Does The SledTred Actually Help Your Knees? (SledTred Review)

Have you ever wondered how you can keep your knees healthy, strong, and pain-free, not just in this season but for years to come? I'm in my 30s and I still love to play sports, run, lift, sprint, climb trees when I can, and I don't plan to slow down. And in order to do those things for as long as I possibly can, joint health is everything. Now, on this channel, I have reviewed a lot of other equipment that I have found to be really helpful for joint health, so this review is no exception to that. Today I'm going to be going over the Sled Tread from The Tibar Guy and what I think of it as a tool to potentially increase the longevity of your joints. So what is the Sled Tread? To put it simply, the Sled Tread is an all-in-one manual treadmill and functional strength station. It basically brings sled pushes, pulls, Nordic curls, dips, and a bunch of other pro-level movements right into your home gym. No turf or heavy plates needed. One of the things that I do really enjoy about the Sled Tread is something that I look for in a lot of home pieces of equipment, is its ability to be modified, because not everybody wants all the bells and whistles attached to it. So you can just start off with the base unit that is just the sled tread itself. That basically gives you the ability to do a lot of like the sled pulls, the pushes, the Nordic curls, a lot of the lower body things. Then you can get the Power Tower attachment itself and add the ability to do a bunch of different pull-ups with a variety of different grips, and also being able to do assisted Nordics by attaching a band to the top of the Power Tower. Personally, I just like to hang from it. It's really great for just decompression in general, so that's always lovely to do. There's also a multi-step attachment where you can latch that on and do things like step downs, step-ups and other multiplanar exercises you can incorporate with a step. Now in this review, I'm actually going to take a different angle. I'm not going to go too much into the technical specs. I'm actually going to discuss more of the practical use cases of why this machine might be applicable for you. I really want to get into how you can incorporate the Sledge Tread into your training in a practical way and really explore how each of the movements can benefit joint health, and in particular knee health, especially since myself and a lot of you guys watching on this channel have gone through some sort of ACL surgery or knee-related injury, or are probably just an aging athlete in general and want to protect their joints. So if you want more of the technical specs of the machine, which I do recommend checking out at some point, I'm going to link a couple creators' videos down below that you can get more details on that. So if you're an aging athlete like myself, you probably are aware that as you get into your 30s and your 40s and your 50s, your recovery time starts to slow down, meaning you need more and more of a recovery period, especially for your joints. You start to see injuries happening a lot sooner and old injuries even popping popping up more frequently. Again, as somebody who has gone through an ACL surgery, a kneecap fracture, 2 calf tears, a low back injury, I've definitely had my fair share of things popping up in my early 30s. And being strong, mobile, and flexible as you age isn't about just avoiding pain. It's about the freedom to be active for a long time. And that type of freedom is what I see machines like the sled tread being able to provide people. So let's dive into the movements that the sled tread provides that particularly make me feel that way. So talking more specifically about knee health here, One of the main movements that really helps to build joint resilience in the knee is a backward sled walk. Unlike heavy squats or running, backward sled drags load the quad and nourish the knees, helping to heal the connective tissue, bringing nutrients to the joint, and they lubricate the joint with natural synovial fluid, which is essentially like the oil in a cog of a machine, keeping everything sliding and gliding smoothly and providing nutrients to the cartilage itself. They are really the gold standard for knee rehab and joint resilience. Now, while the sled tread isn't a sled that you you are currently dragging, it does mimic that movement without the need for a sled that again is going to scratch up your driveway or that you have to load a bunch of plates on. Treadmill is really easily able to drop down into an incline mode, and then you can just basically adjust the resistance to one of the 12 resistance settings to whatever feels best for you. And you can push through that movement and it feels exactly the same as it would as if you're doing a backwards sled pull. And I actually prefer it because to adjust the resistance with the magnetic resistance dial or on the left flywheel down below In the treadmill, there's another setting that you can adjust to change it. Either one of those is going to adapt it, and you can combine any mix of that to create such a variety of resistance. So you can really work yourself from like light to super heavy really easily and without having to take plates on and off and take up space to go back and forth with the sled. And one of my favorites is I don't have to look over my shoulder and wonder if my neighbor is staring at me or if I'm about to step in some goose poop, or, you know, any of the situations that can happen when you're dragging a sled across either an outside area or on turf. One of the best things you can do is a backward sled walk like that for 10 minutes a day. It is such a game changer for your knees if you have any kind of aches and pains in your knees, if you are rehabbing your knee currently. It just feels so good. Now let's talk about forward sled pushes and why that is also so good for your joints. Forward sled pushes are low impact but incredibly effective. They boost leg and hip strength, they train coordination, and they really work your cardiovascular health, but with much less pounding compared to high impact exercises like running or jumping. Now, the cool thing about the sled tread is you can mimic any type of like sled push and grip. There are high handles that you can use to reach out, there's low handles, there's like shoulder padding cushions that you can lean into and really drive forward and low. And again, you can change the angle of the treadmill itself. You can keep it flat or you can put it on an incline. One of the things that I really felt when I started using the sled tread versus doing a normal like sled push out on turf was that my feet were incredibly sore the next few days, which attuned to me that because you're pushing against resistance a little bit differently than you would with like a weight where you're getting some momentum, I felt like I was working the muscles of my feet and my toes so much more to push off the tread. And I feel like that's really great for your foot health in general to be able to work your feet and your toes and your grip just in a different way. Talking about grip, this is a technical aspect I want to cover because I've had a lot of people ask me about this. The treadmill is incredibly grippy, like the belt itself has a good amount of like grip to it, so you're not like sliding off of it or anything. So you can really push into it. Now let's talk about another one of my favorite exercises that's like a cornerstone for knee health and especially ACL injury prevention or rehab, later stages of rehab. Nordic curls. Eccentric hamstring strength is vital for knee stability and injury prevention to the knee and to the hamstring for that matter. Nordic curls are notoriously tough. I'm not going to say they're not. They are very difficult to do, but they build so much resilience against strains and tears. Now, the Sledgehead is really cool because you can take this like hip bar that they have that's really nicely padded and you can reattach that towards the bottom. Put your feet underneath that, put your knees on the treadmill obviously with a pad. I did not get the pad attachment, so I wasn't really able to do a full Nordic, but with the appropriate padding on the treadmill, you're really well supported for doing a full Nordic. And if you need additional support, you can always latch a band onto the top of the Power Tower for assisted Nordics. Now, one of the other movements that was a cornerstone for my ACL recovery and continues to be something that I use for maintenance in conjunction with some of these other exercises that is also just really great for knee health in general, like step downs. Anything with like a controlled eccentric movement of the where you can load it safely is going to be a great movement to consider. Now, if you don't have the multi-step attachment, you can still do things like Bulgarian split squats with the hip bar attachment, which can be really great for building up quad and glute strength that's going to support the knee joint. But you can always get the additional multi-step attachment, which again, the modular features of this are great because you can build it as you need to. You're able to do things like Patrick steps, poliquin steps, really be able to work that eccentric loading of the knee safely. Those are so great for just working all the small stabilizers of the knee. One of the other things that is super important for aging athletes is also considering your cardiovascular health. But if we're also wanting to keep our joints healthy, we often need to find low-impact ways to do that. Doing controlled full-body conditioning allows you to build endurance and strength at the same time. Since the sled tread is a manual treadmill, like I said, you can adjust it so you can set the resistance to a degree that feels comfortable for you, and you can even do a light slightly resisted jog or a light to heavy resisted sprint, both of which I've tried and both of which definitely get your heart pumping. And they're less impact than doing it like on the asphalt without any support, no resistance. I was honestly pretty floored with doing the resisted sprints on the machine. It, it really got my heart pumping. So why does all this matter? As I've gotten older into my 30s, I've realized that it's not just pushing PRs and playing through pain. It's about having the energy and ability to keep up with your family and your friends and the sports and the hobbies that you love. Because there's nothing worse than sitting on the sidelines or watching your kids play because you can't do it due to pain or joint issues. Movements like the ones that I mentioned, and that the sled tread does a really good job of putting into a compact singular device that you can have in your home or your garage gym, those have been the key to helping me recover from my ACL surgery and keeping my body feeling young and being able to play the sports that I love still. So if you're an athlete in your 30s and 40s or beyond, or just somebody who wants to move better, hurt less, or just live life on your own the Sled Tread is definitely something worth to consider in my books. It won't do the work for you, but it'll definitely give you all the tools you need to stay active and strong and avoid like the beat up feeling that you can get from using traditional strength equipment or just more traditional avenues of cardio. Like I said, if you want more of a technical breakdown and feature set, check the links down below in the description. Those are some great videos from other creators who did a really detailed job of all the specs. I just wanted to take this video more so from the angle of an athlete and how it can actually be applicable and used and why somebody might want this. Because for longevity, for knee and joint health, and for living the active life that you love, I honestly believe that this machine belongs in your corner. If you have any questions, drop them down below in the comments. But I'd also love to hear what have you guys been doing to make sure that your joints are aging well as you continue to stay active. I'd love to hear tips, tricks, different exercises that you swear by Drop them down below. And if you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel. I greatly, greatly appreciate it, and I'll catch you guys on the next one. Bye.