Nathan Michaels, the “knee whisperer” of the beach volleyball world

HERMOSA BEACH, CALIFORNIA — In the spring of 2021, Nathan Michaels was in need of an experiment.

A physical trainer who had worked full-time for Equinox until gyms were shut down during the pandemic, Michaels was taking clients of all shapes and sizes, ages and abilities, lifestyles and goals, in his newly decked out garage. It had every toy and gadget and machine a trainer could want or need and then some: squat rack, enough weight to keep a bodybuilder from budging the load, trap bar, technology measuring vertical, explosiveness, and speed of certain lifts, kettlebells ranging from baseball-sized to those that resembled watermelons.

What he lacked was data — real data on one of the most understudied sports and his newest passion: beach volleyball.

As it so happened, I was in need of a trainer.

For years, from 2017-2020, Tri Bourne had ribbed me for not working with a trainer. I approached weight lifting as a typical adult male might: days split by chest and back, legs, shoulders, triceps and biceps, and then whatever I happened to be in the mood for on Friday. Fine enough to stay in shape, but awful for the sport-specific training required of playing volleyball at the professional level to which I aspired. The results were what you might expect: A lack of improvement on the sand, and a constant, throbbing pain in my knees, shoulders, and lower back.

I needed something different.

“If there’s anyone I’m working with, be it general population or athlete, is there pain? Cool. You don’t have to live with it, it shouldn’t be a forever thing, it should be minor or never,” Michaels said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “Let’s get you to that place and then start from there.”

I wasn’t apprehensive about Michaels, but I didn’t believe him, either. My knees had been in various states of pain since I grew six inches during my freshman year at the University of Maryland. Given my genetics, the son of a mother who has had half a dozen knee surgeries, I figured those growing pains would be permanent; for 10 years, they were. I’d worked with USA Volleyball trainer Christian Hartford for a year, and it was legitimately life-changing, unlocking swaths of athletic potential I hadn’t yet experienced. I played the best volleyball of my career at that point — more explosive, more mobile, more consistent, less…