Ben Patrick, the Knees Over Toes Guy http://kneesovertoesguy.comis a force to be reckoned with!  

I have found, lo over these many years of seeking and discovering fitness and health, that certain pivotal figures tend to pop up as you go.  Frank Zane, body builder of the 60’s and 70’s along with Arnold Swarzzenegger inspired me early on.  Loren Cordain of early paleo, then Robb Wolf helped to guide me after that, along with others, into a focus on true health and nutrition.  Chris Kresser  is always a guiding light of health, and Mark Sisson has some points of light he has pointed out over the years.  And John Peterson was a revelation in terms of exercise, although he is now retired from the scene somewhere…

But young Ben Patrick comes along, and appears to have done everything wrong in his youth, trying to play basketball only to ruin his knees and athletic aspirations young, by following conventional medical advice advocating always keeping your knees over your toes when exercising!  This, as has been said for decades upon decades, is the only way to protect your knees, shins, hips, and feet from damage.

Au contraire mon frère!  Sounds like Bart Simpson, doesn’t it?  As young Ben followed this prescription, he progressively destroyed his knees, and got surgery after surgery for his pains.

Finally, since he is the type of young guy who does not give up, he started experimenting on his own body, consciously and deliberately figuring out on his own (with the help of strength coach Charles Polinquin who I remember reading back in the day) how to strengthen all the muscles around the knee, and down through the hips to the feet!  It worked!

Following his own methods, Ben added over 2 feet to his vertical jump (his passion is basketball), but more importantly totally bulletproofed his knees, hips, shins and feet to absorb all the shocks of athletics and the stress of aging as well.

He rebuilt his 66 year old mother’s legs as well, and he documents her on videos too!  And the best part of all is that, watching him on youtube, he reveals all of his exercises and progressions online, showing how you too can duplicate his results.

Given all of his information, I have been inspired to add in his exercises within my own daily workouts.  I have no knee pain, or indeed any pains at all, but I want to make sure that I never do- besides which, his exercises cover areas of the body in ways that are sure to avoid injury as opposed to big compound exercises like squats and deadlifts that, while strengthening overall, do not specialize safely on some muscle groups that are crucial.

You can go to failure on things like weighted leg raises (he uses a monkey foot device that holds a dumbbell to your foot) and curls, and won’t be injured as you would doing exercise to failure on squats or deadlifts.  Completely safe!

Also, his split squat progressions and his very crucial tibialis exercise can totally protect, strengthen, and bullet proof you from foot to hip.  And so, I have revamped my weekly workouts to include them all, in one form or another.

In my early morning, I make coffee (pour over in a simple Miata coffee maker), and then go barefoot in shorts into my living room.  I stretch, and do virtual resistance exercises, manually resisted ones, and isometrics.  I spend about an hour, as I watch a movie or news on television, and wind up pleasantly exhausted and all stretched out!  I often finish then with high volume pushups and straight legged situps.  I have thus stimulated my entire body from feet to neck.

But, usually 3 times per week, sometimes only 2, I go down to my basement dungeon and do gymnast

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