The Tale of Geoff Reed

7 min readJan 29, 2024

An ATG story has unfolded which I find more remarkable than my own.

I won’t spend too much time dragging you through my low points, but as someone known in high school for my terrible knees, pathetic jumping and stiffness, I shouldn’t now have freakish knee resilience and the ability to easily dunk and do the splits.

But what if someone who hasn’t been able to dunk since age 23…

dunked again…

AT AGE 46?

Has anyone ever regained the ability to dunk at twice the age they last could?

And has anyone then easily done the splits afterward?

This article isn’t specifically about the ability to dunk or do the splits.

It’s about the now-observable truth that the magic of one human life can be far greater than mainstream belief suggests.

And today I get the special treat of sharing Geoff’s story!

………

I recently dunked a basketball for the first time in over 23 years.

I’m 46 today, turning 47 in May.

The last time I could dunk a basketball was the summer of 2000, shortly before I tore my ACL, MCL and meniscus playing pickup soccer at age 23.

I wish I had video footage of a decent dunk from my early 20s, but that was LONG before smartphones were invented :-).

My goal for this article is not to boast, but rather to help you challenge some commonly held assumptions, to provide you with some FACTS from my experience that may resonate with you, and most of all to hopefully INSPIRE you like Ben Patrick inspired me three years ago.

If I can do this, maybe you can too.

Let’s rewind, and I’ll provide some further context.

Like most people, I LOVED playing sports as a kid.

Two-hand touch football every day at recess with my friends in elementary school. Hoops in the driveway with my neighborhood friends. My dad hitting me flys in the early evenings when he got home from work.

Soccer, baseball, volleyball, golf, the list goes on… I played them all growing up.

Please understand — I am a pretty average athlete.

I was a decent high school soccer, basketball and baseball player at a small school in the early ‘90s.

In high school, my coaches had us lift weights. I hated it.

Don’t get me wrong, my coaches were incredible — they were 100% well-intentioned trying to help my teammates and me get stronger. But conventional training didn’t feel right.

In fact, it was a little scary. I avoided it as much as possible.

I didn’t play sports in college. Wasn’t athletic enough or good enough.

I couldn’t dunk in high school. In college I grew a couple more inches to my current height of 6’1’’.

I played pickup sports, college intramurals, and got my first dunk ever at age 21.

I also lifted weights seriously for the first time in my early 20s, focusing on bench press and biceps.

After I tore my ACL at 23, I didn’t play pickup sports as regularly.

Even after a year of physical therapy and rehab, my knee wasn’t the same. I couldn’t run or jump like before, so sports weren’t as much fun.

I just accepted this as a natural and normal part of not being young anymore.

I went to the gym and worked out intermittently throughout the rest of my 20s, focusing on pushups, bench press and curls.

Along the way, I developed chronic pain in my upper back. And at 29, I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing pickup basketball.

I was in a wheelchair for a month. I couldn’t drive, so my beautiful saint of a wife had to chauffeur me around and take care of me all summer.

Throughout my 30s, I basically stopped playing sports and working out entirely.

I was just so injury prone that I knew if I tried to play sports, I would get hurt, potentially leading to another surgery and my poor wife having to take care of me again.

My wife and I started a beautiful family and I focused on work and my kids.

I also gained 35 pounds and battled depression and anxiety.

At 40, my doctor told me that I was overweight, and I had to do SOMETHING in terms of exercise.

First, I went back to lifting weights again. This time, I focused on the big three — bench, squat, deadlift.

I made some progress with all three and enjoyed it, but I continued to battle injuries and chronic aches and pains.

I started playing pickup soccer again in my early 40s. (I played goalie at first because I was less likely to get hurt.)

I developed chronic plantar fasciitis and golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) in my early 40s.

When everything shut down for the pandemic in March 2020, I bought gymnastic rings and started playing around with basic calisthenics.

In December 2020, the YouTube algorithm showed me a “kneesovertoesguy” video for the first time.

I watched it and wasn’t sold at first. I figured it was probably a scam — just someone else trying to sell magical promises.

But I kept seeing more videos. I watched one where Ben showed off his 40-inch vertical. It was followed by a clip of his college coach saying that he didn’t know if Ben could even touch the rim when he played for him.

This was like catnip for me.

Irresistible.

I paid $49.50 and signed up for the online coaching app. To my utter surprise — after 3 weeks of Basic ATG — my chronic plantar fasciitis pain started to fade away.

Unbelievable. I wasn’t even trying to address the plantar pain with ATG at first — I just wanted to try something new.

For the first time in my life, with ATG, leg days actually started to feel good. Instinctively, I could tell almost right away that ATG training was right for my body.

After 12 weeks of consistent ATG, my plantar pain was completely gone.

I was getting such great results that I decided to sign up for the ATG for Coaches Certification Program.

Not because I had any plans to become a strength and conditioning coach (I work full time as an English teacher), but because I was interested in learning more about why I was getting such great results.

I have a bit of an obsessive personality. Learning as much as I could about ATG became my primary hobby.

I continued on with many other programs on the online app, including all of Ben’s personal programs. I’ve also done Derek’s Infinity Standards, Connor Dykes’ Jump Balance program, and Courtland Holloway’s Dunk program. All with great results.

Most recently, I’ve been following Fernando Lopez’s strength programs, working on improving my squat strength.

I personally focus on systematically rooting out my IMBALANCES from more than half a lifetime of sports, injuries, poor training, and modern life. And I patiently and doggedly use ATG principles to turn those imbalances into STRENGTHS.

Please don’t misunderstand — I have worked very hard with my ATG training over the last three years. I don’t miss workouts. ATG is not a magic wand. You still have to put in the work to get results.

Since I like to write, I started posting on X (Twitter) a few months ago about my experience with ATG and what I have learned.

My goal was to help change people’s mindset about strength training, and about their athletic potential in their 30s, 40, 50s and beyond.

Some of my posts on X resonated with people. Ben saw them and invited me down to play basketball with him the other day and to try to get a dunk.

I was on the court with some of the absolute highest jumpers in the world in the ATG weekly basketball game.

Surreal.

High speed, up and down, INTENSE basketball.

I have gray hair, and I need bifocals. (My wife is convinced that I also need hearing aids.) I was definitely NOT one of the best players, but thanks to my three years of consistent ATG training, I could hang.

Our team won. I contributed. Afterwards I dunked for the first time in 23 years.

What could be more fun than that at 46?

Thank you for reading this far. Here is my conclusion.

Maybe you don’t care about dunking. Cool — I get it.

But maybe you’re a weekend warrior like me. Maybe you want to play sports on the weekends — pickup soccer, basketball, flag football, adult leagues, ultimate frisbee, whatever.

I’m here to show you that you CAN still play.

Not only that, but you can play well.

Or maybe you just want to play sports with your kids in the backyard. I play with my two kids (ages 11 and 14) all the time. And I LOVE IT.

Maybe you’re just looking for a smart way to exercise more, move better and feel better.

Sports are just sports. Maybe not that important in the greater scheme of things. Not likely to end terrible wars or solve world hunger. But other than spending time with my family, few things bring me more joy.

I hope my journey with ATG can help you too.