In this video, Victoria S. Dorsano introduces the reverse sled pull as the single most effective exercise for “bullet‑proofing” knees and alleviating knee pain. Drawing on her personal experience with ACL surgery and a kneecap fracture, she explains how pulling a sled backward delivers increased blood flow to the quadriceps and surrounding connective tissue, and how the deep knee‑flexion motion drives synovial fluid into the joint, reducing friction and supporting cartilage health. She highlights additional advantages: the movement is safe and self‑controlled, suitable for all fitness levels, and provides a solid cardio stimulus when performed for a few minutes before a workout. The second half of the video reviews the Freak Athlete Essentials Multi‑Sled, a portable, steel‑frame sled with interchangeable plastic rails that can be used on any surface. Dorsano details its easy assembly, 450‑lb weight capacity, lightweight (30 lb) design, optional Y‑post grip, and adjustable belt, emphasizing its suitability for home gyms and travel. She encourages viewers to purchase the sled via links in the description, and ends with a typical YouTube call‑to‑action to like, subscribe, and stay tuned for more joint‑health content.
Chapters
If you are looking to get stronger knees and reverse your knee pain, then you are in the right place. And I'm going to tell you about the number one exercise that you can do to absolutely bulletproof your knees and reverse your knee pain. The exercise is called the reverse sled pull, and it's an exercise that's been popularized by people like Ben Patrick, who created the Knees Over Toes program, aka the ATG program. And if you've watched any of my videos on my channel, you know I talk about the program a lot. I've been doing it for about 8 months now. I absolutely love his program. It has helped me so much with my knees and helping to reduce my knee pain after I've had ACL surgery. And a kneecap fracture and all that crazy stuff. So if you want to check out any of my other videos, I will put them in the description. Uh, all the ATG slash Knees Over Toes videos will be in there. But today I want to talk about the reverse sled pull and how amazing this one exercise can be to just incorporate that on a daily basis if you can do that. And I'm going to talk about the wonderful, wonderful piece of equipment called a multi-sled that I received from Freak Athlete Essentials and how amazing this thing has been. So luckily when I started the ATG program, my gym had a sled and I was able to utilize that. However, pandemic happened and people were starting to work out in their homes, right? And I realized, crap, I don't really have access to a sled other than the one at my gym. It would be great to have one that I can use at home, but I don't really have turf to use either. And that's where Freak Athlete Essentials really came in handy and they created this thing called a Multi-Sled with these plastic rails that can be used basically on any surface. You can use it on pavement, concrete, you know, anywhere really. You can use it in the grass outside. So I just tested it out today and you guys, I absolutely love it. But before I get into the entire build of that device, I want to talk a little bit about the benefits of doing the reverse sled pull to begin with and why this is the number one exercise to bulletproof your knees and help reduce knee pain. So the first reason why this exercise is amazing is that when you are pulling a sled backwards and you're pulling weight like that backwards, you are getting so much blood flow into the quads, into the muscles surrounding the knee, the connective tissue surrounding the knee, that you are delivering all this blood flow and nutrients subsequently to the areas around the knee, which is only going to help with healing any kind of injury or inflammation that you have going on in the knee over time. So you're getting all of that delivered straight to the connective tissues of the knee. But then secondly, when you are also going into that knees over toes motion and really putting knee flexion to the test and in loading in knee flexion, what happens is you're also helping to lubricate the knee and drive more synovial fluid, which is the natural lubricant that we have in our bodies, into that joint capsule. And it helps to reduce friction. So if you are somebody that has osteoarthritis or is worried about getting osteoarthritis because you have had surgery like me, doing something like the backward sled pull can be amazing to help drive that synovial fluid into the joint space and help carry a lot of different nutrients to the cartilage tissue in the knee. So the combination of getting all the blood flow delivered to the connective tissues and the muscles and the synovial fluid delivered to the joint itself is just like a win-win for a happy knee at the end of the day. And not only that, but if we're talking about your foot and your ankle joint, you're still getting a lot of good motion into that foot and ankle joint. So you're also into those joint spaces delivering synovial fluid and blood flow there. So you're also going to be helping with your ankle mobility, flexibility, and strength. And same with your feet, which is again like a win-win-win across the board. Second reason why this exercise is amazing is that it can be done by anyone. The cool thing about this is that you are not getting moved by the sled. You are the one doing the moving of the sled. So it's not dangerous. It's not like you weight on top of you that you have to control. You are the one actually controlling the weight. So at worst, if you put too much weight on the sled, you're not going to move. Oh well, right? You know, to take some off. It's not like the sled is pulling you and you have to keep up. So it's really controlled by your own pace and your own strength, and you can adapt it depending on how much weight you want to put on top of the sled or take off the sled. And then thirdly, it's absolutely great cardio too. Doing this for 5 minutes before you start your main chunk of exercising for the day is great cardio. I'm telling you, especially if you're able to pick up the pace a little bit, you're getting that blood flowing. You're going to start to notice you sweat pretty easily. You're going to start to notice you're, you're needing to breathe a little heavier. So it's also fantastic cardio and conditioning on top of getting the benefits into the knee joint itself. So now that I've talked a little bit about the benefits of doing this exercise to help bulletproof your knees and reduce your knee pain, let me tell you about this amazing piece of equipment. From Freak Athlete Essentials that they sent over to me, the Multi-Sled. It's absolutely amazing. It's super simple to assemble, number one. Number two, it comes with different adaptation pieces. Like I said, I have the plastic rail attachment so I can use it on pavement, concrete, really any kind of surface. So I don't have to just use it on, on grass or on turf. And that's been amazing. It also has a capacity of holding up to 450 pounds of weight. So if you really have that kind of strength and can pull that kind of weight, amazing. This sled has the capacity to hold it. Unfortunately, I only have little 10-pound plates that I've stacked on here, so I'm going to be adding some more pretty soon to my repertoire. Or you can always add, you know, something heavy like, you know, a sandbag or anything heavy, kettlebell, something that you could stack on top of the sled itself too if you don't have plates at home. Heck, you can even have a person ride along with you. The other thing I love about this sled is that even though it's like super durable and made of steel and just really sturdy, it's only about 30 pounds, so it's easy to bring with you wherever you want to go for your workouts if you loading it into the car and driving to a park or wherever, if you travel with it for clients. I mean, it's just really portable and easy to bring along, which I absolutely love that. On my sled, I also have the Y-post addition onto it so I can push it very easily and have a multitude of grips. I can pull from that railing too, but it's really nice to be able to use that for pushing. So that's an awesome addition that you can actually build onto your sled too. And they have a really awesome belt that comes along with it too that is really comfortable. It's adjustable to any kind of waist size, and you can tell that's really well made and pulls the weight of the sled really well. And lastly, I absolutely love that it's small. And I know I mentioned portable and the fact that you can like pick it up, it's only 30 pounds, but I love that it's something that I can easily store in my apartment and it's not this just massive sled taking up space. I can break it down and it's just like very narrow so I can slide it underneath the couch, I can slide it underneath the bed. It's super easy and I don't have to have it be the centerpiece of my apartment, which is great. I just think the sled is really, really well made. And if you're interested in purchasing one yourself, I'm going to drop all that info down below in the description for you to purchase your very own Multi-Sled. So thank you again, Freak Athlete Essentials, for sending over the Multi-Sled. I'm so, so happy with this. And if you want to purchase one of your own, you can go ahead down below in the description. I will put the link down there and you can purchase your very own Multi-Sled and get your knees feeling better today. So I hope this video was helpful to all y'all that are trying to optimize your, your knee and your joint health overall. And if you like this video and found this helpful, please go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. And as always, I will see you guys next time. Bye.
