As an endurance athlete, I spent the better part of my twenties training for and running ultramarathons. My body was resilient, productively absorbing 60- to 100-mile training weeks and races just as long, and I thought that would continue indefinitely.
Then, over the course of nine months, I developed intermittent but often excruciating sciatica, nerve pain that originates in the lower back and radiates down the leg, and eventually, as a result of changing my running gait to compensate for this pain, a torn hip labrum. I expected rest—the do-nothing, on-the-couch type rest—to eventually heal me, but the pain persisted. I saw massage therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, bone and joint specialists, and nerve doctors. No one had a clear answer and no treatment worked.
It was at this vulnerable moment, in 2020, that I discovered the Knees Over Toes Guy. Ben Patrick, a then 30-year-old based in Clearwater, Florida, posted videos of himself on Instagram performing scroll-stopping feats of circus athleticism without any apparent discomfort: springing from a stationary deep squat up to dunk a…
