He Does This 6 Days a Week, Squats Only Once. The Results? Stronger Knees, Better Cardio, and a Body That Defies Age at 43

Sled training has quietly become one of the most effective—and overlooked—tools in strength and conditioning.

While flashy exercises dominate social media, a growing number of coaches and athletes are turning to this deceptively simple piece of equipment for joint-friendly strength building and rehabilitation.

In a recent conversation, fitness expert and advocate of sled work shared why he prioritizes this low-impact movement six days per week—and how it transformed not just his training, but his training partner’s entire physique and athletic performance.

The benefits might convince you to rethink your entire warm-up routine.

Why Sled Training Protects Your Joints

Traditional strength exercises like squats and deadlifts come with inherent risk: gravity pulls the weight down, and your body must resist and reverse that force.

Sled work eliminates this eccentric loading phase entirely.

The difference is that only you move the sled. So, the sled never moves you. When you do squats or anything like that, you’re taking some degree of risk. The weight is going to move you down and then you’re going to move it back.

This unique characteristic makes sleds remarkably safe across all fitness levels. Because horizontal resistance doesn’t compress the spine or joints the way vertical loading does, older adults and people recovering from injury can train with significantly reduced injury risk.

One trainer described putting his 82-year-old neighbor on a sled immediately, with no prior assessment needed—something unthinkable with barbell exercises.

The Knee-Strengthening Power of Backward Sled Drags

Reverse sled drags specifically target knee health in ways few other exercises can match.

Every step that you’re going backward, you’re strengthening your knee.

Walking backward while dragging or pushing a sled emphasizes quadriceps engagement without the joint compression found in squats or leg presses. This makes it particularly valuable for athletes dealing with knee pain or anyone wanting to build resilience around the joint.

For martial artists throwing kicks or basketball players absorbing thousands of pounds of force through their knees, backward sled work provides a protective counterbalance—strengthening tissues without adding more inflammatory stress.

Research on eccentric-free training supports this approach. Studies have shown that concentric-only exercises (where you only push or pull, never lower weight) produce significantly less muscle damage and soreness while still building strength effectively.

Six Days a Week: The Sled-First Training Protocol

Most lifters relegate sleds to occasional conditioning finishers.

But one approach flips this entirely: sled work becomes the foundation of every single training session.

6 days I—Every workout I sled first. It doesn’t matter if it’s upper body. I sled first.

This protocol uses sled pushes and drags as a combination warm-up, cardio session, and joint preparation tool—all before touching a single weight.

The ratio mentioned: six days of sled work to one day of traditional squatting. This reverses conventional wisdom that treats barbell lifts as primary movements and sleds as accessories.

Why Daily Sled Work Doesn’t Lead to Overtraining

The absence of eccentric muscle damage makes frequent sled training remarkably sustainable.

First off, if the sled had a thousand pounds on it, it just wouldn’t move. So you already have that difference. It’s much harder to get into a tricky situation on the sled.

Unlike squats or deadlifts where ego can push you into dangerous territory, sleds are self-regulating. Load it too heavy, and you simply can’t move it. This built-in safety mechanism prevents the kind of overreaching that leads to injury or burnout.

Muscle soreness from traditional lifting comes primarily from eccentric contractions—lengthening muscle under tension. Since sled work involves only concentric effort (pushing or pulling), athletes recover faster and can train more frequently without accumulated fatigue.

The Spine-Sparing Alternative to Loaded Carries

Horizontal loading offers unique advantages for spinal health.

When you push a sled you get a very similar effect cuz you’re not loading your spine.

This comparison references the reverse hyperextension machine popularized by legendary powerlifting coach Louie Simmons, known for its ability to strengthen the posterior chain while decompressing the spine.

Sled work provides similar benefits: full-body strengthening without axial loading. For anyone with lower back issues, herniated discs, or spinal compression concerns, this is transformative.

You can train intensely, build serious leg and conditioning strength, and walk away feeling better rather than beaten down.

Training Your Feet: The Forgotten Foundation

Modern footwear and sedentary lifestyles have weakened foot strength across populations.

You actually get a foot workout when you push a sled. So I think most of us humans we’re missing training our feet.

Pushing a sled requires you to drive through your feet with each step, engaging intrinsic foot muscles, strengthening arches, and improving proprioception. This is especially true when done outdoors on grass or turf rather than on wheels indoors.

Strong feet translate to better balance, improved athletic performance, and reduced injury risk up the kinetic chain—from ankles through knees to hips and back.

The 43-Year-Old Who Can Dunk: A Sled Training Case Study

Perhaps the most compelling evidence comes from real-world results.

One training partner, who out-sledded even the most dedicated practitioners over five years, experienced dramatic physical transformation at an age when most athletes are declining.

My training partner’s 43 and he has reversed his body. He can dunk a basketball. He’s the youngest looking 43-year-old I’ve ever seen. He can now dunk a basketball. He’s completely shredded.

Dunking at 43 requires exceptional power, explosive strength, and joint integrity—qualities typically declining significantly by that age. The combination of frequent sled work with targeted strength training appears to have created an anti-aging effect that goes beyond aesthetics.

While individual results vary and genetics play a role, this case demonstrates the potential of prioritizing low-impact, high-frequency training over traditional heavy lifting protocols.

Rethinking the Treadmill: Humans Should Do the Work

Standard cardio equipment does the work for you.

The current human exercise fundamental is walking forward with a machine doing the work for you, a treadmill. It should be the human doing the work.

Treadmills move the belt beneath your feet; you simply avoid falling off. Sleds require you to generate all the force—making them metabolically demanding and functionally superior for building real-world strength.

This philosophy extends to manual resistance sleds that don’t require weight plates—instead using adjustable friction or magnetic resistance. These allow training anywhere, even on rooftops or in small spaces, with zero setup time.

Practical Tips for Starting Sled Training

Ready to incorporate sleds into your routine? Here’s how to begin safely and effectively:

• Start light: Use 25-50% of your body weight initially, focusing on smooth movement quality over heavy loads
• Emphasize backward drags: Walk backward at least as much as you push forward to maximize knee strengthening and quad development
• Make it your warm-up: Begin every workout with 10-15 minutes of varied sled work before touching weights
• Use it for active recovery: Light sled sessions on rest days promote blood flow without creating additional muscle damage
• Vary your stance and speed: Mix high and low positions, fast and slow paces, and different stride lengths to challenge your body differently
• Train your feet: Work barefoot or in minimal shoes when possible to maximize foot strengthening benefits

When Sleds Make Sense (and When They Don’t)

Sled training excels for specific goals and populations.

Ideal applications include:

• Knee rehabilitation and prehabilitation
• Conditioning for athletes in contact sports
• Training older adults or beginners safely
• Building work capacity without joint stress
• Warming up before heavy lifting sessions
• Maintaining fitness during injury recovery

However, sleds alone won’t maximize all fitness qualities. They lack the eccentric strength development crucial for injury prevention in many sports, and they don’t provide the bone density benefits of loaded vertical movement.

The six-to-one ratio mentioned earlier—six days of sled work to one day of squatting—represents a balanced approach that captures benefits from both training modalities.

The Unglamorous Path to Longevity

Sled training will never dominate Instagram feeds.

The sled is not interesting. But the sled is what I’ve definitely done more than any human being over the last 10 years.

This captures an essential truth about effective training: the most sustainable practices are often the least flashy. While one-rep max lifts and advanced gymnastics skills generate likes and views, consistent low-impact work builds the foundation for lifelong movement.

For those prioritizing joint health, athletic longevity, and functional strength over numbers on a platform, sled training deserves serious consideration—not as an occasional finisher, but as a cornerstone of intelligent programming.

The results speak through decades of pain-free training and 43-year-olds dunking basketballs.