Not to be a frigging elitist or anything
. . . but this rearward cleat stuff rather reminds me of Brooks saddles. I dunno . . .Cleat placement is all about performance choice. Moving the cleats back is rather crippling one's legs, by choice. I've always pedaled with the ball of my big toe over the pedal spindle. Never had an issue with it, and as you probably know, I concentrate on long rides. The purpose behind that placement is to activate one's calf and tibialis muscles. And yes, I do squats, great for the big movers in the legs, and I also do calf and toe raises because uh, squats don't do anything for them. Yeah, it's only about performance, but I care about that. I also use a position and pedaling style which activates my hams and glutes. The more muscles I can spread the load to, the better I go. See:
and starting at about 9:00
Watch the changes in ankle angle. This is not "ankling." Changing the angle of the ankle reduces the changes of angle at the knee and hip, focusing on the most powerful range of motion for those joints.
On another subject, I notice how much more reach these folks used than is now common. I used to do that until my fitter moved my hands back. I rather liked it better the other way. I think more reach puts less load on the hands - they just bounce up and down, no load on them. I don't know why riders changed that.