🚨 KNEES BEHIND THE TOES MYTH
💪 This is probably one of the worst myths out there IMO, it may have caused more low back harm than has saved anyone from any knee pain. Now unless you have a specific reason like knee pain or injury there really isn’t a reason for a health individual to enforce that false rule and here is why, and what you should be focusing on.
This is what you should focus on and where I believe the actual myth came from. Keeping the knees behind the toes is a quick fix for someone who has limited dorsiflexion. This may be employed as when the lack of dorsi flexion is to such an extent that the heels rise of the ground. This is when you have a problem and should never squat in that position with weight unless you know what you’re doing. When the heels come off the ground the base of support changes to the forefoot and creates a fulcrum for the body to pivot on. This now changes how the weight is distributed among the joints, instead of having the weigh push straight down there can be slight moments created with any movement of the body.
This is a problem because now the force vector changes from pointing down to adding a force that goes away from the body. This force creates translation of the femur over the tibia, this is not good for our tendons and ligaments, they are great at handling torque of the knee because it creates tensile forces on them, this motion adds shearing to your PCL and patellar tendon. This isn’t the end of the world in low incremental forces, the sissy squat mimics these forces however in low magnitude.
The other reason which I’ve mentioned before is when limiting knee forward travel we increase the torque on the back. Even research shows a 1000% increase of torque on the back when limiting knee travel while only 20% increase of torque on the knees. Let’s dispel this old myth!
🔥 Have you ever followed this rule or has anyone told you to keep your knees behind your toes? Try to see how changing the base of support puts stress on your knee, squat with your heels up and balancing on the ball of your foot
