Ben Patrick is the “knees over toes guy”.
This is a short book laying out the program Patrick uses for addressing knee pain and injury avoidance.
Classic advice is to keep the knees over the foot (behind the toes) when exercising or participating in any sport. Book’s argument is that this advice is impossible to implement 100% of the time. Injuries occur most often when this “rule” is broken. So the book recommends developing the flexibility and strength to safely allow this to happen.
The first exercise he recommends is to walk backwards for 10 minutes every day. This is usually an easy, pain-free way to start, and is a useful warm-up before doing the more advanced exercises.
One key point he emphasizes is that all the exercises should be pain-free. Describes how to reduce intensity of the exercise to avoid pain. Point is to slowly build capability for more intensity later.
I’ve started walking backwards as part of my daily routine. Started doing a 5 minute session and slowly building to 10 minutes… Doing 10 minutes regularly… Doing first 4 exercises regularly (Tibalis Raise, FHL Calf Raise, KOT Calf Raise, Patrick Step)… Tried the ATG Split Squat, but I’m not ready for it yet…
Have been doing these 5 exercises ~3 times a week since February. Knees feel comfortable on stairs and standing from seated position. Could be confirmation bias, of course, but I’m trying to keep it up.
TODO: To be continued.