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Pain & Performance

The Revolutionary New Way to Use Training as Treatment for Pain and Injury

Published by 80/20 Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Discover how to move through pain and injury, overcome perceived limits, and be in control of your athletic performance.

Pain is universal. Athletes in pursuit of performance are not strangers to pain—in fact they embrace it. But nothing derails training faster than nagging athletic pain and injury, which all too often land athletes in an endless cycle of physical therapy or leave them sidelined from sport altogether, awaiting surgery.

Pain & Performance is a tour de force that explores compelling advances in pain science to reveal the shocking lack of evidence to support modern medicine’s approach to injury management. Author Ryan Whited shares how his own journey, as both an elite climber and a professional trainer, inspired his revolutionary Training as Treatment method for helping athletes bounce back from broken to achieve breakthrough performances. This powerful new approach to musculoskeletal health will empower athletes to move through pain with confidence and control as they continue to chase big goals.

About The Authors

Ryan Whited is a personal trainer, elite climber, and the founder of Paragon Athletics, a gym that empowers athletes with sport-specific strength and conditioning to complement their performance goals. His passion for working with athletes and investigating the nature of biomechanics and human performance is the basis for Paragon's innovative Training as Treatment program. Paragon has become a destination for both novice and elite athletes who find themselves sidelined by chronic pain or injury. As a specialist in pain science and physiology, Ryan uses his experience as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist to help his clients avoid surgery, reduce or eliminate pain, and return to their sports with more resilience. 

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports author, coach, and nutritionist. His many books include The Comeback Quotient, 80/20 Running, and Pain & Performance. Matt has also written for a number of leading sports and fitness publications, including Runner’s World and Triathlete, and for popular websites such as outsideonline.com and nbcnews.com. Matt is cofounder of 80/20 Endurance, the world's premier endurance sports training brand, and creator of Dream Run Camp, a pro-style residential training camp for runners of all abilities based in Flagstaff, Arizona. He also codirects the Coaches of Color Initiative, a nonprofit program that seeks to improve diversity in endurance coaching. A lifelong endurance athlete, Matt speaks frequently at events throughout the United States and internationally.

Product Details

  • Publisher: 80/20 Publishing (December 8, 2023)
  • Length: 224 pages
  • ISBN13: 9798985398052

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Raves and Reviews

"Training as Treatment is a fresh and innovative approach to understanding and working with pain rather than against it. By helping athletes face fear and reframe pain, Ryan Whited facilitates a shift in mindset that fosters a healthy, lifelong relationship to sport and performance."

– Rob Krar, coach and ultrarunning champion

"Pain & Performance will give you great insight into the biopsychosocial approach to training. You’ll expand your knowledge of pain science and your focus will shift from pain to performance!"

– Dr. Tim Gabbett, sport scientist and founder of Gabbett Performance Solutions

"Whether you are a weekend warrior or a pro, you will feel pain, you will get injured. How will you know how to get (back) to peak performance as quickly as possible? Pain & Performance is the go-to resource: thoroughly researched, evidenced-based, broadly sourced, all assumptions questioned."

– Zack Learner, veteran climber and former U.S. climbing team member

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More books from this author: Matt Fitzgerald