He turned "knees over toes" from a warning into a training philosophy — and built one of the biggest followings in fitness doing it. Here's who Ben Patrick is, where his ideas come from, and an honest read on his credentials and the evidence.
Ben Patrick is a coach and the founder of Athletic Truth Group (ATG), known online as the Knees Over Toes Guy. After chronic knee pain and multiple surgeries ended his basketball ambitions, he rebuilt his knees using full-range, end-range training — an approach he credits primarily to strength coach Charles Poliquin — and turned that recovery into a progressive, benchmarked system. He's a self-taught coach and entrepreneur, not a licensed physical therapist, and the ATG method he popularized is covered in full here.
Patrick grew up obsessed with basketball, and — by his own account — not naturally tall or explosive, so he trained hard young and paid for it with chronic knee pain by his early teens. By around 18 he had a serious surgical history on one knee. The turnaround, as he tells it across long-form interviews, came from discovering the training ideas of Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin: training each rep to a stretched end range and deliberately, progressively loading the knee past the toes rather than avoiding it. He rebuilt his knees to pain-free, earned a shot at Division I basketball, and — after his competitive path stalled — began coaching others out of his garage. He founded Athletic Truth Group in 2018.
The name is a tell. "ATG" is a nod to "ass to grass" — full-depth, full-range movement — and Patrick has openly said he chose the movement's full name to fit the acronym he wanted. He calls himself, half-jokingly, "Poliquin for Dummies," which is a fairly honest description of the project: taking a respected coach's end-range principles and making them simple, sequential and testable for a mass audience.
| Area | Details |
|---|---|
| The method | The ATG / knees-over-toes system — full-range joint training built on split squats, tibialis raises, backward sled work and Nordic curls. Full breakdown → |
| Primary influence | Charles Poliquin (his self-described main mentor), plus the broader physical-therapy tradition of end-range loading |
| Books | Self-published: Knee Ability Zero, Back Ability Zero, ATG Zero |
| Programs | ATG Online Coaching (subscription) and the equipment-light "Zero" progressions |
| The "Standards" | His published, testable benchmarks for each key movement — targets within his system, not universal medical thresholds |
The movements most associated with Patrick — each has its own full form guide:
Patrick has a genuinely large following, and secondary coverage and his own materials cite figures like a high vertical jump, close to a million Instagram followers, and thousands of success stories. Treat those as his and ATG's own claims rather than independently verified facts — we don't repeat specific numbers here that we can't source.
On substance: the core premise — that knees-over-toes movement is normal and can be trained — is broadly supported by physical therapists and strength coaches, so his headline idea is on solid ground. The fair criticisms are about nuance: the right dose is individual, some of the ideas he popularizes already existed in PT and coaching, and much of the specific rehab evidence is anecdotal rather than from controlled trials. He is also a coach and entrepreneur, not a clinician — so his programs are training guidance, not medical treatment. None of that makes the method a gimmick; it just means you should individualize it and get professional input for real injuries. The full even-handed breakdown is in the ATG method guide.
Ben Patrick, a coach and the founder of Athletic Truth Group (ATG). He popularized training the knees through their full range — including letting the knees travel over the toes — after rehabbing severe knee pain that had derailed his basketball ambitions.
No. Based on public information he's a self-taught coach and entrepreneur, not a licensed physical therapist, physician or credentialed exercise scientist. His methods draw heavily on Charles Poliquin's ideas and his own recovery.
Not the underlying exercises — full-range squats, tibialis work and end-range training predate him and trace largely to Charles Poliquin and physical therapy. He packaged them into the progressive, benchmarked ATG system and built a large audience around knees-over-toes training.
Several self-published titles, including Knee Ability Zero, Back Ability Zero and ATG Zero, alongside his ATG Online Coaching program.
Log the knees-over-toes movements and track your range and strength over time — free on iOS.
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This profile is independent, educational content and not medical advice. LiftHero is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ben Patrick, ATG, or Athletic Truth Group; names and marks are used descriptively for identification only. Figures attributed to Patrick or ATG are their own claims.
By Meitar Lazimi, founder of LiftHero · Last updated July 9, 2026.