The Reason I Had to Be Kneesovertoesguy

[There’s also a video version of this: https://youtu.be/2AA6eNikw_I]

I think a timeline can make this intro simple:

Age 12: chronic knee problems started and never let up

Age 18: finished high school with zero recruitment for college basketball, partially-artificial left kneecap, left meniscus transplant, left quad tendon repair

Age 20: more tears in right knee, ultimately deciding not to operate and instead figuring out how to handle myself naturally

Then… discovering my weakest link: my ability with my knees over my toes

Age 21: a miracle… I got my knees and athleticism good enough to get a full-ride basketball scholarship to Eastern Florida State, a 2-year college in one of the toughest conferences in the country!

That’s when my duty really began to be created…

My first year of college I was prohibited from knees over toes training. This is very common in college sports. I saw my athleticism decline and my knee problems start back up again.

My previous year of knees over toes training had improved me enough to still be the starting point guard and play every game, helping my team win its first conference championship in years despite preseason predictions giving us no chance against the powerhouse teams.

But going into my second year I knew I had to keep doing my knees over toes training during the season, even if it meant difficult relationships with my coaches and teammates, because ultimately my job was to produce on the court, and I did.

My coach could truly think for himself and he allowed me to do my own training. As I’ve gotten to know him better over the years, I’ve realized he’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. I am also forever grateful for him offering me a scholarship when no one else thought I was athletic enough to play in college. Even the person hired to help me get recruited told me I wouldn’t be able to get a scholarship! Then when I got the scholarship to Eastern Florida, he called me to warn me not to take the scholarship. He said I would never get time on the court in a real game…

IN MY TWO YEARS I PLAYED THE MOST MINUTES OF ANYONE ON THE TEAM.

Don’t let anyone’s opinion of your future be stronger than your own. The future ain’t written yet!

My second year I wound up being the team captain and I finished the season often being a top producer on the team — which I never was in my first year. My knees got shockingly better in-season while leading the team in minutes played, and even my bounciness was increasing! I finished our last game of the season feeling like I literally had a different pair of knees than I did at the start.

So at 23 years old, I did the freaking impossible:

I got a full-ride D1 scholarship. It was a $67,000 per year scholarship — everything paid for, even spending money in my pocket.

A journey that had begun at age 5 was finally complete: the opportunity to play in March Madness! My D1 team had a great record in the previous season and the only other player at my position was an incoming freshman. Whether or not I would’ve been the starting point guard would’ve been up to my performance vs his, but either way I’d have been playing a lot of minutes. My first game was going to be in one of the most legendary NBA arenas, and we were going to be playing against pro teams in Italy in the summer. All my hard work had paid off!

Then we got a letter from the NCAA denying my eligibility for being too many years removed from high school.

No one saw it coming. Not my D1 coach and not my previous coach. It’s so rare, I’ve only heard of one other case of this happening. And since I had my medical records to show that I didn’t even play a single game in my senior year of high school, my coach believed we would win the case if we got a lawyer. My parents were fully prepared to get a lawyer and wanted to support my dream.

But I knew this was meant to be.

In fact, after getting the call from my soon-to-be D1 coach informing me of the situation, I sighed… and then I smiled, because deep down I knew what my true purpose was.

You see, my new D1 strength coach told me right to my face that I would not be allowed to do knees over toes training.

The very thing that got me there was now prohibited? Yep!

So much education. So little common sense and human understanding.

The next day I began my career as a trainer, with the ridiculous goal of actually changing the system worldwide so that people had the freedom to address their knees if they wanted to, armed with the tools to know how.

I still had loads of full-ride D2 scholarship offers and I had D2 coaches messaging me in disbelief that I would turn down 2 more years of free college education and basketball.

But that college education lacked common sense.

And that college education was so full of ego that it was pushing proven false data which is then regurgitated by strength coaches to the detriment of young athletes, leading to an epidemic of knee surgeries in a younger sector of society than ever before, and with our elderly like sheep off a cliff toward knee replacements. Oh, and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons predicted our already scary number of knee problems to skyrocket by 2030.

For examples of what I’m talking about, there are studies analyzing hundreds of research papers and determining that knees over toes is actually a fundamental human ability we need in order to protect our lower bodies, and that training it leads to less pain and more athleticism. Click here for an example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23821469/

But it takes 20–30 years on average for college textbooks to catch up with the truth.

And “No knees over toes” didn’t even come from a study proving it to be bad!

In fact, “No knees over toes” came from a study proving why we need to learn how to do it.

40+ years ago it was found that when a knee goes over the toes, there is more pressure on the knee…

But it is pressure that has been found to make a body age biologically younger. For example, when you don’t compress a knee to its full bend — which requires knees over toes — you limit the delivery of nutrients to your knee. When you don’t use a joint through its full range of motion, your body does not fully get the message that you want to keep using it, and it decays faster!

But all that being said…

I GET IT: KNEES OVER TOES CAN BE SCARY.

So my mission has been making it less scary.

Millions of people now understand that backward walking is the first step of knees over toes training, that it alone is an effective screening process for elderly not to fall down the stairs and die; that if you can walk, you can walk backward; and if you can walk backward, you can walk backward with 1 pound; and if you can do that, you have a route out.

Thousands around the world are learning the further techniques I teach to help themselves and others.

Over 500 coaches are currently being certified in how I coach.

Top 10 earners in the NFL, NBA, and MLB have personally worked with me to rejuvenate their knees.

My contributions to the field of exercise are not in the form of greater progressions than have already existed in knees over toes training. My contributions are in the form of gentler and more precise regressions than have ever been broadly taught.

So you know now why I had to be Kneesovertoesguy, and perhaps in your own life you’ll find what I found that motivates me every day, that has me writing this article on a plane flight after filming for you at 3 a.m, to still get my job done on Christmas Eve, having gone these first 358 days of 2021 with no entertainment (no TV, Netflix, movies, sports games, etc.) just so I could mathematically maximize my chances of reaching and helping you…

DUTY.

Yours in Duty,

Ben

Thank you so much for reading, and please check out atgonlinecoaching.com if you want to train exactly like me. I update the workouts on site and app on Saturdays before each new week of training so that I’m always bringing you my best and most up-to-date solutions! For the record, my program is full body, though it likely has the most knee success stories ever. You can learn it and use it as you see fit, with your own form coached and questions answered for the lowest price there’s been for such a service. GETFIT2022 code makes it our best deal ever, with no long-term contract.

To get certified in coaching my program, check out atgforcoaches.com!

Lastly, I have compiled all unique equipment I use — with links and discounts — here: https://kneesovertoesguy.medium.com/equipment-by-program-5a50fc84f9ac