Knee Ability Series 3 of 10

Tips to Transform your Knees and Jumping

The most helpful method I know, relative to how underutilized it is, is improving your ability in the last quarter of a squat.

I’ve been to hundreds of gyms and I’ve never seen someone intentionally slowing down the bottom of a full squat.

Yet this has been the single most life-changing thing I’ve done over the past 10 years of transforming my knees and jumping.

It’s very easy to understand why it’s been overlooked:

Powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting are competitive sports which largely shaped modern strength training.

In powerlifting you only have to go halfway down for the lift to count.

And in Olympic weightlifting, bouncing out of the bottom is advantageous to lift more weight.

To be clear, those methods are valid, but in neither sport are you intentionally controlling all the way down.

The 1970s mistake of “no knees over toes” further confused people and delayed the development of a step-by-step system.

Modern research encourages a progressive system since deep squats have shown to be effective for protection AGAINST injuries and for PRESERVING the knees. (PMID 23821469)

There are two main ways I apply this.

One is as simple as it sounds: deliberately SLOWING down in the last quarter of a squat.

This is a scale from assisted to bodyweight to loaded.

And the other is the ATG Split Squat, which naturally involves lots of results in the bottom quarter.

First, due to leverage, it gets proportionally tougher as you go deeper.

And secondly, the flexibility challenge makes it unlikely for someone to bounce out of the bottom, so people naturally wind up spending a lot of time under tension in this deeper zone.

The ATG Split Squat also scales from assisted to unassisted to loaded, as well as from higher to lower front foot.

Now WHY exactly does this work?

Because your body is the sum of your abilities, modified by the BALANCE of those abilities.

Bodies can’t be too hot, too cold, without water… Even too MUCH water can kill a body!

Balance is just a natural part of bodies.

The sports with the most knee surgeries, such as basketball and soccer, are played high and fast.

Low and slow simply adds more total ABILITY, resulting in a joint with greater strength and stability.

Knee Ability Pro Update

Knee Ability has been my main program and purpose in life, so Knee Ability Pro should be what I’m currently doing.

My goal in 2025 is to achieve the highest jump of my life while making my knees even more injury-resistant.

The Monday workout in Knee Ability Pro centers around 10 sets of 1 rep, taking at least 10 seconds to go down, with PARTICULAR intention to slow down the last quarter.

The rest of the week aims to balance the body to the powerful results of that method.

The highest jumps of my life were in 2019 and 2022. This was my main method, along with jumping once a week with maximum intent.

It’s a simple overall recipe:

1. Maximum intent at the TOP (the jumping)

2. Balance this out with maximum intent at the BOTTOM (the squat protocol)

In 2020 and 2021 my main focus was how LITTLE is needed for amazing knee results. As it turns out: literally zero equipment! That became the Knee Ability Zero program.

And in 2023 and 2024 my main focus was how little TIME is needed for amazing full body exercise results. Having a second kid while running ATG was a challenge, and only needing 2-3 workouts per week was a secret weapon for me!

It still is.

So I’m doing the exact list of exercises below, but I do the Monday and Tuesday workload all in a row in one workout, and the Thursday and Friday workload all in a row in another workout.

If I had more time on my hands, I would break them up.

My third “workout” is our staff hoops game, bringing out the Vertec for a maximum jump test afterward.

Here’s the program:

Monday

A. Heavy Forward & Backward Sled 50 yards each way

B1. Tibialis Raise 2 x up to 15

B2. Single-Leg Standing Calf Raise 2 x up to 10

B3. Seated Calf Raise 2 x up to 15

C. Low and SLOW Squat 10 x 1 10 seconds down on each rep!

D. Reverse Slant Step-up 3 x 20

E. Eccentric Nordic 3 x 5

Tuesday

A1. Pigeon Push-up 2 x 20

A2. Standing Pancake Pulse 2 x 20

A3. Couch Stretch Pulse 2 x 20

A4. Slant Toe Touch 2 x 20

B1. Garhammer Raise 2 x Burnout

B2. Bodyweight Row 2 x Burnout

B3. ATG Shoulder Press 2 x 8

B4. QL 2 x 10

Thursday

A. Heavy Forward & Backward Sled 50 yards each way

B1. Tibialis Raise 2 x up to 15

B2. Single-Leg Standing Calf Raise 2 x up to 10

B3. Seated Calf Raise 2 x up to 15

C. ATG Split Squat 8 x 8

D1. KOT Squat 3 x 10

D2. Full-Stretch RDL 3 x 15

Friday

A1. Pigeon Push-up 2 x 20

A2. Standing Pancake Pulse 2 x 20

A3. Couch Stretch Pulse 2 x 20

A4. Slant Toe Touch 2 x 20

B1. L-Sit 2 x Burnout

B2. Face Pull 2 x 20

B3. Incline Bench 2 x 8

B4. Pull-up 2 x Burnout

Whatever your goals, I hope this article helps your journey!

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

For the Knee Ability program with the lowest price I’ve seen to have your own form coached: ATGonlinecoaching.com.

For the equipment we make: ATGequipment.com.

And to see if there’s an ATG gym or in-person coach near you: map.ATGforcoaches.com.