Knees passing the toes.mp4 from Hybrid Performance Method on Vimeo.
Can knees pass the toes?
The thought that knees passing the toes leads to increased injury rates is mind boggling.
This thought has somehow been passed from trainer to trainer infecting fear into athletes and lifters without even looking into the evolution of literature.
This thought process stems from outdated and heavily reductionist research papers that identify the amount of sheer force during deep knee flection.
This has led to ignorance in the fitness community by not staying up to date with research.
To draw a direct correlation of shear force and injury is misguided for many reasons.
One, injuries are multivariable.
Also, our bodies are not inherently weak.
We can handle these force without risk, and sometimes putting our bodies in these positions as even necessary.
Take walking up and downstairs for example, or jumping, in which having our knees past our toes is needed and necessary.
In order to maintain the barbel over our center of gravity, our body needs to move in ways that keep it there.
For example, weightlifters need to allow their knees to travel past their toes to achieve the bottom position of a snatch and they do so safely and with incredible skill.
I think a lot of this comes form attempting to cue beginners on how to squat, since the first thing a lot of people tend to do is bend the knees instead of initiating the movement from the hips first.
Research has shown time after time that most movements if not all can be made safe with time and progressive exposure.
Remember there are not moments that are inherently bad just movement that we are unprepared for.
This concept is particularly important when it comes to adding load to the movement such as in powerlifting and weightlifting
To sum it all up to think the knee shouldn't pass the toe is to think that people are universally fragile.
Given all the amazing things humans can do, does banning a movement make sense to you? I think not.
-Stefi
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