I Played Volleyball After Doing The Knees Over Toes Program | My 2 Month KOT Update

What's up everyone, Victoria S. Dorsano here, and today I'm gonna give you guys another Knees Over Toes Guide program update. This is my 2 to 3 month point in the ATG program. ATG program, Knees Over Toes Guide program, you'll hear me use both those interchangeably, but really it's called the ATG program that I've been doing. So I am so excited to give you guys this update because I have officially played my sport of volleyball after doing the ATG program for a, you know, good amount of weeks. Weeks at this point and wanted to share with you guys how that's felt. In particular, you know, with having ACL reconstruction close to 2 years ago and how my knee's been doing throughout that process and how it's felt playing my sport after doing this program. So I'm excited to share this with you guys, but before we dive in, if you could go ahead and give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel, I would greatly appreciate it so I can keep making awesome content like this for you guys. And if you're interested at all in Ben Patrick or Knees Over Toes Guy's programs, or any of those things relating to, you know, getting your joints feeling better and knee health in particular, as I've— my personal journey is going through ACL reconstruction, you'll definitely want to subscribe because I've been making a ton of videos about that, about joint health and just my journey throughout this program. So looking forward to seeing you be a subscriber, and let's go ahead and get started. Ooh, and I totally forgot, holla at me on Instagram too. It's @victoria_s_dorsano. You can find me there, follow me on Instagram, shoot me a message, say hello. Um, I've been getting a ton of great questions from you guys, especially all those of you that have gone through ACL surgery. So keep them coming. I plan on making more videos based on a lot of the questions you guys have been having for me. So, all right, let's get going. So kind of where I left off in my last ATG Knees Over Toes Guide program update was that, you know, I've really been enjoying it. The coaches have been phenomenal, right? Just to kind of recap what I already have mentioned. And if you want a full understanding of what I'm referencing, go ahead and go back to that original video. I will link it down below in the description as well as up here. Yeah, I mean, it's been incredible. I cannot say enough good things about this program. I was telling my friend Rachel, who's been on this channel before and she's a personal trainer, I was showing her some of the stuff that we're doing. And she's like, this is a really well-designed program. I'm like, yes, it is. And I have been feeling the differences. So I'm gonna be honest, I think the last time that I made my Knees Over Toes Guide program update video, I was experiencing a little bit of knee pain going through some of the motions. And they were, you know, really good about coaching me through that and finding alternatives and ways to work around that. I may have started to push it a little too hard into this this past month of training. Towards the beginning of this last month of training and doing the program, I definitely started to like get a little, little overconfident, a little cocky with how much weight I was doing the ATG squats with. I was excited. I mean, I was excited to be squatting that much with, you know, my knees over my toes and getting full flexion in my knees. I was like, let's, let's keep adding on the weight. But I will say, when you're dealing with full range of motion movements, you really do want to let your body adapt to that. Those. At least that's what I found as somebody who's gone through ACL reconstruction. Um, so I did push it a little hard. I'll say I did feel a little achy in my knee for a week or so, and I was a little frustrated and a little scared that I had like overdone it again. But I was really good. I tailored it back. I did not do any more weighted, like, knee exercises in the program. I just did body weight. Um, and really followed it to a T and didn't overdo it for a good while. And it felt way better, um, you know, going into the mid portion of this past month. So, um, just for reference, I think I'm at week 8 or 9, so somewhere going second month going into that third month pretty soon. So it's been great. Um, but yeah, I was a little scared at first with that that knee stuff going on. I was like, oh no, did I push it too hard again? So, um, but again, it kind of corrected itself as I listened to my body. So I think that's really important with this stuff where you're getting full end range of motion. So just something to keep in mind from my personal experience. So something that I noticed, I think around week 6 or so, was that the structure of the weekly, you know, workout cadence changed. I'm not sure why, if this is maybe just something that they're going to continuously do in the program, but it was Monday through Friday and then Saturday and Sunday were rest days or days to go do your sport or whatever you might want to do on those days. They changed it around week 6 so that it was Monday, Wednesday, or Monday, Tuesday were on, Wednesday was a rest day, or you can choose to work on your weak links in the program. So if you have like particular exercises that are tougher for you, you can choose to do those on Wednesday. And then Thursday and Friday you're back on, and then Saturday, Sunday you're off. So it was interesting to see that switch. I actually really preferred it because I was noticing I was gaining actually quite a significant amount of leg muscle, which is a good thing, right? Especially if you've gone through ACL surgery, like you want to stabilize the knee, you wanna build your muscles up. I build muscle really, really easily, and I was starting to feel like my pants were getting too tight. Like way too tight and uncomfortably tight. And I was like, I need to start working on, you know, either some more cardio on Wednesdays or incorporate some more athletic kind of training on Wednesdays, some more plyometric stuff, cuz that my legs were just feeling very heavy, strong, but very heavy and dense. Um, so that's another reason, you know, on top of not wanting to hurt my knee, I, I, I kind of peeled it back on the weight a little bit. I also noticed something cool that shifted and changed in the programming. Probably, uh, last week is when I noticed this happen. So like week 7-ish or so was that, um, it went from higher rep ranges, so like higher sets and reps. So I was assuming that meant a little bit lighter weight, um, to lower sets and reps, so more like 3 to 4 sets of like 6 to 8, um, which in my mind means, hey, you can probably build up the weight a little bit. For me though, I was like, you know what, let's just, let's just stay where you're at. Let's like not try to go too gung-ho at this and then continue to work on plyometrics on Wednesdays on my own and do some more HIIT training and cardio-based stuff on the days that I feel appropriate. And that's been really working out well for me. I Honestly have like, my knee has been feeling so good, both my knees, because I was having some pain in my other knee, and my back has been feeling really good. Um, I wouldn't say it's 100%, like neither my knees nor my back are at like 100% pain-free, um, but they're getting there. And I can definitely tell, even my shoulder, because I've had some shoulder issues with volleyball. A lot of the program involves upper body too. It's not just working on your knees, even though the program is called like Knees Over Toes, right? Like my shoulder strength and stability has been like amazing. So all of this is factoring into like, I started to play volleyball again. I, um, played beach volleyball twice now, and both times my knee felt really, really good. Um, I didn't feel any kind of achiness or like twinges of pain or anything kind of off in my legs. Um, and my shoulder felt amazing. Like, hitting a volleyball, um, that's a really awkward motion for the shoulder typically. And after doing it for, you know, most of my life, I had started to have some shoulder pain. And my shoulder— and my shoulder is just really kind of like, it pops in and out really easily. I have, you know, very hypermobile joints. So after doing a lot of the stability work, like external rotations and these like full range of motion shoulder presses. I just felt like my shoulder— I don't even have any pain in it anymore. It's kind of incredible to me. I almost can't believe it. It's pretty wild. So I'm really excited for that. I'm excited to be playing volleyball again. I felt very like explosive on the volleyball court too. I think a lot of that was the combination of starting to mix in some plyometric work with the program itself, because I think by itself Um, you know, I think it was doing a good job at building up my knees, but like my explosive kind of power movements weren't there. So that was a key that was missing for me as an athlete that wanted to get back to a sport that was more explosive, like volleyball, or if you're a basketball player or a sprinter, is to make sure that you're adding in more plyometric stuff on top of the program. And that leads me into my last point I wanted to make on this update video, is that now that I've gone through enough weeks to kind of understand the cadence of it, how they've broken up some of the training, although they may change it up in the future, I don't know. But at least from my knowledge base right now, I've had a lot of people ask me, like, is this something you can combine with another program? Like, you know, I had a few MMA people reach out and be like, you know, I'm doing this, the strength training program. Is there another way? Can I mix these together? And I would say, yeah, you can. I mean, the program on by itself can be strenuous if you want it to be strenuous. You know, you can mix it up with other programs too. I think there's ways to do some of the bigger movements that are like the really crucial ones, like doing the sled backwards, like doing the ATG split squats, like doing the knees over toes or the ATG, um, front rack squats, uh, with a heel incline. Um, some of those ones I think are really, really, really crucial, and like the Nordic hamstring curl. Um, and some of them are like more accessory and, and good for, you know, just stabilizing some of the joints. But I think if you wanted to kind of take out some of these bigger movements and combine them with, you know, another sport-specific or strength training program that you're doing, or if you're doing bodybuilding or something like that, I think it's a really great program to also combine together with something else or do solo. It's up to you and what your goals are. For me right now, I'm combining it with my own plyometric work on top of, you know, being active and playing some sports on the weekends. And that's been working really well for me. And I find that that's a really good balance. Before, when I was just doing the program and not really venturing into doing too many like athletic activities or plyometric work on my own, I was feeling like I was building so much leg muscle that like, I feel like I just, it wasn't aligned with my goals of like keeping a pretty high metabolic rate and keeping myself feeling lighter on the volleyball court, if that makes sense. There's definitely still some learning I have along the way with this program. I'm gonna keep doing it. I've again noticed too many benefits to not believe in it at this point. Um, and again, I've heard from, you know, other people that have been like, this program's been amazing, I'm so glad you're doing it. So it's just been a really good thing. Kudos to Ben Patrick for creating this program and for taking the time to do his research and challenge, you know, some of the knowledge base that's been out there with athletes about how you keep your knees behind your toes, and it takes guts to do that. And I'm really, um, happy that he brought this to the world, to the community, and especially to the ACL community, because I know, you know, those of you guys that are subscribers that have gone through ACL surgery, you know that like it's hard once you finish up your physical therapy and maybe you've been able to have a personal trainer or strength coach after that, but If you don't, you still have a lot of healing left to do and a lot to work on in your knee after you've been discharged from physical therapy. So I feel like this is a really great program for people that have been discharged from physical therapy for ACL surgery, and just, they need to continue to build, um, stability, strength in their surgical knee, but also their, their other joints too, because your shoulder is important. Um, it's really cool stuff. Like, I can't say enough good things about it. So I will put the links to the programs down below as well, the HEG program that I'm currently doing, the book that you can also follow if you don't want to actually do like have the live coaching, although I highly recommend the live coaching with the app through the program that you pay for. It's, uh, super, super valuable. And, um, yeah, I look forward to continuing to make these update videos. And as we move into the warmer months, like I said in my previous video, I'm going to try some tennis out. I want to try some basketball. I want to try some different sports and really see and test how my knee is feeling, um, and how I'm jumping and moving on the court and all those things. But from what I can tell right now, things are feeling pretty good. I'm hoping they stay that way, um, but I will keep you guys updated. And go ahead and if you haven't, please like this video, subscribe to my channel, follow me on Instagram @Victoria_S. Dorsano, shoot me a message, say hey, love to connect with you guys. And until then, have an awesome rest of your day. Bye!