Strength training for Parkour

Ryan Ford is an athlete, coach, author, and entrepreneur. He is flabbergasted and grateful to have become a scholar in the art of urban obstacle touching. Ryan’s parkour journey began in 2004 in his hometown, Golden, Colorado. In 2006, Ryan established the first formal parkour classes in the Western Hemisphere while also becoming one of the first professional parkour athletes in North America. He has performed and coached worldwide for various organizations including the New Yorker, TEDx, ESPN, and the U.S. Embassy. In 2009, Ryan earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder while also opening his first parkour gym, APEX Movement in Denver. Since then, APEX Movement has grown to five locations with more on the way. After establishing APEX, Ryan founded ParkourEDU which is a coaching certification and online platform dedicated to teaching the best parkour methods. Through his various ventures, Ryan has taught parkour to tens of thousands of people, including coaches, athletes, elite military forces, underprivileged youth, and seniors. Although Ryan’s specialty is parkour, he regularly cross-trains in weightlifting, bouldering, and acrobatics and he is a two-time competitor on the show American Ninja Warrior. Additionally, he loves to continue his movement education through certifications and extensive research in areas such as corrective exercise, CrossFit, pole fitness, hand balancing, plyometrics, and barefoot running. One of Ryan’s goals in life is to inspire others to also touch as many different obstacles as possible.