Paragon Athletics

Here are some fun exercises we came up with for classes over the last couple weeks!

1. Sloper Strength + Typewriter Pull-Up

The first is a fun way to develop some sloper strength. If you don’t have access to climbing on slopers, you can simply hang a kettlebell and use just the bell portion.

This is a classic typewriter pull-up on a sloper, and it’s surprisingly challenging. Some people in class even kept their feet on a plyometric box while performing the movement over a pad.

2. Ballistic Hip Abduction/adduction

This is much harder to coordinate than it looks!

Use some chalk or pick a couple of lines on the floor as targets. It’s a simple metric that makes this one both challenging and a lot of fun.

3. Wall Hop + Squat

The third is another coordination exercise—but believe me, your quads are going to feel the work!

I’m squatting a little over four feet from the wall. Simply hop toward the wall, allowing your feet to leave the floor, then use your wrist to redirect yourself back to your starting position.

This one is a little more challenging than it looks. You might start by simply standing up, falling toward the wall, and pushing yourself back into your squat before adding the jump.

4. Hip Strength + Abduction

I love this little exercise for developing hip strength. Lay your leg on a plyometric box and place a small weight on your ankle (5ish lbs) From there, simply reach your leg out and away from yourself.

You can do this over a counter top, couch, or anything else that gives you a little elevation.

I prefer placing the weight directly on my ankle rather than using an ankle weight or attaching the weight to my leg. This creates a constraint that requires me to abduct the hip while maintaining some internal rotation at the femoral head—a position many people tend to avoid.

Give these a try and let us know what you think!

Hope you guys have a great weekend! 🤘

A few weeks ago, The New York Times reached out and asked if I would contribute to an article about the benefits of agility training and how to incorporate it into a training program.

Did I mention I love what I do? ☺️

I’m incredibly grateful for opportunities like this—not just to share what I’ve learned over the years, but to help more people discover that movement can be both purposeful and fun.

“Introduce it as you would cayenne or garlic to a recipe,” he said. “Taste it for a while, so you don’t overdo it.”

—Ryan Whited

Have you seen Old Man Lightning yet?!

OML is coming to the big screen in Sedona this weekend!

After the 7:00 p.m. showing, director Dawn Kish and I will be sticking around for a Q&A to share stories, a few laughs, and some of the lessons we learned over the course of this slightly overambitious 10-year project.

Come watch the film, and ask us anything. It’s better than the Odyssey (IMO)! 😌

See you there!

Health is a spectrum.

Every week, someone tells me—by text, email, or in person—that they’re waiting to get started with us until they finish physical therapy, when their injury is healed, or, even better yet , that their therapist told them to avoid exercise.

If your therapy is getting in the way of your overall health, it may be time to rethink your paradigm.

Ironically, when the complete absence of pain becomes the primary goal, it can actually prolong the pain experience. Avoiding movement out of fear of pain often reinforces the very problem you’re trying to solve.

Pain is not your employer, pain is an employee. It provides information, but it doesn’t get to make the decisions.

Health exists on a spectrum, and so does exercise. At Paragon Athletics, we specialize in helping people continue moving safely and confidently, whether they’re recovering from an injury, managing persistent pain, or pursuing peak performance. Our goal is to help you maintain and improve your health across the entire spectrum—not just after the pain is gone.
Some food for thought, someone can be the healthiest person in a room and be in the most amount of pain, and someone can be a deaths door with no pain at all. Pain is just not a very reliable metric for health.

See you soon!!

Whoops… climber strength class was accidentally taken off the schedule. It’s back up now now! See you tonight, it’s gonna be a good one!!

A few months ago, I was invited to serve as a panelist at the Mind Stoke Symposium. A gathering of performance psychologists, pain psychologists, clinicians, coaches, and athletes, all united by a passion for helping people perform and live better.

After my panel discussion, I decided to stay for the entire two-day event. I was truly humbled just to be invited, and I’m so glad I stayed.

Events like this are incredibly valuable. Spending a weekend surrounded by like-minded people who are deeply passionate about helping others is both inspiring and energizing. Every conversation offers a new perspective, every presentation sparks new ideas, and I always leave with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper appreciation for this community.

Strength train for:
• Performance
• Injury resilience
• Metabolic health
• Longevity
• Emotional well-being
• Reduced risk of cognitive decline
• Stronger bones and better bone density
And, as an added bonus, when your workout is over, you’ll still be able to play a pretty MEGA game of The Floor Is Lava.

Hope you guys had a good weekend! ☺️

You know it’s hot when you seek shade even when you’re indoors! Hoping for the beginning of monsoon on Sunday!🙏🏼 Stay cool and have a great weekend everyone!

Here are a few fun exercises we came up with over the last couple of weeks!

Exercise #1: A great little adductor exercise. If the Copenhagen plank ever grew up, this is probably what it would look like. You can perform it from a standard pull-up bar with a sling or ratchet strap, and if it feels a bit intimidating, simply place a chair in front of you for a little assistance. A little goes a long way with this one, so ease into it.

Also, here’s something worth thinking about: a well-designed strength training program is mobility and stretching—it’s just mobility under load. In other words… very light strength training. Let that sink in.

Exercise #2: This is a great combination of core and shoulder stability. The bar I’m holding weighs 25 pounds, and rotating a heavy bar provides excellent training for the wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Don’t forget—the supporting shoulder is working just as hard as the one moving the bar.

You can easily scale this exercise by lowering your feet to the floor or by using a dumbbell instead of the bar. If stabilizing on the ball is too challenging, simply place the ball against a wall or another stable surface.

Exercise #3: This is an exercise we developed to simulate roof climbing—something Flagstaff is famous for. It combines pulling strength, abdominal work, and, of course, some dorsiflexors . Gotta keep those tib-ant happy… you know.

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend!

Super excited to be part of the panel discussion at the MindStokes Symposium this year!

If you’re a clinician, coach, or practitioner who works with endurance athletes, you understand the tremendous value of psychological insight in both performance and health. This symposium brings together researchers, clinicians, coaches, and healthcare providers who are dedicated to understanding and supporting this unique population.

If you’re available July 17-19, I highly encourage you to make the trip to Sedona. It promises to be an outstanding event filled with cutting-edge information, meaningful discussions, and opportunities to connect with professionals who are passionate about helping endurance athletes thrive.

Hope to see you there!