Meet Aaron Knighton of Blue Performance Group in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Knighton.

Aaron, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started my career working with individuals recovering from spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries at Craig Hospital. I learned how to influence a person’s nervous system to facilitate change and guide them back to the life they love. However, it was also during this period that I developed a passion for manual therapy. People often ask “what is manual therapy?” Well, in the simplest form, it is a skilled hands-on approach used by a physical therapist in order to accelerate a person’s functional ability and reduce pain.

Fast forward a couple of years… I shifted my focus and began working with endurance athletes in Boulder at a local outpatient therapy clinic. I connected the dots between my personal passion for endurance sport with my skills in manual therapy as well as my knowledge of the nervous system, which gave me a unique insight not only into injury recovery but how to use these skills to enhance athletic performance.

In 2017, Danielle Mack (who has given full permission to use her name and story), a professional Ironman athlete and 3x Ironman champion, approached me as a last resort to save her racing career. She was diagnosed with a condition called EILO (Exercise Induced Laryngeal Obstruction), which significantly reduced her ability to breathe while competing. As a result, she developed other areas of pain which forced her to DNF (did not finish) her next three races. Our sessions took an unconventional approach; instead of following standard protocol and treating the local problem, I wanted to discover the underlying issue. Through close collaboration, we developed a new treatment approach in an attempt to improve her breathing capacity and overall sports performance.

I remember early on in our patient-therapist relationship, I looked at Danielle and made a promise: “When you qualify for Kona, I will be there with you.” We continued therapy in-clinic for a number of weeks and made significant progress; however, due to limitations with insurance benefits, we were forced to suspend treatment.

I immediately turned to her saying, “I am so invested in your future and career, I am willing to come to your home once a week for free to continue our progress and get you back to racing.” And like that, an incredible friendship was formed. Over the course of two years, she slowly returned to racing, and this is the best part, in her first professional Ironman race after injury she qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii!

Immediately our attention was no longer on qualifying for Kona but turned to the fact that she was now one of the best Ironman athletes in the world. It was at this moment, Danielle gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received. She turned to me and said, “You have often talked about opening your own practice. Well, I want to represent all of what you have done for me as I race, please get me a name and logo so that I can put it on my racing kit.” WHAT A GIFT!!

And like that BLUE Performance was born. I kept my promise from two years ago to join Danielle in Kona, Hawaii that fall and used that opportunity to officially launch BLUE Performance at the Ironman World Championships in 2019. I had the privilege to not only serve Danielle during my time in Hawaii but also provide treatment and care to numerous other athletes throughout the week. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I am excited to continue sharing my knowledge and skill with other athletes in the Denver and Boulder region.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Operationally, the road has been pretty smooth. However, there are two main challenges I face: The first is helping people understand the value of seeing an out-of-network provider. I fully understand it is difficult to spend your hard-earned money to pay for a service that should be covered by your health insurance. In reality, health insurance limits your ability to see a physical therapist resulting in shorter visit times, limiting resources for care, as well as potentially requiring an early discharge from treatment. Since BLUE Performance is an out-of-network provided, it is not restricted by these limitations. Clients can expect longer one-on-one appointments, utilizing the latest evidence-based resources to improve healing, as well as a unique opportunity to work with an athlete before an injury occurs.

The second challenge is successfully conveying the mission behind BLUE Performance as it differs from your typical physical therapy clinic. Standard physical therapy focuses solely on a local impairment and injury, BLUE seeks to branch out of this arena in order to see how your body system works as a whole. This is one of the main reasons BLUE is an out-of-network provider. If BLUE was to operate under the typical insurance model, it would be limited on time and resources and would not be able to accomplish its main goal: improving the human experience to help you live to your highest potential.

Blue Performance Group – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
BLUE is actually an acronym for “Building Lives, Upgrading Experience.” It’s based on the philosophy that we are all living the human experience, and each of us has the right to live this out to its fullest extent. Our bodies are incredible systems and machines; they are able to do far more than we sometimes allow. My goal as a performance-based physio and founder of the BLUE Performance Group is to help facilitate this process. If you can move efficiently, you can move powerfully, enhancing your performance and your experience as a human being.

I started BLUE because I was not satisfied with the current physical therapy model. My experience led me to believe that there was a better way. I decided to break away from conventional thinking. I’m constantly asking the question, “what is it time for now?” I see each individual one-on-one for an hour in order to take advantage of both manual therapy and effective movement facilitation. I have found that in order to treat the whole person, there is sometimes a sequence of treatments that needs to occur at the right time and in the right order; longer appointment times affords my clients this opportunity.

A second goal of BLUE Performance is to reach people before an injury occurs. Research has demonstrated that physical therapists can identify movement dysfunctions which could lead to future injury. By addressing these dysfunctions now, the likelihood of an injury occurring is decreased.

Finally, BLUE Performance takes a “Team Approach” which is a novel idea in the world of sports performance therapy. The idea is that your physio works closely with your coach, personal trainer, massage therapist, sports psychologist, nutritionist and any other personnel on your performance team to work toward one common goal: helping you perform and live the human experience to its greatest potential.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Hand’s down, the proudest moment of my career was watching Danielle cross the finish line at Ironman Boulder 2019. I remember it vividly. I was standing next to the finishers chute with her family at Central Park in Boulder. We watched anxiously on the monitor during the last four miles of the marathon, waiting for her to arrive. Finally, she turned the corner and immediately tears streamed down my face; I was so proud of her. After a hard-fought day, Danielle crossed the finish line in third place, which solidified her entry into the Ironman World Championships that October. All of her hard work, patience and dedication over the past two years culminated in this moment.

My passion is to help people fulfill their goals and live to their greatest potential. In this moment, I saw my vision become a reality as I watched Danielle fulfill her dream. I desire to do that with as many people as I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blueperformancegroup.com
• Email: Aaron@blueperformancegroup.com
• Instagram: @Blueperformancegroup

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