The reverse Nordic is a movement where you kneel with your ankles tucked under you, lie back until your shoulders touch the ground, and then rise back up to kneeling using your quads, hip flexors, and core — and learning it with band assistance is what made my knee pain disappear. Last week I showed how to progress into the lie back quad stretch. This Physical Friday is the next step: the reverse Nordic, popularized by the Knees Over Toes Guy, demonstrated on camera with the exact band progressions I used.
Watch now: press play in the player above and follow along.
You kneel with your shins on the ground and ankles tucked under, lie back until your shoulders touch the floor, and then rise up — like some kind of zombie rising from the dead — to an upright kneeling position using your hip flexors, quads, and core. It is advocated by the Knees Over Toes Guy, who does it constantly on Instagram. It is an advanced movement, and the payoff is strength through ranges most people never train.
Attach a band to a pull up bar above you and hold it as you lie back and rise up — the band assists you out of the bottom position. The progression has three dials: hold higher on the band for more help and lower for less, switch to lighter and lighter bands over time, and eventually do the movement with no band at all. I demonstrate every stage on camera in the episode.
Mine went away when I got to the point where I could do this movement. The reverse Nordic builds strength through your quads, knees, hip flexors, and core, and apparently that combination addresses what drives a lot of knee pain. Honestly, there is probably no reason anybody strictly needs to do a reverse Nordic — but when you can do one, the pain in your knees goes away. That was my experience exactly.
Ideally yes — the reverse Nordic starts from the bottom of the lie back quad stretch, shoulders and knees on the ground, which I covered in episode 619. If you cannot fully lie back yet, though, you can still train the pattern: put a ball behind your back for support like in the stretch progression, hold the band, and pull yourself up from your available range. Use the ball, the band, or both, depending on where your limiting factor is.
Start with a few assisted reps and build. In the episode I do a handful of band-assisted reps, then reduce the assistance by moving my hand down the band, then attempt one with no band. Treat it like a strength progression, not a stretch — quality reps with the right amount of assistance, progressing the band down over weeks.
Ben Patrick, known as the Knees Over Toes Guy on Instagram, popularized training the knee through full ranges — including movements like the reverse Nordic — to bulletproof knees rather than protect them from motion. His content is where I first saw this movement, and I did not believe I would ever be able to do it. The band progression proved me wrong.
This is the exact progression I demonstrate on camera, from full assistance to no band at all.
It is a very advanced position, so respect the progression. The full on-camera demonstration, including my no-band attempt, is in the player above.
When I first saw the lie back quad stretch, I did not think I would ever get into it. Then I did. The reverse Nordic was the same story one level up — a movement I watched the Knees Over Toes Guy do on Instagram and mentally filed under never. The band changed the math completely, because it lets you train the exact pattern at whatever strength you have today. Watch how it works in the video above.
The band gives you a perfectly adjustable spotter. Hold it high and it carries a lot of you; slide your hand down and it carries less; switch lighter and it carries less still. That means there is a version of this movement for nearly everyone, today, and a clear path from that version to the unassisted rep. I walk through every stage of the dial on camera — press play above.
I will say it plainly: there is probably no reason anybody needs to do a reverse Nordic. When I built up to it, though, the pain in my knees went away — because the movement builds strength through the quads, the knees, the hip flexors, and the core all at once. Combined with the lie back quad stretch from last week, it has been instrumental in the athletic performance I am seeing these days. Details in the episode above.
Maybe you cannot quite do the full lie back quad stretch but you want to start training the rise. You can: keep the ball behind your back exactly like the stretch progression, grab the band, and pull up from the range you own. Whether your limiting factor is getting back or getting up, there is a ball-and-band combination that meets you there. I show the options at the end of the video above.
This two-part progression — the lie back quad stretch, then the reverse Nordic — took me from chronic knee pain to feeling better than ever, through positions I genuinely believed were impossible for my body. The tools were a medicine ball, a few bands, and patience.
Go back and watch episode 619 if you have not built the stretch yet, then come back to this one. Press play above for the full demonstration.
reverse Nordic · Knees Over Toes Guy (Ben Patrick) · lie back quad stretch · Joe Hippensteel · resistance band progression · hip flexors · quad strength · core · knee pain relief · medicine ball · pull up bar · Physical Friday
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong for life — short, practical episodes you can put to work in your next workout.
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