull for 30-45 minutes
-Drive home
TL;DR
Durability 10/10
Price:Value Ratio 9/10
Convenience 7/10
Effectiveness 10/10
It's a great way to get some sun and fresh air. Crank some tunes on your car stereo. If it's hot outside, dump some water on your head. Get your heart rate up and feel alive.
Bottom line: it's effective and you feel good when you do it.
Here's where you can buy it:
http://www.roguefitness.com/s-35e-rogue-e-sled