The Origins of KneesOverToesGuy

I am, yeah, I mean, I'm someone who has worked my legs out forever, like most of my life, but I've never done these exercises. And part of me is like, how the fuck did I not know about this? How am I finding out about this from Jamie? And then from Instagram? I mean, from you, really. It's very simple. It's very simple how this occurs. So I wasn't taught it either and didn't get a scholarship to college. Painting walls during the day, I had no backup plan. So I was like, all right, I'm not going to make it as a basketball player. I'm just going to figure out how to bulletproof my knees. So then I start really digging into the corners of the earth to find data. You see what I mean? Right. Everything we're talking about right now in this podcast, without question, will be in the textbooks in 20, 30 years. Wow. It takes a long time for textbooks to change. You see what I mean? So you're not going to find the stuff we're talking about in the main textbooks that people are going to schooling and learning. So I find some pockets of information, work really hard on it, rejuvenate my knees, manage to market myself and get a college basketball scholarship. Played two years at a junior college. You know, like in America, we have these two year JUCO, a lot of wild stories, had an amazing coach there and kept healing my knees while playing. So I was improving as I was going through my first two years of college. Got a full ride D1 scholarship at age 23. Wow. So I went from Mr. 18 year old on my butt, oh, you know, people from my hometown, by the time I was 23 getting a D1 scholarship, it was like, what the heck is going on? So I actually had started training kids in the summer just because it was like this unbelievable thing that had happened. Here's what I'm getting to. I go to this division one school and the strength coach who has his degrees from college and everything, he's not going to let me do my drills. The very things that got me the scholarship. It's not a wild concept. What did he say? You're not allowed to do your knees over toes stuff here. So the school gave me a scholarship. Full ride. I'm going to be living out my dream, having a chance to play in March Madness, whatever. Now I mentioned I was 23. So I get a call from the head coach before the season and he tells me, NCAA has denied your eligibility. They say your clock is up. None of us knew. It's a very rare thing. I've never heard of this happening of someone fixing their knees and then later going to college. So we did a whole appeal process, but in the back of my mind, I was like, I don't want to now have to go two years trying to train behind the strength coaches back and look at the system. So it's like, it's not his fault. He's just doing what he learned in the textbook. How the heck is the textbook going to change? You see what I mean? Did you have a conversation with him privately? Anyone can relay if you've been in team sports and you bring something up to like the head strength coach or the head coach or something like that. There's a lot of pressure. Like you're risking getting in murky water, having a bad reputation on the team. So I never got past that opening conversation with him of like, I've been doing these things. So did he see you doing it? Like how did this happen? Yeah, I told him which exercise. These are the things I've been doing that have me able to play because I couldn't play before. Explain how the conversation takes place. So I meet him. He's going to be running my program and I say, okay, I need to add in these things. Like you've seen these knees over toes, split squats, right? Very uncommon exercise. No, no, no. You're not going to be doing that here. So it's just a total stop. So I'm not going to be doing. So he tells you, you can't do them. No knees over toes. Does he say why? No, it's no knees over toes in his gym. So I knew I was going to have to be going, you know, just on my own time outside of school and classes and workouts to keep up my routines. So when this whole thing went on with my eligibility getting denied, I was the head coach thought I should just get a lawyer. I'd be able to fight it, but I actually just withdrew from the thing and became a trainer. So when he was saying this to you, did you try to argue it? Did you try to say this is what's helped me? This is what got me here? Exactly. And what did he say? No knees over toes in his gym. Did you show him some of the literature? Did you show him some of the Paul Quinn stuff? No, I never got that far, but it was also for me being a new recruit college kid, it was like, that was an intimidating moment for me. You know what I mean? I didn't have excellent communication skills. I was a nobody, you know? I was just a new recruit. That sucks. Yeah. But in his mind, he's just enforcing what he believes, you know what I mean? What he learns college. Is the right thing to do. Exactly. He's literally a professional. Exactly. So new data can come out and new data has even come out on full knee bend and your knee going over toes and stuff like that and how it actually leads to less pain and more athleticism. But now from the moment that data comes out, it's not like the textbooks magically all switch. Right. The whole curriculum and textbooks and the tests. So even in my first couple of years of college, I would have to be guessing on tests. Is the answer the actual answer that's up to date right now or is the answer what the textbook thinks is the answer? Does that make sense? Yeah, I understand what you're saying. And it goes like that for diet. And you see new data is constantly coming out, right? So that's why for me, it's really nothing. I'm not even trying to be critical of that system. There's so many cool aspects to college and stuff like that. I just knew I had to create an alternative. So it was like a light bulb went off and I just went hardcore as a trainer from that point. Now, when did you start getting traction? When did people start paying attention and recognizing like, hey, this guy is really on something. Making results in person. So I had a gym for seven years and I became known as the knee guy. Where was your gym at? Clearwater, Florida. It's like a beach town by Tampa. Sure. Tampa, St. Helene City. Oh, cool. So getting results in person became known as like the knee guy and quite honestly, friends telling me like you need to like go on social media and stuff like that. I hated social media at the time. Why did you hate social media? Years ago. I don't know what reasons could you come up with? All of them? Exactly. Yeah. So, but I did realize, okay, I'm going to need to approach social media the same way I approach needs and try to become as competent as I can possibly be and be patient with it and be responsible. You know what I mean? And so I really liked Gary Vee because he had a positive vibe. You know what I mean? Maybe too positive. I'm just kidding. I really liked Gary Vee because it seemed like you could be yourself and do and actually win on social media. Yeah. And you're the same way. You're just you and you're winning more than anyone. That's another conversation. Thanks for everything you're doing. You're the voice for us right now. So I don't want to be. I understand. I understand. I can't even imagine. But there are examples you can just be you. You can just try to help people. You don't have to be perfect. I can make as many mistakes. But tomorrow I'm going to go out and I'm going to try to help people. And the next day I'm going to go out and try to help people. And that's how I'm going to measure my life by how much I help people. There's no ego. If I made a mistake, move on, try to help people. So I've just been doing that since. And I did count up though for if someone wanted to be realistic about it. If you're like me, you're from a small town. You have no special connections or anything. I answered over 500,000 messages. Oh my God. Before I hit like 100,000 followers. Oh my God. So I'm at like. So. How do you have the time for that? Do you give yourself like an allocation? I'm very organized. I also have gone multiple years of my life without any entertainment sources whatsoever. So like this past year, 2021, I did no TV, no Netflix, no video games, not a single sports game of any kind. Oh my God. Yeah. That sounds monastic. I don't consider myself a lucky person. So I had to go, okay, I know how much this dragging this freaking sled works. And it gets your cardio in and you can put older people on it and you can rehab on it. But people aren't aware of it the way I am. How do I get there? Okay, I want to get lucky. I want my post to do well. I want people to know what I know. So I tried to put luck on my side and literally work at it harder than anyone else was going to work at putting the negatives out there. Here's this empowering positive thing I'm trying to get out. Went hard at it.