Decades After Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Treated Sugar Ray Leonard?s ?Hurting Knees,? His Revolutionary Training Method Is Still Changing Lives

In the last few years, fitness YouTuber Ben Patrick a.k.a.?The Kneesovertoesguy,?has exploded in popularity. Patrick’s call to fame was overcoming severe knee pain and limited mobility issues to dunk basketballs on the court. Patrick achieved this with the help of his backward mobility training and the ATG split squat. However, Patrick didn’t discover the concept of?“backward training.” If fact, Muhammad ‘The Greatest’ Ali included backward training in his workout and even helped fellow legend ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard.

Earlier, a member of the ATG strength and coaching team, David Mariani, sat for an interview with?Escape Fitness. During the interview, the backward training practitioner revealed how Muhammad Ali had used one aspect of the ATG program to defeat knee pain. A revolutionary approach that’s still changing lives.

What was Muhammad Ali’s backward training?

The Escape Fitness host asked Mariani about the training method during the interview.?“You mentioned this backward training’s been around for a while,”?said the host. He added that Mariani had mentioned Muhammad Ali incorporated the movement into his training regimen. The coach revealed that Ali walked and ran backward while training in the 60s and 70s.

Mariani then recounted a story about Ali helping fellow boxing icon Ray Leonard.?“So Sugar Ray Leonard had come to him and said, you know my knees are hurting,”?said the coach. That’s when the then-heavyweight champion recommended Leonard to incorporate backward movement into his training. Ali told Leonard the multiple benefits of backward training.

“Not just for your knee Health but because your sport requires some backward movement,”?Ali had his fellow boxer.?“You need to start running backward like I’ve been doing,”?added Ali. Despite being a heavyweight, Ali was known for his slick footwork. Running and moving in all directions, including backward, might have been the reason behind his agility in the ring. Today an evolved version of The Louisiana Lip’s revolutionary training method is changing lives.

Ben Partick’s way to unlock pain-free fitness

The founder of the ATG training philosophy, Ben Patrick, suffered from severe knee-related issues in his youth. However, the YouTuber studied some of the?best athletes across various disciplines?and devised his training philosophy. After witnessing staggering results, Patrick shared his techniques with others on YouTube.

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Walking backward is the basic and first movement that Patrick makes everyone master. Besides toe raises, moving backward bulletproofs the knee joint, according to Patrick. While his methodology isn’t backed up by specific scientific research, legends such as Muhammad Ali practiced it, and it helped thousands of people reduce or eliminate knee pain. What did you think about The Greatest’s revolutionary training? Let us know in the comments.

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