How to Use the Spud, Inc Ankle Sled Strap to Improve Your Squat
By Susan Finley
Back when I first started training heavy, Marc had me and another girl
on a strict Westside training regimen. We did speed upper on Sundays,
max effort lower on Mondays, max effort upper on Wednesdays, and box
squats on Fridays. In between, we did sled work at least 4–6 days a
week.
On one of those days, we did ankle drags with the lower body sled
strap (currently made by Spud, Inc). The group of exercises that we did
with this strap strengthened my hip flexors and increased my squat. I
won’t quote any numbers because my squat is nothing to write home about.
However, the stability in the hole, the flexibility to get in the hole,
and the strength to come up and out of the hole came mostly from my work
with the sled. It’s for this reason that I think the lower body sled
strap is the most important strap sold at Spud, Inc. Unfortunately, it
seems that most people don’t understand what a great product it is
because of all of our straps, we sell the least amount of ankle straps.
There are two main exercises that you can do with our ankle strap—front
ankle drags and side ankle drags. The front drags concentrate on the hip
flexors and help you drive through your feet. The side ankle drags work
adduction and abduction.
First, buy a pair of high top work boots, preferably some with a good
grip. You can buy these at Walmart at a relatively low cost. If you
don’t have boots, the strap will eat up the top of your ankle, and
though I know powerlifters like pain, this isn’t the kind of pain you
want. We were all lucky and got cast-off boots from the prison riot
squad. I think they laced almost all the way up to our knees. Next, hook
up your ankle strap to the cable on your sled (hopefully, you have a
Spud, Inc. sled attachment cable that doesn’t fray and lasts forever).
When loading the sled with weight, add about half of the amount that you
would normally use for sled dragging. I usually pull the sled with 45–70
lbs so I ankle drag with 25–40 lbs. If you use much heavier than 50
percent, you’ll drag the sled about three feet before giving up and
going home.
Once you’re set up, put your feet in the loops and face away from the
sled. I like to start with my feet slightly off center with the first
pull coming from my right leg. I set up with my left leg slightly in
front of my right. Make sure that you’re pulling tight against the strap
and that there is no slack in the line. Begin the movement on your right
leg by pulling the leg up. You should really be able to feel your hip
flexor initiating. Move into a high step like you’re trying to step over
a log and then reach out into full step. Your right leg should now be in
front of your left leg. Continue on in this fashion for your desired
track.
We have a road around our parking lot that is one-third of a mile
long. That’s how far we go. It takes about 30–45 minutes. Make sure that
you use your stationary leg as grounding support. Push that foot through
the ground and really root with it. This exercise will challenge your
balance and you’ll need the stability in your grounded foot to keep from
falling over. When you’re finished with this round, you’ll be pretty
pissed off. I hate these because they’re slow, you feel like an idiot,
and they’re hard. But you’ll definitely feel your hip flexors like never
before.
Double up on the exercise by flipping around and pulling backward. Do
the same movements in reverse and you’ll get a huge glute and hamstring
workout. To execute, turn around in the straps and face the sled. I
always start this with my left foot so place that foot slightly in front
of your right. Begin by pulling your left foot up and back. Focus on
initiating the pull with your hamstrings and glutes. Take a giant step
backward and then repeat with the other foot. You won’t be able to do
this for the same one-third of a mile so set up a shorter distance for
this exercise.
Front ankle dragging and backward dragging also make use of the
abdominals. When you pull forward, the initial movement is with your hip
flexors, but your abdominals get into the groove as well. The higher you
step, the better you will engage your abs. You’ll use your abs a lot for
stabilization. For example, as I mentioned with the ankle drags, you’ll
find yourself off balance a lot. You’ll make constant use of your abs to
stabilize yourself. They may not be sore the next day like the rest of
your body, but you will have definitely used them.
Back in the old days, we had a mantra at the gym—we do abs every day.
There was this crazy guy whom we named Pluto. He would announce that to
everyone who entered the facility. He was right though. Not only did we
use our abs in traditional exercises, but we got a ton of abdominal work
done with assistance exercises such as sled dragging.
When the front dragging is over though, your sled workout isn’t
finished. You still have to do some side dragging. Luckily, we don’t do
these for one-third of a mile. The path that we take is down to the
cigarette river behind the tanning bed. You don’t have a reference point
for this, but it is about 150–200 feet. Use the same weight that you
used for the front dragging. However, set up in the ankle strap sideways
so that the sled sits on your right or left side. Start with a shoulder
width stance. If the sled is on your left, start by taking a giant step
sideways with your right leg. This will put you in a wide stance or
almost a squatting stance. From here, bring your left foot out, pull the
sled with you, and cross over your right leg. Repeat this by stepping
out wide with the right leg and then crossing over with the left. Do
this for 100 feet and then turn around and go back so that you lead with
your left leg and cross over with your right. The most important thing
to remember in this exercise is to keep your hips squared in front of
you. The impulse will be to twist as you pull but this will make the
move just like the first ankle drag and you will use to much hip flexor.
You want to focus on your inner and outer thigh so really square your
hips.
For novice or intermediate lifters, these moves will increase your
squatting power by strengthening your hips. It will also give you
another source of GPP. We put these exercises on our speed lower body
days because we didn’t do much other assistance work on those days. For
awhile, I even did ankle drags with light weight before I squatted. They
prepared my hips for the onslaught. This probably isn’t a good idea for
most people though. You can also put these exercises on your assistance
days. Use the ankle strap on any athlete who needs to increase hip
strength and agility. They won’t really like it because it’s hard and
really slow, BUT you’ll see improvements in their lifting.
Click here to get your Spud Inc Ankle Strap
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