Triathlete Mag: Never Ever Knees Over Toes? Not Quite.
Never Ever Knees Over Toes? Not Quite.
The old strength training adage of never letting your knees go over your toes is being upended. Here’s why triathletes, specifically, should reconsider that conventional wisdom.
Published May 23, 2024 KATE LIGLER
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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The sport of triathlon is no stranger to its fair share of trends and fads. From beam bikes to Vibram shoes to collapsible aero bars, hard-working athletes are naturally in pursuit of an additional training edge that might pay off big at the next finish line.
While strength and conditioning has conceptually transcended this phase of fads, thought leaders are constantly refining methodology and research practices to maximize efficiency for the inherently time-starved triathlete.
Meet Ben Patrick: Knees Over Toes (KoT) Guy. He’s best known for overcoming some significant knee, lower leg, and foot issues to find athletic success in his own basketball career, but most notably, has garnered an impressive 2.3 million followers on his path to success. Athletes everywhere are looking in his direction, due to some incredibly flashy promo vids on social media with informative sound bites, digestible exercise demos, and punctuated athletic feats like slam dunks and chair elevated splits. While dunking from the free throw line might be floating around on your bucket list, is this kind of training really going to help you set a new run PR in your next Ironman?
Yes, actually. It might.
In fact, having your knees pass over your toes functionally happens when you walk down stairs, run down a hill, or kneel in transition. But there’s more: From a performance perspective, take a look at this recent Triathlete article on top bike positions in the pro field. We’re seeing a lot of knees over toes out of the very best on the swim, bike, and run.
Taylor Knibb is just one of many examples of “knees over toes” bike positions in triathlon. (Photo: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
What to know about knees over toes
While it’s true that the KoT joint position can be associated with patellofemoral pain (i.e., pain around your knee cap or “runner’s knee”), remember that we develop issues/pain with our body when a given stress exceeds adaptation. The solution to knee pain isn’t to strictly avoid that range of motion, as the KoT position is functionally unavoidable for a competing triathlete and awkward to work around in day-to-day movement. The remedy is to build tissue capacity and tolerance through a thoughtful strength and/or physical therapy program.
Specifically, think back to the first time you walked down stairs after your first Ironman or 70.3. Chances are you were either walking backwards or sideways. The stress of the race exceeded your neuromuscular adaptation in a very painful way. As you continued to train and mature as an athlete, you found yourself physically more competent after your second, third, or tenth race. You increased your tissue capacity, resilience, and overall strength. You(r quads) adapted.
How to apply knees over toes to triathlon training
With that in mind, let’s look more closely at the applicable components of Ben Patrick’s KoT philosophy specifically for triathletes. In a nutshell, his training pillars are as follows:
Build from the ground up – feet, then ankles; knees, then hips; lower back, then shoulders
Improve strength proportionally to body weight
Increase strength through length at both flexion and extension at every joint
Scale movement training at any given joint with a focus on decreasing pain
While his first pillar has some critics, I’m specifically a proponent of his bodyweight/scaled programming, which adheres to these basic pillars with highly scalable, mobility-focused movements. While we want to perform well in sport, we should also aim to move well in the game of life. Ben Patrick’s bodyweight program thoughtfully leans in this direction.
Knees over toes exercises for triathletes
Highlights from these programs, which I specifically integrate for my cyclists and runners (and you can use):
Couch Stretch
The couch stretch is an effective hip opener that promotes length in your anterior hips, core and quads – essential for long-term performance health in cyclists and runners. I personally recommend this movement daily for my athletes with 2-3 rounds per side and holds of up to 45 seconds.
Heels-Elevated Goblet Squat
This squat variation squarely targets the quads and can assist in a better range of squat depth by removing ankle mobility limitations. This is a wonderful VMO developer for cyclists and depending on the time of year, I will program these 1-3 times/week for my athletes. Recommended rep/weight ranges vary greatly on this movement based upon neuromuscular competency, joint health, and consistency, but I would start simply at bodyweight for 2 sets of 15 reps at least twice a week before adding additional load.
Anterior Tib Raises
The tibialis anterior is the muscle that runs up the shin between the ankle and knee and is largely responsible for deceleration. Strong, healthy shin musculature offsets forces driving up from the ground and into the knee. I recommend these 2-4 times/week for my runners with rep counts of up to 25 in a given set at bodyweight.
Poliquin Step Up/Down
The Poliquin step up stresses the VMO in order to encourage knee stability and is a staple in my programming for runners who regularly train hills or have variable terrain races. It’s an incredibly scalable movement, making it an ideal starting point for individuals who may have patellar issues and want to specifically strengthen around the joint. There are many variations of this movement, but I recommend starting at bodyweight with a step no greater than 4-6”. Once 2 sets of 15 reps are comfortably attainable, add weight/reps incrementally with consistency/competency up to 2-3 times/week depending on needs or goals.
Leg Elevated Split Squat
This is a quad-dominant, unilateral exercise specifically targeting your quads and a wonderful KoT movement for cyclists. In addition, this movement is a highly scalable mobilizer for the hips, knees, and ankles depending on the height of the object elevating the front leg and the depth of the split squat. Much like the couch stretch, I work variations of this movement (unweighted) into sessions for my athletes 2-4 times a week – often as a preparatory movement before more heavily loaded lower body activities. This specific movement, as with all movements, should be mastered at bodyweight before adding additional loading forces.