White Men Can Jump

Even coaches need coaches, I guess

It's kind of embarrassing when you claim to be an expert on something (fitness/the body) and you can't even fix your own problems.  But hey, even therapists have therapists.  Doctors, I assume, go to the doctor.  Barbers see other barbers.

Do Trainers have Trainers?

My right knee hurt.  Every time I executed a roll through in yoga, or got up the wrong way I would get an 8/10 twinge of pain.  I tried:
- foam rolling
-voodoo flossing
-opposing joint
-muscle activation
-massage gun
-yoga
-stretching
-strengthening
-prayer
-ritual sacrifice

Nothing worked.  My right knee was stubbornly zapping me with an 8/10 of pain whenever I moved wrong.  This went on for months.  

I read about this Knees over Toes Guy.  He was an un-athletic basketball player with bad knees.  I'm talking three surgeries on one knee bad knees.  He wanted to keep playing hoops.  He was obsessed.  He needed stronger knees.  So he did his research, turned the fitness world on it's head, and came up with a system that not only fixed his knees, it earned him a scholarship to a D1 basketball program.  He went from hardly touching the net to dunking a basketball from a standing position.  Now he makes a living sharing that system.

Was it time for me to admit that despite my vast fitness knowledge there are many things that I do not know?

Was it time to let someone else train me?

I bought the KoT Guy's book for $20.  There's not much to it.  A handful of exercises that you should do, followed by instructions on how and why to do them.  It's a simple book with a simple program.  I like simple.  Simple works.

I advertised that I was following the program on this very newsletter where I posted a small bit about how I have White man's disease and I was doing something about it.

I mentioned a minute ago that Knees over Toes Guy has turned the fitness world on it's head.  How?  He encourages people to train with their knees in a position past their toes.  WHOA!  Not just a clever name.  I'm sure you're as blown away as I am, right?

While It doesn't sound revolutionary it is.  It was common fitness knowledgeto keep the knees behind your feet when training.  Encouraging knees over toes training is like advocating drunk driving to improve highway safety.  He was dismissed, ridiculed, laughed at.

But he was patient zero.  He no longer had any knee pain.  
He went from flat footed to jumping out of the gym.
The people who bought in were pain free and jumping right alongside him.
The idea of not training knee over toes came from a single study done in the 70's.  Somehow it tipped, everyone read it, or knew someone who read it, and it just became the rule, Conventional wisdom, despite the fact that every sport asks you to play with your knees over your toes.  Wouldn't it make sense to train your body for that eventuality?

So I tested in.  I assessed my relative knee pain (8/10) while doing yoga, and I measured my vertical leap.  This is an important step on any fitness journey.  Documenting a base line.  If you don't document a starting point you'll never be sure of improvement.  Look at the picture up top and you can clearly see my progression.

I trained knee over toe style for 5 weeks.  This morning I tested out.  Had all my Patrick steps and deep lunges paid off?

I'm happy to report that when I rolled through in yoga my pain was about a 2 (down from 8).  Not perfect, but improving.

More impressively I added about 6 inches to my vertical leap.  That's 6 inches in a single month.  Any time you claim to add 6 inches you have all the guys attention.  6 inches is a lot.  Even when the bar starts so very, very low.  I made a highlight tape.  

How do I write this next part?  I'll just put it out there.  I have a big ass.  Someone called it a dump truck this week (Thanks Ron).  When I train legs my ass just gets bigger.  Last year I squatted, dead lifted, trained hard and my reward was none of my pants fit.  The increased muscle mass also made running less comfortable

My conundrum: I needed stronger, healthier legs/knees, but I didn't want to buy new pants.  Mission accomplished.  This program added strength, fixed some imbalances and doesn't make anyone wanna zoom a zoom zoom zoom and a boom boom.  

90's kids got that.  The rest of you can google it.

There are a few morals to this story:
- Question conventional wisdom.  
- You can make amazing athletic gains with the right program, even when you're well past your prime (ahem).
- bigger muscles are great until none of your clothes fit.
- There's a cure for White Man's disease.
- The best coaches have coaches aka winners get help.

Ahh yes.  The final important take away.  Everyone could use a coach.  Or a trainer.  Someone to push you, encourage you, or tell you about this crazy workout they're doing that's gonna allow them to dunk a basketball at 43.  I know a few great trainers here at Train.  I work with the 1% of Trainers.  We can add 6 inches to your vertical leap, help you shed 10 pounds, get you a badonka donk, or not.  

If a Trainer benefits from having a trainer so can you.