The Sled

by Brendan Dart | October 22, 2008
Filed in DIY | 2 comments

Tear it up.

The other day I had a training epiphany! I had just finished a particularly vigorous gardening session with my girlfriend. Well, we started out gardening—it’s funny how weeding almost always leads on to ploughing! High five—Sexy time! Anyway, back to the story … So I was spreadeagled across the back lawn with my girlfriend hovering over me with a big stick (we were playing ‘squeal little pig’) when I happened to notice our wheelbarrow parked alongside the back fence …

Just a wheelbarrow?

Then it hit me—no, not the wheelbarrow OR the stick my girlfriend was holding—my epiphany. I jumped up, took the stick off my girlfriend and spanked myself on the buttocks and yelled …

That’s no wheelbarrow, baby—that’s a sled!

Initially my girlfriend thought our kinky love-making had sent me mad—mad I say! She point-blank refused to let me ravage the wheelbarrow. It took another two hours of relentless gardening to convince her to let me have my way with the wheelbarrow.

The next day I sprung into action. Whilst the wheelbarrow had most of the parts necessary to make my hella-sled, I still needed something for it to slide on. Then I remembered my mate, Allan—he was a sandboarder (sort of like a snow-boarder—only gay). Anyway, after a little ‘gentle’ persuading he agreed to give me his old sandboard—for free :)

Persuasion.

"Sonnon is without doubt one of the top conditioning coaches in the US, the thinking man's coach. He is the hologram man. Try and hit him and he disappears."
- Pavel Tsatsouline

Are you ready for Tacfit?

Now I was ready to make my masterpiece. And this is how I did it …

1. I separated the bucket from the rest of the wheelbarrow—saving all the nuts and bolts for later.
2. I cut the sand board in half with a jigsaw.
3. I placed the bucket on the sandboard halves and carefully positioned them.
4. I drilled through the holes—that were already in the bucket—straight into the boards.
5. I used the nuts and bolts I’d saved to secure the sled—making sure that the cup head of the bolt would be the part rubbing against the ground. I also used some scrap boards to raise the height of the bucket a little.
6. I drilled some holes in the front of the bucket and tied in a loop of rope (I’ll use this to attach various pulling devices to the sled).

The Sled.

Much fun was had making it, and even more fun will be had playing with it. You should have a crack at it—I highly recommend the ‘gardening’ part! And btw, wheelbarrows and skis/snowboards are easy to pick up at junk yards—just in case you have an ugly girlfriend or you don’t have a easily-intimidated snowboarding friend).

I’m also going to turn the wheel from the wheelbarrow into a ab-trainer and the handles into either some dip or chin bars. But that’s another story altogether :)

Brendan Dart is a conditioning-obsessed combat athlete; often found gazing longingly into the garden shed. Find out more at The Pound.

Fight Geek is a self-proclaimed Muay Thai tragic, Anthony Mundine Fan and unabashed Essendon supporter. For more, check out his blog. Brilliant.

If you’d like to write a guest post for Straight to the Bar, let us know.

The Ultimate Sandbag.

I love sandbag training, and this is definitely the way to do it right.

Beautiful thing.

Discussion

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