#467 - Knees Over Toes Guy - Building A Bulletproof Body

We want to gain strength in the areas where we’re generally weak or don’t normally train. 

When we get stronger through a range of motion, we can exponentially reduce injury. 

Most trainers tell people, “don’t let your knees go over your toes." The reason for this advice is that when your knee goes over your toe, there’s more pressure on your knee.

However, an Olympic trainer Charles Poliquin said the athlete whose knee can go farthest and strongest over the toes has the least chance of knee injury. If you’re not training with your knees over your toes through a full range of motion, you’re singling to your body that you don’t want that area to be robust with circulation and strength.

Rehab can give you an amazing workout. Physical therapy and exercise don’t have to be two different things. Physical therapy and exercise combine well together.

Combining physical therapy, exercise physical therapy and strength training can improve the mobility of younger people and prevent common sports injuries.

Many people over attach their identity to the gym. But fitness is just one area of life.  When you’re in your late 20s or early 30s, you may shift your focus from physique to longevity.

Be grateful that you can work out, not how much you lift. For example, lie in bed and imagine yourself without legs. It will help to ground your gratitude. 

The person who wants to actively improve their resiliency and longevity needs a workout that also happens to be rehabbing their body.

Improving your mobility allows you to access new muscle tissue that you couldn’t hit before.

A full range of motion exercises increases not only flexibility but also strength. For example, the ATG (ass to grass) split squat is a good mobility exercise. 

We may be at a point in life where we’re very weak and tender in some range of movement and start to avoid it. Instead, find the amount of load of full use that you can do and build up from there to what healthy people can do. 

• Backward sled drag: It forces your knees over your toes. Do ten minutes straight of backward sled pulls.
• ATG (ass to grass) split squat: It focuses on mobility. Do 5 sets of 10 reps at the lowest level you’re capable of
• Tibialis raises strengthens the muscle underneath your kneecap. Do 3 sets of 20 reps
• Hamstring work – curls or Nordic Bench. Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

Kids in their teens who are having shoulder surgeries are just not strong enough in reverse of throwing a baseball.  You need to be strong enough in reverse of motion that could injure you.

• Start strengthening your external rotation. 
• You can strengthen the lower trap muscles in the middle of your back.
• Strengthen behind your shoulder blades.

With the amount of sitting we do in chairs, our hip flexors get very shortened. To get someone out of pain you need the ass to grass full range of motion.

It’s found that people with less thoracic spine ability have a greater chance of lower back surgeries and shoulder surgeries. 

People who get good at the astrograph split squat remark that when their hip flexors are lengthened out and strong through stretched positions.