what do you guys think. im leaning at getting the prowler for my cardio.
http://www.blackwidowtg.com/DSL_Push...p/sled-dsl.htm
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01-28-2013, 07:28 PM #1
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01-28-2013, 07:38 PM #2
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01-28-2013, 08:06 PM #3
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01-28-2013, 08:31 PM #4
The first question is which one will you use? The prowler is an excellent piece of equipment, but if you don't use it, it will sit in the garage and provide a perfect place for spiders to spin webs and wait for an unwitting insect to become dinner (as opposed to the tread being a clothes hangar). Several other factors, as you are probably well aware are that a good treadmill cost money, much more than a prowler, takes up more room and is somewhat one dimensional compared to the prowler. That said, a tread can be a very useful training tool, especially if you get something like a Woodway Curve (which is very expensive). But, by the time you drop the coin on that, you could purchase a power rack, a good bar, several hundred pounds of new plates, power blocks, a battle rope, some kettlebells, TRX or jungle gym and plyo boxes and have some money left over for what a Curve would cost.
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01-28-2013, 08:42 PM #5
Ive always wanted an EFTS prowler ever since Ive seen them around a few years ago. Personally I dont have anywhere private to push it. (No Im not pushing it down my street.) But if you have a place to push it go for it, Ive heard nothing but great things about them for conditioning. For $210 BW version, go for it.
Id love a treadmill for just general walking, but a good one is too expensive, we are talking thousands.
Ive had a C2, very solid piece, but I dont like the movement.
So I ended up with an AirDyne, I love it, it moves my hands and legs, kind of compact, and built like a tank. 100$ used.[]---[] Equipment Crew #6 []---[]
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01-28-2013, 08:51 PM #6
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01-28-2013, 09:10 PM #7
What do you mean by the comment about making people richer who don't deserve it? You do understand that companies such as Life Fitness, Precor, Cybex, etc employ thousands of people who go to work in various capacities within those companies who are generally middle class and just trying to make ends meet. Those companies provide a product, a treadmill in this case, along with many other strength and cardio products that have a demand. You don't have to buy it. But they are no different than Apple, Ford, Boeing, Wilson, Microsoft, EA Sports, GE, Washington Post, Papa Johns, etc. They are offering a product that has demand. In the end, they are trying to make money and it does not make them some evil entity. You do understand that buying a Prowler is making someone richer, but also keeping people employed. It is no different with those companies offering a treadmill.
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01-28-2013, 09:25 PM #8
Assuming you have the space to push / pull a sled, sled all the way. You can do movements for every part of your body. Can go heavy or light for different training effects. You can do it ALL with a sled.
Negatives to a sled;
-Need a fair amount of open space where possibly scuffing up the pavement isn't a big deal
-Must do outside, when it's cold as **** outside (right now) if you want to do cardio, you can't do it inside your heated house, gotta brave the elements.
-If you use it alot, eventually will need to get someone to weld a new piece of sheet metal on the bottom of it, since it slowly wears down over time (takes a super long time depending on amount of use)
That being said a sled is much much cheaper than any treadmill. You can also easily change the difficulty by loading more or less plates. It's a lot more fun that running staring at a wall or something.
As much as I love Elitefts, the prowler is pretty expensive, even the economy one, for what is. Also, the economy prowler cannot really be pulled like a normal sled. Since the plates load on the rear, if you try and pull the sled from the front, the front end pops up and making it really weird and annoying to pull it.
I would look around for some other prowler style push / pull sleds that have a loading spot either in the front or middle to keep the nose down. Also, they are most likely cheaper than the prowler.
I personally use one of the simple sleds from rogue. Less than 100 bucks when I got it, comes with awesome straps to pull and push with, doesn't take up a lot of room, just a plain old weight sled that works on concrete.
Just look around the internet, a lot of independent places make similar sleds to the prowler but significantly cheaper.
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01-28-2013, 09:47 PM #9
Very nice points above. Just couple of additional questions. Who are the target audience. Just you or someone else in ur house too. Prowler might not be the best choice for everyone. One more consideration is if you have the place to use a prowler and dont mind training outside, u can just run outside. Pick the one u r likely to enjoy more.
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01-29-2013, 12:05 AM #10
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01-29-2013, 02:20 AM #11
Since you are comparing the two, I am assuming you are thinking of doing HIIT on the treadmill. Most "home" treadmills can't take that kind of pounding so you will need to buy something commercial grade....or just go run outside !
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01-29-2013, 02:27 AM #12
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01-29-2013, 02:46 AM #13
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01-29-2013, 06:16 AM #14
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01-29-2013, 10:39 AM #15
Weight sled is a strength and conditioning tool period. You don't have to do HIIT with it to condition yourself. Most people I know with sleds use it more for active recovery and increasing work capacity.
You can do light pulls and pushes for time / distance to increase your conditioning. Don't always have to go balls to the wall sled drags.
But as others have said HIIT on a treadmill kinda sucks, but it is doable
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01-29-2013, 12:42 PM #16
Another vote for the sled. Then again I'm a bit biased as I've never liked treadmills.
I've had the sled in the below link (different name and color) for a year and a half and love using it. Other than the decals peeling off (due to heat) and the paint on the bottom of the skis scraping off, it looks as good as the day I bought it.
I use mine on grass though I sometimes would drag it home. Nice thing about using it on grass is you don't need to add as much weight as when using it on the street.
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...uctId=12982368
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01-29-2013, 01:11 PM #17
I've always been intrigued with the sleds, but I can't justify tearing up my yard or concrete driveway to use one. The logic defies me why anyone would do that kind of damage to their own property. Now in an indoor gym with turf, I could understand. To each their own.
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01-29-2013, 02:57 PM #18
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01-29-2013, 03:03 PM #19
Sleds will not tear up concrete / asphalt. Worst that will happen is you get some marks where pebbles caught under the sled, or the skids themselves scratch the pavement. No actual damage is done to the pavement. When I use my sled it rarely leaves any scratches at all, but sometimes it does. However, like I said it's purely cosmetic and does not effect the smoothness or function of the pavement.
I know how much it costs to pave a driveway, I would never pull a sled on it if it eventually required me to repave.
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01-30-2013, 06:40 AM #20
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01-30-2013, 06:49 AM #21
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Get a prowler over a sled, if you have the funds.
You can use most prowlers as sleds and drag them w/ a small tow strap.
I bought my prowler from a guy here locally. I love it. He uses the same skids as Elitefts so if i need to replace them i can get them from them. He also uses a middle loading pin, which works great cuz the load is more balanced (if you use a lot of weight on the 2 big uprights and push it in the grass it will sink in to grass) and when you are dragging the sled w/ a lot of weight the front of the prowler doesnt bounce up.
http://mysite.verizon.net/respmfp3/fste/id1.html
He will post them up on ebay every now and then: http://www.ebay.com/sch/buncle31/m.h...p2047675.l2562
Here is a review i did on my prowler (w/ lots of pics)
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=140519761It surprises me how many people refuse to buy equipment from Elitefts because its too expensive but they will buy equipment from their competitors, then continue to go on EFS website to educate themselves for FREE
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01-31-2013, 11:18 AM #22
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01-31-2013, 11:23 AM #23
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01-31-2013, 11:40 AM #24
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01-31-2013, 02:10 PM #25
Sled all the way. With the farmers handles you are limited by grip strength and you are still vertically compressing your spine. With the sled you can use / train muscles to a high degree with pretty much 0 vertical spine compression.
This means more circulation and muscle use without compressing your spine. It's a recipe for recovery and rehabilitation. If you've hurt your back, you can load up the sled to the gills and do heavy pulls for short duration and blow up your posterior chain, but without having to load your injured back.
Farmers handles are a great tool to have and offer good variety, but a weight sled is simply more versatile.
That's not to say if you have farmers handles you need to go out and buy a weight sled. All I mean is if I had to choose 1 and only 1, I would choose the sled.
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01-31-2013, 02:45 PM #26
Include BOTH
My GPP Conditioning circuit includes
Burpees
Sandbag Loading
Sandbag carry
Farmers Walk
Plyo Box jumps
Sled pull and push
Med ball slams
Tornado ball slams (similar to sledgehammer)
med ball woodchippers
Battle Ropes
Keg loading
Clean and Press
Suicides
Chin Ups
Fast punching on a heavy bag
Muay Thai knees in a heavy bag
The whole circuit takes me around 11 minutes and i'm totally shot at the end
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