Page 59 - Muscle & Fitness (December 2019)
P. 59
By Brian Matthews
KO T T R A I N I N G
2 MOVES TO TRY
DIRECTIONS: On your
next squat day, try these two
Patrick-approved moves after
your main workout. Do each
for 5 sets of 10 reps, and be sure
to start with little to no weight.
As you progress with the
movement, add a little weight
at a time.
KOT SPLIT SQUAT:
1 Get into a split-squat
several elite athletes, such as stance, with one leg
NFL defensive back Leonard staggered behind you
Johnson, who bounced back and one in front, but make
from an Achilles’ tear with it wider than usual. Keep
Patrick’s help. your torso up and drive
While Patrick doesn’t think your hips forward so
you should dive knees first that your front knee
into KOT training, he believes tracks all the way over
that progressively imple- your foot and your
menting movements from his back leg is almost fully
program—such as knees-over- extended. When you’re
toes lunges—will strengthen ready to add weight, do
the surrounding muscles and so by loading a barbell
connective tissue, making for onto your back.
stronger and more stable knee
joints. (See sidebar at right.) PATRICK STEPUP:
“Appropriate stress on the 2 Stand on a 6-inch box
with one foot on it and the
body can be a good thing,”
says Patrick, who likens other hovering just over
training your knees to training the edge. Bend your knee
until the heel of your
your chest muscles, where
you’d stress it and the sur- free-floating foot touches
rounding connective tissue. the ground. The knee of
your planted foot should
“That’s all we are trying to do
here with KOT movements— bend over your foot. To
add weight, load a barbell
load the joints and tissue ap-
propriately and progressively onto your back.
EXPERT OPINIONS and reap the rewards.”
Don’t try to tell Ben “Knees- Alison Synakowski, a physi-
Over-Toes Guy” Patrick that a cal therapist and manager of over the toes,” she says. “If we
deep squat or a lunge is bad Sports PT in New York, echoes do not train this movement or
for you. After suffering chron- Patrick’s sentiments. avoid it, we may reduce our
ic knee pain and undergoing “Always keeping your knees tissue’s ability to withstand
surgery to fix it, Patrick im- behind your toes when squat- the loads that we encounter
plemented a knees-over-toes ting or lunging can be detri- every day. This can increase
(KOT) training protocol to heal mental to athletes or anyone, the risk of dysfunction and
the area. As a result, his knee for that matter. Changing di- potentially lead to pain in the
became pain-free, and he took rection during sports, landing lower leg.”
his 19-inch vertical jump to 41 in a jump, or even going down- In other words: If you don’t
inches. He’s also worked with stairs requires the knee to go use it, you lose it.
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 / M U S C L E & F I T N E S S 5 7
