Break free from the knee pain that keeps coming back

Young athletes are training harder than ever, and their joints are paying for it

• 1 in 4

  volleyball players has jumper's knee, and about 1 in 5 basketball players. At the elite level it's up to 45%. Nutarelli et al., 2023; Lian et al., 2005

• 53%

  of athletes with jumper's knee said they quit their sport because of it, in a 15-year follow-up. Only 7% of athletes without it did. Kettunen et al., 2002

• 1 in 3

  athletes who saw a sports doctor for jumper's knee couldn't play for more than six months. Nearly half said it started before age 20. Cook et al., BJSM

• 5×

  Basketball players with a past ankle injury were almost five times more likely to injure an ankle again. McKay et al., BJSM

• 4.3×

  Players in shoes with air cells in the heel were 4.3 times more likely to injure an ankle. McKay et al., BJSM

• +59%

  ACL reconstructions in girls aged 13 to 17 rose 59% over 13 years. UNC, JAMA Pediatrics 2017

The sport keeps asking for more: more reps, more weights, more tournaments. "No pain, no gain" is still the rule in most gyms. And the answers parents get are about the spot that hurts, never the foundation underneath it.

• You've watched the knee flare up every season, and nothing seems to stick.
• You've done the rest, the ice, the physio, the brace. It helps for a while, then the pain comes back.
• More training can't be the answer. The calendar is full and the body is tired.
• You wonder if pain is just part of the sport, or if something is being missed.

At the heart of it, you just want to play, or watch your kid play, without pain. And see how good they can really get.

"Left bench," I told them

A few seasons ago, I asked the 14U club team I coach what position they thought I played at their age. They guessed left side, setter, opposite.

I was tall for my age, but uncoordinated and weak. I got cut from my grade school soccer team. I played club basketball for years and still struggled to be a real player. I'd lifted heavy since I was 13 and couldn't put on muscle. I believed it was my genetics.

At 19, a mentor helped me see the belief that was holding me back, and I finally started to grow. I hit 200 pounds and became a personal trainer. I spent over a decade testing every training method I could find. What changed everything was the stuff nobody was fully focused on: sleep, food, the mind, and above all, the fascia and the feet.

At 22, I rebuilt the connection from my feet to my glutes. My body started working as one system instead of a stack of parts.

I'd played on the Fanshawe College men's volleyball team. Then I went pro in the Faroe Islands, where we won the league and the cup. I had the highest attacking efficiency in the entire league, and I played every single match completely healthy.

It's simpler than what most athletes are doing, and it works better. So I put it all in one book.

And I wrote every chapter myself, with no AI. What's in it comes from over a decade of playing, training and coaching, not from a chatbot.

Five parts of the foundation

I'll show you everything and hold nothing back

1. p. 11The one sentence that cancels the belief "pain is part of being an athlete"
2. p. 13The Pain Guide: the 2-minute exercise 99% of people won't do
3. p. 24The 10-week "Jumper's Knee" return-to-play protocol, about 20 minutes a day
4. p. 39The sleep checklist: some cheap gear and a few habits
5. p. 45"Hydration-maxing": getting water into your tissues, not just your bladder
6. p. 62Simple meal models for training days
7. p. 69The Fascia Health Protocol, including a 10 to 20-minute morning routine
8. p. 73The full myofascial release guide, foot to shoulder, with one tennis ball
9. p. 116How to become "glutes dominant"
10. p. 121The Foot Connection guide: from towel curls to explosive jumps
11. p. 146The "Ultimate Technique" that ties it all together

You can't fire a cannon from a canoe

• Rest, until the next tournament brings the pain back.
• Physio, which helped the spot but not the pattern.
• Braces, tape and orthotics, which do the job the feet and fascia should be doing.
• More strength work, which built a bigger engine on the same weak frame.

None of that was wrong. It just started at the top of the tree. The frame is your fascia, the web that connects every muscle, bone and joint, and your feet, where every jump starts. When the fascia is stuck and shoes have switched the feet off, the knee carries load the whole body was meant to share.

The research backs a ground-up approach: in a randomized trial, runners who didn't do a foot strengthening program were 2.42 times more likely to get injured over 12 months. Taddei et al., 2020

Picture next season. Your athlete goes up for a big jump and lands without a wince. They play the whole tournament with nothing taped or braced, jumping higher than last year.

This book isn't for everyone. If you want a pill, a gadget or an overnight fix, this isn't it. If you or your athlete will put in 20 to 30 minutes a day, it is.

Questions

Nothing changes if nothing changes. Your athletic future is waiting.

Alain Pineault
Truthful Training

P.S. If you or your athlete is hurting right now, start with page 13 and page 24 tonight. That's 20 minutes a day, and it's the fastest place to start.

P.P.S. After you order, you'll get the chance to book a free 45-minute strategy call with me. Spots are limited each week.