Prowler Suicides

HIIT – Prowler Suicides

I’ve written a lot recently on conditioning, partly because it’s the summer and my training has moved in that direction, but also because I see people making the same mistakes with their cardio workouts time and again – they sit on a stationary bike for 30 minutes and wonder why their improvements are limited.

You need intensity and variety. I’ll show you how…

These prowler suicides are simple – push the prowler to a point, then push it back to the start line. Without rest, push to a second (further away) point and return. Finally, you push the prowler to a final point which is even further away and return to the start line.

It was tough, as my client found out…

The beauty of the prowler suicides for conditioning is that they require very little equipment. Given the length of time and the distance the prowler needs to be pushed, I don’t even add extra weight to it. If you are advanced and feeling fit and strong, by all means add extra weight to give this HIIT workout an extra kick.

If you are in a fat loss phase, prowler workouts are an incredibly effective addition to your training schedule.

The prowler suicide workout is really easy to set up…

• Point 1: 10 metres from start line.
• Point 2: 15 metres from start line.
• Point 3: 20 metres from start line.

Push the prowler to the cone (marked by a triangle), turn around and sprint push it back. Once at the start line, immediately turn around and sprint push to the next cone. When you have done all three cones, that is one set complete.

Each set covers 90 metres and took my client around 50 seconds to complete. I then allowed enough rest to see his heart rate return to around 60% of his maximum (you can only do this accurately if you are wearing a Heart Rate Monitor.

The prowler suicide workout involved 5 sets of the above.

How to programme prowler suicides into your workout

I think the prowler suicides work best either as a high intensity start to a workout or as a stand alone finisher at the end. In the case where I used them in a personal training session, the prowler suicides where placed at the start of the workout, just after the warm up. This was because we were going through a conditioning session, meaning we had other work to do afterwards.

I programmed the prowler suicides at the start of the workout because I saw it as the bulk, main working element of the session so wanted my personal training client to be fresh enough to get the most benefit from the exercise.

It’s a way of raising the heart rate and getting some good quality HIIT cardio in whilst still fresh and having accumulated little fatigue from other exercises.

If I was programming the prowler suicides as a workout finisher, I would stick to a maximum of 5 sets, keep the prowler empty (don’t add extra weight) and instead focus on reducing rest times. As a side note, I’d also avoid doing it after a heavy leg session as you simply wouldn’t have enough left in your legs to make it worth your while!

If you are into HIIT, read these articles….

• Prowler conditioning workout
• Workout Finishers

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