Hello, my name is Cristian Plascencia and I am the Co-Founder of The Durable Athlete. I have spent my whole life trying to find the best equation to life to help maximize daily function and the longevity of our career. It all began when I was twelve years old and sprained my ankle playing basketball. Having spent about 2 months in the physical therapy office, it was apparent that this was a setting that I wanted to surround myself with. I had always been into athletics and sports and the fact that this facility was helping athletes and general population move and feel better really resonated with my passions. I ended up spending 1000 hours at this physical therapy facility before leaving high school and heading into college.

While in college, I was able to intern with another physical therapy clinic out in Los Angeles County who exposed me to a holistic approach to health and fitness. It was the first time anyone had explained to me how nutrition, sleep, and our mental practices ultimately dictated the quality of everyday life as well as our physical performances. It was not too long after this realization and exposure to holistic health that I received a grant to conduct research on the effects of Whole Body Vibration techniques. This was a great exposure as it led me to eventually work with the strength and conditioning coach in assisting in the weight room with football and volleyball athletes.

Soon after graduating from California Lutheran University, I received admittance into the University of Texas, Austin and decided to move out to Austin, TX. Upon moving to Texas, I was able to land a personal coaching position at the Onnit Gym working with general population as well as elite professional athletes. Wanting to compliment the structure of the gym, I decided that I would put all my efforts into helping people improve their quality of movement and more importantly, improving the quality of joint health for clients. Within my first two years working at Onnit, I was elected the lead Durability coach position which assisted other coaches at the Onnit gym better understand and implement movement and breathing techniques to assist in recovery protocols.

During my time at Onnit, I was able to travel and train with individuals like Earl Thomas, Andre Roberson, and The Taylor Swift ‘Reputation’ tour. One of the major themes I realized was regardless if you are a professional athlete or a 9-5 desk athlete, the principles’ that dictate your quality of life and performances are the same. If you are not sleeping enough or setting yourself up to sleep appropriately, then we can’t expect our physical performances in the gym and mental performances at work to be optimal. If we are not eating at the best times or eating the best type of foods, we should not expect our body to transform in the fashion that we are expecting.

This now brings me to today, having worked at Onnit for the past 5 years, it has become apparent how small wins to your daily routine ultimately add up to a more sustainable and higher functioning you. That is exactly why the Durable Athlete was created, to help individuals find small wins throughout the day that eventually add up to more optimized YOU!

I knew at a very young age that my purpose was to help people. Growing up as an athlete all of my life, I fell in love with the process of preparing for competition. Along with my passion for sports, I’ve always gravitated towards teaching and mentoring others as early as second grade. It was apparent to myself and others that I had the ability to communicate, build relationships, and lead.

As a student-athlete at the University of Texas at Dallas, I played basketball and majored in Education. Throughout my college years I also studied in the areas of: Personal Development, Nutrition, Training, and Martial Arts. I gained the opportunity to coach at a local gym and absolutely fell in love with developing kids and women’s programs and touching the lives of many other everyday clients. During this time, I realized I wasn’t only interested in improving people’s physical fitness. I was also just as engaged with optimizing the mental and emotional side of people as well.

I decided to take my knowledge and skills to the classroom and challenge myself to educate kids on how to incorporate habits that would help them work through struggles and keep them healthy. After a few years in the classroom, I got the opportunity to go coach at the Onnit Gym HQ where I knew that I wanted to be the type of coach that focused more on Sleep, Nutrition, Breath, and Movement in order to optimize my clients’ overall longevity, performance and ultimately their lifestyle.

Through all of these experiences, I began to develop a much clearer vision of what it was that I wanted to provide the world. While I still enjoy and spend time training my athletes/clients one-on-one, I want to be able to take all of my previous experiences and acquired knowledge and build an online platform that allows me to work with people who are looking to better themselves in multiple areas of their life.

This approach is what The Durable Athlete is all about; helping people attain their full potential and become the best version of themselves mentally, emotionally, and physically. We believe a holistic approach is the key to maximizing our human potential. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost sight of who you are, where you want to go, or if you have a crystal clear vision, the Durable Athlete was developed to assist you in your journey and to provide the services that will help you cultivate a healthy, happy and successful lifestyle.