Elevate Your Training with the Best Slant Boards
Take your workouts and injury prevention up a degree with these angled fitness accessories.
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Your knees are a key joint that play a role in everyday activities like walking, sitting, navigating steps and, in the fitness realm, training. And if you've ever found yourself being coached in a squat or other leg-centric exercise, you've probably been critiqued to never let your knees fall over your toes. Is that the best practice, though?
Think about it. When you get up from a chair, your knees fall over your toes. When you travel a flight of stairs, don't your knees travel past your toes to go up or down? Then why, when you have a large load on your back, are you instructed not to follow this natural body plane?
Taking aim at this dated training misconception, Knees Over Toes movements and exercises have become the latest fitness craze for healthier knees, calves and other muscle groups. Made popular by Ben Patrick, the "Knees Over Toes Guy," these modalities are designed to get your knees and lower body adapted to this position, strengthening the muscles over time in a natural stance for improved walking, running, squatting, jumping and more.
If you're interested in improving your knee health with Knees Over Toes training, there are a few fitness accessories that can help you get the most out of your sessions, with slant boards being the simplest and easiest to include. These wedge-shaped platforms can be great for raising the heel for a wide variety of stretches and exercises. But which slant board is best for training? Here are our picks for the best slant boards available right now.
What Is a Slant Board?
Resembling a large wedge, slant boards are platforms that allow you to elevate your heel at an angle to target your knees and calves when stretching. Typically made from wood, foam or metal, these fitness accessories are lightweight and sometimes adjustable, so you can choose which angle fits your needs and strengths best. A similar notion is employed in weightlifting shoes, which feature an elevated heel for a better stance during squats or Olympic lifts. Think of a slant board as an overexaggerated heel lift.
Slant boards also often feature a grippy surface for improved traction and can come in either full or split designs. Split slant boards come in pairs of two, making them excellent for single-leg stretches or if you have a stance that full boards can't accommodate comfortably.
The Benefits of Slant Boards
Outside of training your knees, slant boards can be utilized to help strengthen your calves and other lower body areas like the Achilles tendon. Using a slant board regularly can help keep these muscles and tendons stretched for maximum performance and injury prevention. After all, we experience injuries when a load is placed on a weak portion of our kinetic chain. Keeping your lower body used to these stretches and angles can create a stronger base, allowing for increased output when you do decide to go all-in for a sprint, lift or jump.
Another great benefit to using a slant board is that the stretches available can be a great way to target your vastus medialis oblique or VMO. This muscle is important in keeping your kneecap tracking but can be difficult to activate in other exercises. Training with a slant board can help improve the VMO's stabilizing abilities, keeping your knees functioning properly and pain-free.
With its simple profile and ample versatility, slant boards can be used anywhere from the gym to on the couch and even as you work from your desk. Here are six boards worth considering if you're wanting to boost your knee and joint health.
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