Hello my name is Michael Devon and I’m the owner of SA Functional Fitness. My passion is helping people achieve optimal health, primarily through teaching Functional Patterns and developing appropriate nutrition habits. I place a huge importance on taking responsibility for maintaining my own health and believe that with the right balance of diet and exercise you can stay in control of your health.
In college I began my studies in Nursing and after completing my first year of nursing school I received my LVN certification. However, as I treated patients throughout nursing school I realized that there must be a way to prevent their disease or illness from occurring in the first place. After realizing I didn’t want to push medicine on patients and instead heal them from the inside out, I began working for University Health as an Organ Harvester. Working with human bodies allowed me to see how everything in the body is connected and that disease or dysfunction does not happen in one part of the body without impacting another area. This led me to surround myself with those who shared my passion for health and fitness, and healing the body from the inside out.
My experience in nursing school and organ harvesting fueled me to receive my Certified Personal Trainer’s certification from The National Academy of Sports Medicine, with a specialty in Corrective Exercise, which has allowed me to help a diverse population of individuals from clients with scoliosis to high school athletes. I went on to receive my Bachelors of Arts in Communication from University of Texas at San Antonio so I could more effectively communicate across diverse populations of people.
My integrative approach to health and fitness has impacted the lives of my clients because, instead of nursing them “back” to health, I stress the importance of educating them on how the right foods can be as beneficial as medicine and how exercise can manage pain and help our bodies, physiologically, handle stress better.
It is my belief that individuals can avoid the common modern medical practices of treating illness by adopting a preventative lifestyle with a diet that focuses on eating for nutritional purpose rather than emotional purpose and exercise aimed at enhancing our physical structure; thus leading individuals on their path to a healthy and functional lifestyle.
JUAN SAENZ
Hello I’m Juan Saenz and I have a passion for helping others reach their fitness goals through Functional Patterns training. I make it a priority to hold myself accountable and lead by example so I can help guide individuals toward proper exercise habits to reach their personal goals.
In high school I started my own fitness journey, but soon after I began having back pains and I was eventually diagnosed with a moderate scoliosis. In the span of three years I experienced several shoulder injuries and an ankle injury, which led me to physical therapy and the eagerness to learn how to approach this lifestyle differently.
In college I studied kinesiology at the University of Texas at El Paso with a minor in exercise science. This primed me to obtain my personal trainers certification through The American Council of Exercise, which opened a door to working with a diverse group of individuals. I worked as a corrective exercise specialist side by side a chiropractor and massage therapists, treating individuals with injuries, chronic pains, and scoliosis like myself. This helped me build experience and broaden my knowledge to help others that deal with this.
My quest to gain the knowledge to heal my own body and help anyone in the same predicament encouraged me to surround myself with individuals who share the same interest in solving problems and helping others. It’s my job to educate my clients to understand and execute the programming to address the problems from a deeper level and overcome roadblocks on their journey. At the end of the day you are in control of your habits and I’m here to help you build good ones. With the right balance, I believe anyone can be fit and live a healthy lifestyle.
SHELLY DRUMM
Hello my name is Shelly Drumm. I have been teaching and coaching for 30 years, with a degree in Exercise & Sports Science from Texas State University. I played sports growing up and accumulated injuries like most athletes, because I came from an era of a “no pain, no gain” mentality. Multiple ankle and knee injuries led to motor compensations and inadequate rehab protocols eventually led to bulging and herniated discs in my spine. I knew surgery didn’t have a high enough success rate for me to be okay with someone cutting on my back. Instead, I threw the kitchen sink at it- physical therapy, massage, chiropractic, dry needling, decompression; all with temporary benefit. On my journey to heal my body I discovered Functional Patterns- a training system that aims to get to the root cause of an injury, with individualized techniques to relieve my pain for good! This led to a different approach for training myself and using my skills and passion of coaching to help others achieve similar goals!
