Member of the Month: Frank Barry

When and why did you first start training with Function First?

I started with Anthony and Function First for rehab because of a reaction to Statin drugs. My body was getting less flexible and my movement painful. I was practically house bound, had a drop left foot and movement was hardly possible because of back pain. This was at least 9 years ago when Function First was on Adams. I had seen Anthony off and on for back pain, but the Adams gym was really the beginning of where I am today.

Training verses rehab started for me about 2 years ago when Anthony started X-Factor. I needed to get back in shape. I had gotten way out of shape because of Statins and lack of exercise. I was still having problems doing much of anything. So, rehab was about to take a step up. I was way over weight, had poor cardio vascular condition, and poor strength. This created total movement issues for daily living and athletic type movement for sport and recreation. I couldn’t do the things I did before Statins and I didn’t think it was because of my age. I had fallen into the trap of blaming my age for everything before.

What challenges did you face with both everyday activity and athletics when you first joined?

As I stated above my daily activity was very little to nothing and athletic movement was nonexistent. I had always been athletic, football, wrestling, swimming, surfing and almost anything that had to do with the ocean. Well, I didn’t do any of them anymore and it was very depressing which was another problem.

Can you tell us why you think the Function First Approach worked for you in reaching your goals?

One of the degrees I received in college was in Physical Education. It was during this period that I considered the idea of an alternative to doing the things we were being taught about training. Anthony, during my rehab, would talked with me about loaded movement and the Core Tex and it all connected. I had found what I was looking for. The connections between all mechanisms in the body were considered in this type of training and it made sense to me. So, all the training I receive from Function First from the beginning make sense based on what I have studied in college. Anthony put it all together for me.

Now as far as goals. I think, in life, people should strive to have fun no matter what they’re doing, work or play. Fun is what I have when I workout at Function First. To me it’s just fun, my main goal.

What do you like best about the training program?

I think it’s the people out front. The trainers. They are knowledgeable, professional, creative, and fun. Now, what I believe the most important. They show an interest in me and my success. I believe this to be the most motivating aspect in a trainer client relationship. I coached for many years and the one thing I saw repeatedly in successful coaches was their ability to convey they cared for the people they coached. It changes the whole atmosphere of a coaching environment. This is why Function First is a comfortable place to be.

How has Function First changed your day-to-day life?

My day-to-day life has totally reversed. The “Death Spiral” I was on is going up. I don’t know just how much more I will be able to do but, I will find out. I now workout 5 days a week, surf, and do the things I used to do. I even entered the MCRD Challenge. So my life is back to what it used to be 9 years ago. Life is Good!
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Mucho Aloha,
Frank

Core-Tex Master Trainer Seth Ronland from Sweden shows one of the many creative ways the Core-Tex platform can be biased and off weighted to positively stress muscle fibers often difficult to load.

When I first went, it was to find out about getting help for an acute problem I was having with my hand. Anthony, in his calm, professional, convincing way, told me they didn’t work on specific body parts, but worked in a holistic manner from a postural approach. Interesting, I thought. In fact, pain in my lower back had been keeping me from exercising, yoga, strength training for the better part of a year, and had become a much more negative factor than my hand–bothersome, but not as compromising as my back problem.

An Aleve regime, as well as Arnica (a homeopathic), had managed the pain, but did not give me the peace of mind I’d needed to resume the physical challenges I was used to enjoying, backpacking, for instance and exercising at the YMCA five days/week.

Our conversation (as well as some impressive articles and awards on the wall) made me as curious as hopeful about being in the body I had become used to taking care of, so I took a leap and signed up for the 3-month
program of weekly visits. After an interview and being closely inspected in a multitude of ways, (grid on the wall, gait assessment, etc) my a two-hour evaluation with Anthony and his second in command, Wendy, was over and I walked out with photos and descriptions of my the program that had been developed for my daily use.

Next week, I came in for a half hour appointment with Wendy. At that time I did the exercises with her for fine tuning, and always learned something to improve my technique. The following week, my appointment was with them both, an hour in which I was interviewed to check for progress (or lack thereof), given a
new exercise program to go through, and left with my new handout and its great descriptions and photos.

So on it went, every week, alternating a half-hour appointment with one that lasted an hour. Every hour visit included an interview, postural assessment, and exercises.

By the end of my three months, Anthony had me pain free, and had begun to insert some physically challenging exercises into my program, not only corrective ones.

To tell the truth, the exercises he taught were different from anything I had ever imagined, were to be done at about a 70% level of effort, and should not cause any pain. It is truly unique and I cannot say how it worked, other than to say that it was amazingly effective and now that I am two weeks into the Y again, running and getting back into shape, I am feeling confident that the problems are in my past, and if I have others in the future, I have a place to go for corrections via exercise, my preferred course of therapy.

Anthony also offers small group workouts–sometimes two-week trial sessions for free!–and I look forward to trying them when I think I’m ready. My buff neighbor took some, and she said they were demanding, different, and just what she wanted.

My hand? Well, it’s damage from a nerve root injury and is slowly getting better and better. Obviously, it’s going to take some time, but compared to my long-term, now-in-the-past back problem, it’s minor indeed.

The office is organized, everyone is friendly and professional, and I give this small, dynamic business a grade of 100%!

We are looking forward to communicating regularly with the Function First community on a consistent basis. We will be posting information for our consumer clients and for the health professional community that seeks to learn more about the Function First Approach.