The backward sled was an absolute game changer for me. Fair warning, the first few weeks of this exercise are absolutely brutal. The soreness you feel is in your VMO (Vastus Medialis) and it's not like a normal soreness. It's an achey feeling above the knee, because it's not just your muscles that are strengthening, but your tendons. There is an amazing stretch you can do for this, which I'll list below, but be aware that you will probably be uncomfortable for the first few weeks.

This is the practical application of our mobility theory section! We're building up that range of motion in your knee literally step by step!

Due to the fact that a weighted sled is very expensive, and not a lot of gyms have them, I'm adding some other options. Walking backwards on a treadmill with an incline works really well too. Remember, you want to pick a progression that's challenging, but doable.

Here are the progressions: You'll want to go for 6-10 minutes as your warm up before your workouts

• Easiest: Walking backward on the treadmill with no incline
• Middle: Walking backward on the treadmill with incline (don't be afraid to put the incline all the way up). I'll do an incline of 15 on my treadmill.
• Hardest: Weighted backward sled. This is the hardest because you can load literally as much as you can on this.

You'll want to keep the treadmill at about 1.6 mph- 1.8 mph. Slower is better, so you can really think about the form.

Likewise, you want to pick a progression that you can do that doesn't leave you in pain. Soreness is okay, pain is not. Find what you can do pain free, and then progress forward.

Weighted warm up:

After you've walked backward, I recommend taking 1-2 sets of your first exercise as a warm up. Use a weight that's comfortable and get's everything working (for about 4-8 reps). Then! Hit your first and hardest set, and smash it all out!