Knees Over Toes Success Story?
For the past four months I’ve been following the Athletic Truth Group (ATG) programming created by Ben Patrick who goes by the monicker Knees Over Toes Guy. Ben is a charismatic character with a compelling personal story of knee health and athletic transformation. He is a born salesman, so it’s no wonder I was convinced to try out his training programs. But is there some real substance to the programs he has developed? Or is it all hype? It may be too soon to tell if I’m a Knees Over Toes success story. But I figured the only way to know for sure was to try it for myself. And I’ve certainly noticed some promising developments so far.
Background On ATG
The ATG philosophy proposes that we can all create and maintain healthy, highly functional and resilient joints through life. All while simultaneously increasing our athletic ability. It suggests that we’ve been scared away from using our joints to their full ability, and through their full ranges of motion, by prevailing medical and exercise advice. As a result we’ve actually seen a greater incidence of dysfunction and pain as our joints lose their mobility and strength.
I’d argue there’s a huge nutritional and toxicity component to the degeneration of the human body as well. But being a lifelong squatter my personal experience has been that squatting heavy weights below parallel has actually helped keep my knees stay healthy well into my forties. I’ve “used it”, so I didn’t lose it. So the idea that expressing strength through a full range of motion is good for joint health resonates with me. And if we want to avoid injury and pain in extreme ranges of motion, we need to train those ranges of motion.
Above and beyond curing chronically painful joints, Ben Patrick has developed high level athletic ability through his programming. He has a 40+ inch standing vertical jump. And claims to run a 4.4 second 40 yard dash at over 30 years of age. This would place him in the top tier of the NFL combine results. I can’t verify his 40 time. But he does have plenty of videos online showing his ability to dunk a basketball with ease.
So between the promise of healthy, bulletproof joints, and the potential of increased athletic ability, I decided it was at least worth a shot to try the ATG program. I was looking for a break from heavy barbell lifting and this seemed like a potentially rewarding experiment.
I’m not going to lay out the programming here. This article is just meant to give some context while sharing my experiences having followed the program for four months. And it’s not my program to share for free. You can learn more on the ATG website (not an affiliate).
My Progress
I started the ATG program with a squat and deadlift that are both in the 500 lb range. I think this was a huge advantage. And despite some occasional knee soreness in recent years I still had pretty stout and healthy joints to begin with.
Either way, I started with the Zero program which is all body weight exercises. Ben has done a nice job of developing a phased program. It works people through an incremental progression so that ability is developed bit by bit over time. And without causing pain which is important. He has also figured out effective ways to regress each movement. This way everyone has an attainable starting point depending on personal ability.
That said, I started with a relatively decent level of ability. And was able to meet the requirements to graduate from the Zero to Dense Strength programming in a matter of weeks. I then stuck with the Dense program for the recommended twelve weeks. This phase begins to introduce external resistance. And the abilities I developed during that phase were pretty exciting.
At forty four years old, I’m now doing unassisted Nordic Curls and Reverse Nordic Curls (or Human Knee Extensions). This honestly made me as satisfied as the first time I deadlifted over 500 lbs. And I’m performing these relatively intense movements with no pain whatsoever. I’d call this a Knees Over Toes sucess story since I could never perform these movements in the past.
I haven’t yet experiemented with my ability to withstand high impact activities like basketball, tennis, or skiing without joint pain. But I’ve been doing a bit more running. And I can feel that my knee tendons are stronger and thicker than they were. It feels good and lends a sense of confidence. And I have no reason to believe these benefits won’t continue to accrue. It feels like the architecture of my knees and lower legs is being rebuilt.
My flexibility and mobility is reaching new levels all around. I’ve developed the ability to do full range split squats with front heel on the ground and my back knee off of the ground. My running stride feels great as I work my abilities through these extreme ranges of motion.
Unexpected Benefits
I train primarily for function and strength. Aesthetics are an afterthought. But the ATG program has developed my quad aesthetics nicely. I’m seeing increased definition and separation in my quad muscles. And my vastus medialus has taken on the trademark teardrop shape to a greater extent. My calves are noticeably larger and highly defined as well.
I’ve been following the five day per week ATG programming. But I’ve also been adding a sixth day each week to squat heavy. Since I get a ton of volume each week from the ATG program, on my heavy day I just work up to a single. High intensity, very low volume, which I recover from from easily. And I’ve managed to progress well from week to week. Today I squatted 455 lbs. And it moved quickly. I had a decent amount left in the tank.
I’ll be curious to see how long I can contunue to add 5 lbs. each week. I like keeping my body and nervous system used to the heavy weight. And I feel it gives my hips and top end strength some work that isn’t included in the ATG program. After all, the hips are a prime mover when jumping and running. I digress, but I’ve maintained top end strength throughout the ATG program even though I haven’t been focused on strength. My knees are also recovering quickly from these heavy squat days which is a welcomed surprise. Bigger stronger knee tendons have a lot of benefits. I look forward to seeing how this plays out in the future when I go back to a strength cycle.
More Updates To Come
I’m now three weeks into the Standards phase of ATG programming, which comes after Dense. And I’ll post another follow up article as I progress. But I’m already doing 1-legged back raises with half of my bodyweight on the 45 degree back raise.
I’ve really enjoyed this programming so far and am optimistic about my continued knees over toes success story. I’ll also be curious to try the upcoming Athletic Potential phase of the program. And start experimenting with my body’s ability to handle high intensity ballistic movements without pain.
It should be noted that the program does have a monthly subscription fee. But it’s far less than hiring a personal trainer. And it comes with online video form coaching. The coaches have consistently responded within 24 hours. It’s possible to watch Ben’s free videos online and take a guess at building an ad hoc ATG program. But I’ve personally made better progress just paying for the program laid out by ATG.
If you have any questions abouty my experiences with this program, please leave a comment or send me an email.