Thanks for checking what I’m about.
My name is Marian, I’m in my thirties, and like many other fitness enthusiasts, I also messed up my body with the current fitness dogma. When I was about five years old, I started playing ice Hockey, a physically challenging and entertaining sport. Like golf or tennis, ice hockey is one-sided, meaning you use one side of your body more than the other.
After many years of repetitively twisting, turning and spiralling my body in a specific way, I developed several imbalances and dysfunctions around my body. I stopped playing Ice hockey at age fifteen and started to look for some other form of physical activity.
Inspired by action movies and the legend of his time – Arnold Schwarzenneger- I started lifting weights. I wanted to build muscles, feel confident, and prove that I could still do something challenging. Going from Ice Hockey to weightlifting seemed like a good idea, but this set me on a course of problems later in life.
If I only knew back then how compressed, imbalanced and spiralled to one side my body was. Although very obvious to me now, I didn’t understand what frequent axial loading of my spine in the form of a back squat can do over time.
I tried most of the traditional ways of exercise:
- deadlift, bench press, back squat, pull-ups
- bodybuilding style of training
- high-intensity interval training
- steady state cardio
- yoga, pilates
I considered these to be the standard way of getting healthy and fit. But with my already imbalanced body, practising above mentioned approaches, I caused myslef plenty of issues in the form of chronic pain and injuries:
- vertebral disc herniation L4-L5
- ongoing sciatica issues
- shoulder impingement on both sides
- rotator cuff tear
There were plenty of other minor issues like random joint pain, sprained ankle and pulled muscles. Like most people, I used to believe that being injured is a normal part of training.
After I came accross Functional Patterns and started to study and practice the method, I realised that for almost 30 years of my life, I was doing what I enjoyed the most wrong. Quite a disheartening realisation if I’m honest, but a critical awakening in my career and life in general.
Although my body is still work in progress, I know I’m on the right path to attain lasting health, an athletic pain-free body, and a functional viewpoint on life thanks to Functional Patterns.
My mission is to help my clients, and people around me achieve the same.
Marian
