Preparation for HYROX® and DEKA® competitions – Alessia Del Mastro
My name is Alessia Del Mastro, I am 48 years old, I am a Functional Training Instructor and Spartan Race and HYROX® athlete.
In this article I will tell you how to use e prepare as best as possible for the SLED PUSH and SLED PULL stations in the "brand new HYROX® and DEKA® competitions" which are also becoming popular in Italy.
WHAT ARE HYROX® and DEKA®
HYROX® is the new running and functional circuit competition in which everyone can participate and that unites 8 km di corsa e 8 interval workouts, focusing on performance and endurance. The Hyrox format® has among its fundamental aspects, accessibility, but also aggregation, team spirit and competition. It perfectly embodies this idea of sport as a landing place for various inputs: born in 2017 in Germany, has brought together functional fitness and resistance, becoming a privileged platform for both the amateur world and professionals. The success was immediate, with a discipline that went well beyond continental borders. Now, Hyrox® arrived in Italy, with the debut in June at Rimini Wellness, one of the most important sector fairs in the world and the second stop in Milan last October. But we are only at the beginning. It was such a resounding success that the first race of 2024 which will take place next February in Turin is already 75% sold out. Italy thus becomes one of the thirteen countries in the world where Hyrox is widespread® – as well as Germany, Holland, Sweden, England, Scotland, USA, Hong Kong, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland. The growth has been disruptive, both in geographical terms and in terms of size and numbers. Today's forty world events are double those of just two years ago. The number of participants, from 2018 to today, has increased from 6000 to 83 thousand. In the same period, the average participants per event increased from 770 to over 2500.
DEKA® means Ten, comes from Greek as the Greeks were the first to use the game and test physical fitness. With the 10 DEKA zones® A complete functional competition format has been created for all fitness levels. Every area It is based on rudimentary movements which do not require any specific training or instruction to complete. Lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, kneeling, jumping/walking/climbing on something, getting down and getting back up, and three basic forms of transportation: rowing, skiing, and cycling.
These two formats have many stations in common including the sleds. It's true that they are competition formats for everyone but they are still competitions with increasingly better prepared and performing athletes. Many affiliated and non-affiliated gyms are being created where you can prepare yourself in the best possible way and certainly have it an excellent SLED can be a strong point. In DEKA® the Sled is mechanical with different resistances, which simulate the load, but the technique for the push is the same while it varies in the pull.
Both involve 50 m of push and 50 m of pull.
THE TWO HYROX® STATIONS WITH THE SLED
The Hyrox® the offer, before each station, 1 km di corsa and the stations with the sled are the second Sled PUSH and the third sled PULL. La sled It has different loads based on men's, women's, open and PRO and must be pushed or pulled on a surface such as a trade fair carpet. This surface creates friction with the sled, risking braking it when pulling and curling and tipping when pushing. Here you are the importance of using good techniques in both stations. Not only due to the friction with the floor, but also due to the high load, You need to pay careful attention to how to use the Sled to avoid injuries, first and foremost, but also waste of energy that will serve as fuel later in the race.
For further information on the competition regulations and weights, I recommend visiting the site Hyrox® Italy.
Here we will see the recommended techniques to best tackle the station and how to train them.
- Let's start by SLED PUSH: as you can see clearly from the following photo, two athletes, two different techniques.
In the race there are two white lines that mark the routes to travel (4 sections of 12,5 m each) and the sled must always pass these lines. We start from the first white line by pushing the sled using the two vertical black poles. After the next line we go to the opposite side of the sled where we will find 2 more holds and we go back, traveling the route a total of 4 times.
Let's analyze the techniques:
1) you start by holding the sled with your arms at 90° and then insert your body inside the holds and start pushing, with the risk of having all the thrust fulcrum on the gripping part of the sled and causing the sled to rear up and point towards the front part (direction side). To avoid this inconvenience you need to stay with your body projected very low. In this first case the push will be very much from the arms and with the elbows very flexed there is a risk of inflaming them. The grip must be very strong and the wrists must work in line with the forearm and not extra rotated to avoid injuries.
2) I grab the holds with my elbows and rest my hands and forearms along the two tubes to have a strong and secure grip and to unload the pushing work on a larger surface. In this second case, I am able to project myself with my body inside the sled in order to prevent it from rearing up during the push phase. The force imparted with method 2 is greater because the lower limbs are able to exert it more.
3) Push with arms fully extended. I would say that among the 3 definitely the one more disadvantageous in terms of energy consumption because the mass that produces the push is distant from the body that must move. We need to unleash more strength.
- Let's now see the SLED PULL. In this station there are 4 lines, two at the start and two after 12,5 m. the 2 lines must never be exceeded. They show me a movement space within which I have to retrieve the rope that is attached to the sled and within which I can move backwards. Also in this case, 50 m of sled pull must be covered, therefore the journey 4 times. The sled will have a rope at the front and one at the back so you can retrieve it from one side or the other.
There are also various techniques here:
1) Remain still in your position close to the central line so that you can lean forward to pick up the rope and then, pushing backwards in a "squat" position, begin to pull the rope only with the strength of your upper limbs; Perhaps an advantageous choice in terms of time but absolutely not recommended because working with all hands at the third position could be compromising for the continuation of the race
2) Start as in the first case, therefore remaining close to the central line to be able to grab the rope but then start pulling using the lower limbs, then, grab the rope, throw yourself back with the Squat-like weight and then, as soon as the sled starts to move, having overcome the elastic tension of the rope, take steps backwards with arms outstretched and the body projected towards the second line which must never be crossed with the feet. Once I reach the rear line I go back forward and repeat the gesture, being careful to throw the rope to one side to avoid tripping over it. A mistake that is often made is to start very low and with the torso leaning forward in order to grab the rope beyond the line of the feet. This gesture means that I find myself unbalanced forward and when I have to make the sled start moving, I seriously stress the lumbar area and tire the body and that's it.
TRAIN WITH SLEDS
The Hyrox® provides different weights between women and men, between Open and PRO:
Open:
| Donna | Sled Push (102kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (78kg/incl. Sled) |
| Men | Sled Push (152kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (103kg/incl. Sled) |
| Mixed doubles | Sled Push (152kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (103kg/incl. Sled) |
| Women's doubles | Sled Push (102kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (78kg/incl. Sled) |
| Doubles men | Sled Push (152kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (103kg/incl. Sled) |
PRO:
| Donna | Sled Push (152kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (103kg/incl. Sled) |
| Men | Sled Push (202kg/incl. Sled) | Sled Pull (153kg/incl. Sled) |
But how best to train?
We assume that Hyrox® was created as the Fitness Race for Everyone, but let's not forget it, it is still a fitness competition that requires training and preparation of both strength and resistance. 8 x 1km running and 8 functional workouts! So even the Sled Push or Sled Pull start from functional movements but... there is a but...you have significant loads and as Functional training teaches, they must be conditioned gradually. You cannot think of including 102 kg of push or 78 of pull in a beginner's training but you must first learn the gesture, evaluate the surrounding conditions, such as the available space, the sliding surface of the sled etc... then "have fun" with the loads. It is important to familiarize yourself with Hyrox movement standards® in order to train the exercises in the right way and avoid incorrect movements and potential injuries. If the gym has sleds available, it is always a good idea to test the various techniques that can be applied and find the one that works best for you.
Once you have learned the technical gesture you have to start increasing the loads reaching train with weights much higher than those for the competition precisely because he already arrives with a workload due to the race and the previous positions where we often start, mistakenly, at full speed without thinking that the race is long and intense. Then you never know what type of surface you may find under the sled, the friction is not always the same in every race. Sometimes it feels like you have to push or pull a mountain.
Given these premises, let's also think about the gesture we must make, that is, a push and a pull, therefore I can, or rather I must, include push and pull exercises with increased load in your workouts to increase the specific strength for the movement.
We can use Deadlifts, Pullups, Dip Presses. All exercises that can be trained even in a small space, where perhaps I don't have the sled available.
Let's see how to improve and train the sled pull, one of the most frightening positions. To best train the sled pull technique, it is a good idea to train the short pull in order to strengthen the gesture by stepping back and using the lower limbs. The short shot it has two advantages, one linked to space because not all gyms have more than 10m of distance to pull the sled and secondly because I learn, using either two handles or the belt to tie around my waist, to move backwards pulling the load with me with the activation of the core and using the strength of the hip and pelvis, which allow me to bring the body leaning backwards while keeping the arms completely tense.
This gesture will be very useful in the race, especially in the first few meters of the pull where the weight is felt. With the short pull, in training, I will certainly have to increase the weights significantly compared to the competition ones. With this body position I create a straight line that goes from the sled to the pull force point, dissipating as little energy as possible. Single line rope arms.
The pushing and pulling of the sled are therefore functional exercises of Strength first and foremost which is then released into power, explosiveness and in the case of competition Hyrox®, also resistance. Sled training is for the whole body because involves all major muscle groups and it's one of the few ways to exercise your upper and lower body muscles at the same time. It also helps increase your heart rate by burning a lot of calories.
Sled push exercises and alternatives are designed to improve body function. The pushing motion of a sled will help increase speed, while the pulling will help increase strength. Here it is la sled it can be included in the training of many athletes as part of the specific physical preparation for their discipline.
All gyms should be equipped with a sled to allow targeted and effective training
We see an example of a typical workout for a Hyrox athlete® with the sled:
- First 15 minutes: Warm-up
- 40 minutes: Main Part
- 5 minutes: Cool Down (consists of the unloading phase to bring the body back to a state of calm)
I recommend exercises Primitive Functional Movement for the Warmup, being effective and complete.
| WARM UP 15 minutes | |
| Spinal Wave | 6 repetitions per side for each exercise repeated for 2 sets
|
| Cobra | |
| Hip Flexors | |
| Shin box | |
| Shin Box up | |
| Wrists | |
| Mobility and wrist strength with 1,5 kg club | |
| MAIN PART | ||
| SUPERSET for maximum search | I start loading the sled to do 10 m of push and 10 m of pull with the short pull.
I increase the load progressively until I reach the limit both in the push and in the pull. NB the load of the pull will be less but I have to stop when the gesture is no longer fluid in the 10 m |
|
| circuit training | 500m run | 4 sets with 3' of recovery between one set and another |
| 60 m push & pull with the weight found for the pull | ||
| 500m run | ||
| 50 walking lunges | ||
| 500 m rowing or skierg | ||
| 30 wall balls | ||
| COOL DOWN 5 minutes | |
| Opposite Leg | 6 repetitions per side for each exercise repeated for 2 sets
|
| Spinal Wave | |
| Scorpion | |
| Supine Bridge | |
| Supine Pull Knee | |
This is just an example, assuming you have space to run or a treadmill and equipment used in the Hyrox race® with skierg and rowing. It is however possible to perform the same circuit with alternative exercises.
If you don't have the opportunity to run, you can use a bike or insert 3' of alternative cardio instead of the 500 m run.
Rowing can be replaced with the row al Flying and the skierg with it smesh with the medball.
There are many alternatives and many combinations to train best with the sled. Surely it is best not to improvise to avoid injury and, if you want to best prepare for a competition, contact certified trainers or gyms.
My sport is Hyrox® and Yours?
Alexdelma75
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