Home Run Tire Sled Exercise

I am a big fan of baseball and if you know me, you know I am a Yankees fan.  If you like baseball then you love home runs; well as long as your team is hitting them.  Although this exercise is titled “home run” it is not what I would call perfect form to hit home runs but it does semi mimic a batters swing at least through the hips and core.  Frankly, I just needed to call his exercise something for my athletes and the home run just came to mind and stuck.

This is a great exercise for developing strength and power through the torso, but more importantly it trains you to load the back hip and extend through the glutes, down through the ground, while firing your torso muscles in a rotating motion.  This is the same neurological firing sequence you find in most athletic movements.  As a strength coach I find this a very desirable exercise to use with my athletes.

One of the biggest mistakes my athletes make with this exercise is not stepping far enough away from the sled to take up the slack in the strap.  You want the strap with no slack in it to start as seen in the picture.  From there you want to engage your torso musculature; particularly your abdominals as you start to load the back hip area.  Extend through the hip and knee to generate force through the ground as the torso begins it’s rotation.  Then follow through the full range of motion.

This is a training method I use to achieve rotational force and power.  It has proven itself to be a highly effect exercise over the years and I would encourage you to give it a try.  Try it even if you are no longer a participating athlete. You can slow down the power element and it will become more of a rotational strength exercise for your core.

To your health,

Jerry