Clearwater, Fla. -- Ben Patrick makes dunking look easy. Having a 42-inch vertical certainly helps. But believe it or not, it wasn't that long ago that the Clearwater native couldn't even grab the rim.

“I was going to bed dreaming you know being in high school, getting a fast break and being able to dunk. Not thinking that my reality was going to be waking up on an operating table having multiple knee surgeries being nowhere near dunking.”

As a 20-year-old, Ben dealt with chronic knee issues. Now at age 30, he’s able to dunk with ease.

His secret? An unconventional training method called knees over toes.

“When you do a full bend, you grow this tear drop muscle and this one is the fastest twitch which means it reacts quickest when you put impact on it and when you train full bend, you actually grow and thicken your tendons and that’s what holds the muscles together,” said Patrick. “I’ve actually been able to internally transform my knees, therefore the jumping is easier.”

Ben saw how we was able to fix his knee problems and wanted to help others with theirs. So the former basketball player turned trainer founded “Athletic Truth Group” and began sharing knees over toes exercises with the world.

“The backward sled is the foundation of the whole program. When people are struggling with their knees, usually there’s methods of avoiding knees in order to give them a chance to heal but actually the way the knees work they need blood flow to heel. It’s easy to get blood flow to muscles but it’s hard to get blood flow to tendons and ligaments. This allows, if you look at what they’re doing, to drive strength and blood flow to the knees to actively heal faster while getting more protected to not get injured in the first place.”

ATG coach Derek Williams says the knees over toes exercises helped him overcome years of knee pain.

“It’s crazy man. I’m 43. I came in with knee pain, hip pain from when I was a professional basketball player. I thought it was just wear and tear and old age. But then I learned how to train my body properly and I’ve literally reversed my aging. Like I’m back dunking, I’m back training with athletes.”

Now known as the “Knees Over Toes Guy”, Ben has developed a huge social media following and his workout routine even caught the attention of popular podcaster Joe Rogan.

“He’s been in touch with me for a while now, he’s actually been doing the program for over a year,” said Patrick. “So in January I get a message from Joe, you wanna come on the podcast January 18^th? So I was like, done! It was amazing, he’s an amazing guy and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.”

While he’s enjoyed seeing his program become so popular, Ben says the most satisfying thing for him is seeing others be able to transform their knees like he did.

All these guys, we all work online, but most of them were like me. Most of them had knee surgeries, thought they’d never play basketball again. Now they’re dunking. So this is what it’s all about for me.