I was one of the few people to find Functional Patterns (FP) before experiencing serious pain, injuries, or surgeries. Although, I have significantly decreased my anxiety after completing the FP 10-week online course. The first 3 weeks of Myofascial Release techniques in the course specifically had the most anxiety reducing effects for me. I can
effortlessly control my body from tensing up due to stress responses compared to before FP. I am less anxious and a more confident speaker in my job as an engineer and when training clients as a FP practitioner.

My passion as a goaltender in youth hockey is what drove me to value my health. At age 14, I convinced myself that the best thing I can do to ensure success in hockey is to prioritize my health. Ever since that time, I have mostly kept that value and questioned if what I am doing for exercise is most optimal. I had this idea as a teenager that if I mixed bodybuilding and stretching that it would be balanced for improving athleticism. I had some pain in my upper back from bodybuilding for a few weeks at age 16 that was short lived and developed into knots in those muscles.

Fortunately, I never had major injuries from this training or from my primary sports in high school that were hockey and lacrosse. I competed in hockey at a high level and was on the winning team of the Minnesota State High School Hockey Championship in 2014. I started testing other training methods to maintain well rounded athleticism because I was no longer playing hockey anymore. That included rock climbing, strongman lifting, yoga, CrossFit, running, sprinting, and some sports specific training like when I was training outside of the sport seasons.

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Another passion of mine for math, science, and engineering is what allowed me to understand first principles to correct human biomechanics. I initially started college in chemical engineering for 2 years. I switched degrees and graduated after 2 more years with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology in 2018. When I first started studying exercise science, I took classes to prepare me for applying to Physical Therapy school. 6 months after finding FP, I decided that I would commit to getting FP certified instead of pursuing a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. I then went back to school for my bachelor’s in chemical engineering to graduate in 2020.

I found FP in 2017 by chance on social media and the FP First Four the founder Naudi Aguilar emphasized had intuitively made sense to me at the time. I heavily researched FP from that point on. But I stayed very skeptical of FP for 6 months before finally booking my first FP assessment at FP Minnesota with Frida Douglass in 2017. It took me many months to be convinced to commit to the FP 10-week online course and FP Movement Elimination Protocol. By the Fall of 2018, I had completed the online course and became a FP Human Foundations certified practitioner, taught by Pablo Martin. The course taught me the fundamentals of human movement that set me on the path to prioritizing FP certifications.

I went on to complete the FP Human Biomechanics Specialist (HBS) 1 Course in 2019, HBS2 in 2021, and HBS 3 in 2022. I have since been most recently certified as a FP Human Biomechanics Specialist 4 practitioner in 2024.