Who hasn’t heard of KneesOverToesGuy by now?!
If you haven’t that is okay! Ben Patrick (his real name) is a personal trainer who specializes in knee rehab training. Recently he has made a big splash in the fitness world because of his insistence on the knees necessity to go beyond the toes during many exercises.
Though in the CrossFit world this has been established for good squat mechanics, Patrick has done a fantastic job showing how important the ability for the knee to pass beyond the toe is for athletics. Think about stopping and starting on the field or court. When planting like this your knee naturally passes in front of your toe. Similarly, when you jump your knee goes over your toes during the descent. Both of these movements express that you don’t need to avoid this range of motion in your training!
In order to perform well in the ranges of motion needed during competition you have to train those ranges of motion in the gym. This is why many athletes now are in love with movements Trinity Strength incorporate like cyclist squats and front foot elevated split squats. Both of these help you to build strength and mobility in ranges of motion that are extremely beneficial to running, jumping, cutting, and squatting. What could be more athletic than that?