Nick Gaasvig

Quality Engineer / @funcpatterns Practitioner @nick_gaasvig "Train intentionally, not habitually" - Naudi Aguilar

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

Amazing work to my client Jen.

@functionalpatterns
•
Jen started doing our the 10 Week Online Program in August 2023. Then she began training with @nick_gaasvig in September, doing 6 virtual sessions between September and October 2023. Jen has since completed the Functional Training System while taking time to go back over the 10 Week Online Program. This is what changed with Jen👇

Before: Sept 5, 2023
❌7/10 SI joint pain
❌7/10 Migraines
❌4/10 Low back pain
❌Spine kypho-lordosis
❌Abdominal core weakness

After: Mar 28, 2024
✅2/10 SI joint pain
✅3/10 Migraines
✅0 low back pain
✅Improved kypho-lordosis
✅Improved core strength
✅Improved diastasis recti
✅Improved umbilicus hernia
✅Reduced anxiety 

Great work @nick_gaasvig and Jen 💪

Jen’s Testimonial:
“I’m so glad I found FP! I feel like I actually have hope in preventing my back from getting worse and actually improving it along with the rest of my body! Plus, I actually enjoy the techniques and it doesn’t feel like it’s a chore to workout, most times it helps relieve my stress/tension. I’ve always been self conscious of my body since a teen because of my scoliosis, but l’m feeling more confident with the results l’m seeing with FP and l’ve only began to scratch the surface, so much to look forward to.

I did over 10 years of Ashtanga yoga, very hard and disciplined yoga, definitely hurt me in the long run. In the short time l’ve been doing FP, I can see improvements I never seen in Ashtanga, was literally doing it up to the point I started FP then quit! I realized it wasn’t helping my posture and I knew it was only a matter of time before I really jacked myself up. If you look up Ashtanga yoga, you can see the crazy poses there are. Thing is, I could get myself into those pose’s because of my hypermobility, which as a yogi you think is a good thing, right. But then I started feeling pain and discomfort and despite getting myself into a deep pose, my joints were not stable.

I started searching on social media how to improve scoliosis. That’s how I came across FP, I saw some before and after pics, then here I am.”

#functionalpatterns
#fpisthestandard
#diastasisrecti
#migraines
#scoliosis

[Nick Gaasvig @Curly_2033]

RT @nick_gaasvig: Pain and posture improvements with Jen
100% Virtual training

I trained Jen over 6 virtual 1 hour sessions between Septem…

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

Last week I had a once in a lifetime experience to be educated by @Naudi_aguilar_ the founder of @funcpatterns and work with some of the best gym owners and FP Practitioners in the world. It was an honor to learn the basics of boxing from @fp_tricia the head coach, HBS4 FP Practitioner, and owner of @ArcaroBoxing . I wouldn’t be in this position without frida paris douglass at FP Minnesota accepting me as a client in 2017.

It’s an absolute privilege to have this opportunity considering my primary job is in engineering. One of the biggest takeaway is to continue holding myself accountable with leading by example, not only with hard work physically but also working intelligently and addressing all of my behaviors.

FP isn’t just a style or trend that comes and goes. It’s oriented around the engineering concept of first principles as it relates to the human body, optimal health as a core value, and seeking endogenous anabolism. This is all centers around finding efficiency in the FP First 4 - standing, walking, running, and throwing.

#functionalpatterns #fpforlife #fpallday #fpisthestandard #relevanthumanoptimization #bodybuilding #functionalbodybuilding #posture #standing #walking #running #throwing #gait

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

By far the most mentally and physically demanding course by @funcpatterns. Thank you @Naudi_aguilar for the individual help and to continuing to educate on how to reach optimal health through mechanotransduction.

@Naudi_aguilar_: HBS4 was quite the ride. Really looking forward to seeing the changes that come from what we covered in this course.

Most everyone here has been in FP for almost 10 years. Damn, I’m lucky to have people like this in my life. To everyone who came, just know my commitment to making you all better is top priority.

This is quite the simulation!
#functionalpatterns

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

Check out my recent @funcpatterns article

#functionalpatterns

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

Check out my recent @funcpatterns article
#functionalpatterns

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

MYOPIA IMPROVED…

Corrected vision and myopia improvements by frida paris.douglass 🤓. Since this video was produced, she officially passed the DMV’s eye test and no longer is required to wear corrective lenses while driving 🚘.

Frida has worn corrective lenses since high-school and now at the age of 41, she has been able to correct her vision by living the FP life!

We’ve seen many great things happen for people who have taken our method, value’s and protocols seriously. This just shows how when you begin accounting for the first principles of human bio-mechanics and health it opens the doors towards a life of regeneration.

We have similar repeated results reported by Functional Patterns Minnesota HF Practitioner ruth._albee. Stay tuned for those results to be officially released in the future.

*Please note the vision references by voice in the video meant to indicate a vision status in the - range not +.*
.
@funcpatterns

#functionalpatterns
#fpisthestandard
#myopia
#eyecare
#vision
#correctivelenses

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

I’m glad I never did this exercise during my traditional weightlifting years ago. #functionalpatterns

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

How deep does dehydration go? How does @funcpatterns facilitate hydration on body tissues?

Listen until the end to find out from FP founder naudiaguilar

fpminnesota
projectfunctionpodcast

#functionalpatterns #explore #explorepage #fpisthestandard #leveragingmotion #tuneintotheboredom #fpminnesota #relevanthumanoptimization #standing #walking #running #throwing #bodybuilding #weightlifting #grandforks #northdakota #thiefriverfalls #eastgrandforks #minnesota #northernminnesota

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

LISTEN UP ...

to Chloe sharing valuable insight about her experience training @funcpatterns for this past year. She provides another great example of someone who came to fpminnesota seeking to address her physical pains and who is now reaping the rewards of improved mental health.

We can likely all identify behavioral patterns, oftentimes ones that are not uniquely our own but that run through our families and communities, that are leading to our destruction. Coping mechanisms are neither good nor bad. They have their context. But imagine a world where we have the mental and physical stability to have options for how we react, able to look at situations objectively versus being constantly triggered with an overly emotional response.

Shout out to Chloe for being willing to share her story. She covers a lot: from feeling anxious, depressed, aimless, and insecure to sharing a powerful moment of recognizing a change in her resiliency and to naming key components of what has helped her not only change her biomechanics but also develop a better problem solving mentality.

Thank you, Chloe, for setting an example of how putting in relevant work has helped not only you but also those around you to move the needle in a more functional and regenerative direction.

- Michelle Johnson

#functionalpatterns #fpminnesota
#anxiety #depression #resiliency

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

PAIN FREE RUNNING GAINS

Before:
June 30, 2018
22 years old
170 lbs, 15% body fat
12.7 mph max speed
Hip instability
Restricted arm and leg range of motion

After:
March 25, 2023
26 years old
160 lbs, 10% body fat
17.8 mph max speed
Improved hip stability
Improved knee flexion
Improved arm and leg range of motion
Improved force transmission

My gait improvements from almost 5 years of using @funcpatterns methods only and starting The Movement Elimination Protocol by @funcpatterns in July 2017.

My training history prior to 2017 was rock climbing, strength training, and physical therapy. When I was in hockey and lacrosse as a teenager, I had bodybuilding, HIIT, running, and stretching routines.

I have since significantly decreased my anxiety after starting the 10 week online course. 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.

I have improved my performance and well-being despite many months at a time working 80-90 hour weeks. This includes the final year of finishing my chemical engineering degree from Fall 2019 to Spring 2020 and the last year as an engineer and FP practitioner.

Thanks to naudiaguilar for making this all possible and frida paris.douglass for being the catalyst.

@funcpatterns
fpminnesota

#functionalpatterns #fpresults #fpisthestandard #makehumansfunctionalagain #thiefriverfalls #eastgrandforks #stlouispark #minnesota #fpminnesota #grandforks #northdakota #leveragingmotions #biomechanics #tuneintotheboring #relevanthumanoptimization #functionaltraining #functionalconditioning #physicaltherapy #posture #yoga #bodybuilding #crossfit #health #walking #running #throwing #sprinting #gait #explore #explorepage

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

After observing a similar habit among highly creative people (Einstein, Mozart, da Vinci, etc), the neuroscientist Dr. Nancy Andreasen designed a brain-imaging study to understand the neural basis of this habit.

Essentially, these creative people all carved out time each day for...

“Free-floating periods of thought,” Andreasen writes in her book, “The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius.”

The mechanics of the habit differed from person to person.

Leonardo da Vinci, for example, would often sit in front of a painting “and simply think, sometimes for as long as a half day.”

Whereas Einstein had a wooden boat he called the “Tinef” (Yiddish for “piece of junk”) on which he liked to aimlessly drift wherever he could find a body of water. He had to be rescued by boaters or the Coast Guard so frequently that a friend eventually bought him an outboard motor for emergency use, but Einstein refused it.

“To the average person, being becalmed for hours might be a terrible trial,” the friend said. “To Einstein, this could simply provide more time to think.”

In any case, Dr. Andreasen conducted the first study of brain activity during these “free-floating periods of thought,” when the body is in a “resting state” and the mind is free of inputs, and therefore, free to wander.

“We found activations in multiple regions of the association cortex,” Dr. Andreasen wrote. “We were not [seeing] a passive silent brain during the ‘resting state,’ but rather a brain that was actively connecting thoughts and experiences.”

Essentially, Dr. Andreasen found that the brain defaults to creativity.

When the body is still and the mind is allowed to float freely, the brain engages in what she termed REST (“random episodic silent thinking”).

And during REST, Dr. Andreasen writes, the brain “uses its most human and complex parts...areas known to gather information and link it all together—in potentially novel ways.”

So whether it's sitting in front of painting in your office or on a piece of wood out at sea, if you want to be more creative, carve out time each day for “free-floating periods of thought.”

- - -

“Men of genius are sometimes producing most when they seem least to labor, for their minds are then occupied in the shaping of those conceptions to which they afterward give form.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

@projectfunctionpodcast

Exogenous Anabolic Agents (EAAs) are being heavily used by all kinds of people nowadays. Fitness influencers, podcasters, average joes wanting to stay in shape after 40, executives etc. The reason why these substances have become so popular is because people overlook the most obvious aspect if you want to stimulate growth: rest.

It is very easy to activate catabolism, but you don’t see many people out there actually being able to activate anabolism endogenously. So they’re left to use exogenous substances to not fall apart.

Salamanders are very good at stimulating growth, even when their limbs get cut off. They have the ability to stay still for long periods of times and therefore regenerate when they need to. When you look at humans today, we are overstimulated every second of the day, and resort to always doing more instead of less.

If we want to learn how to be more anabolic, not only does our training need to be more precise (oriented around gait), but our values need to orient around natural laws as well.

We have the capacity to be regenerative well into old age without the need for exogenous substances, so long as abide to natural mechanisms. When you don’t, the benefits are short lived and you’re left to deal with the consequences later in life.

#projectfunctionpodcast #functionalpatterns #eaa #steroids #musclegain

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

My new @funcpatterns article “Adapting to Thrive: Tools and Perspectives for an Adaptive Mindset” is out now.

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

@funcpatterns

For the longest time I took the approach that I shouldn’t impose my positions on reality but rather let reality impose its positions on me.

This is what drove me down the path of focusing on solving problems instead of orienting myself around rhetoric and audience capture. If I’m given an hour, I’ll spend 55 minutes understanding the problem and 5 minutes solving it.

This is ultimately what leads to our audiences staying when they find FP, since what we do works at the most fundamental levels. The reality is that function matters most above all else, and that’s what we prioritize at Functional Patterns

Great chat with mike.mucciolo and @rodkneeacero on the @projectfunctionpodcast .

#functionalpatterns #fpisthestandard

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

@funcpatterns
Outstanding how figures keep falling back to thinking that you can solve problems in isolation. “Here’s the next magic pill.” To think that if most adults took a pill, it will automatically make people healthier is completely erroneous.

Health is a term often thrown around by figures, but we seldom see what exactly health is supposed to look like. There was a documentary released recently around health being about making it past 100 years old, others think being able to run a marathon is considered healthy, or just going to the gym and doing some fitness class. Although living a long time, and improving your ability to move is part of the equation, the approaches are usually completely against natural laws.

Not to say oxidative stress and inflammation aren’t a piece of the puzzle. They both may have some benefits but we have to account for the environmental factors that drove the inflammation in the first place. Stress from work or relationships, poor mechanics, overstimulation, money issues, etc.

Health should be synonymous with increasing your ability to live longer with less. And its not just being a minimalist with what you own. More so moving more optimally which equals less wasted movement, leading to less energy expenditure while being able to produce more, needing to eat less food because you can absorb more nutrients, managing stress so you can rest more effectively, making your life more organized to decrease waste overall, etc.

How you approach this is extremely important. Trying to solve one or a few of these aspects is going to get you limited results. At FP we start by changing your structure to allow you to change how you interact with your environment and make healthier decisions. Taking a pill, isn’t one of them.

#projectfunctionpodcast #antiaging #health

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

@funcpatterns The FP First 4 is important for achieving results. Focusing on this allows you to move athletically and pain-free while slowing down the degeneration of your body over time. By aligning training with what our environment naturally drives us to do, we tap into the governing natural laws of our bodies. Physics applies not only to structures like the Empire State Building but also to our body, posture, and the way we move.

What are the most important movements that parents strive for their children to learn? Are these movements also important for us to maintain as we age into our 70s, 80s, and beyond? Standing, walking, running, and throwing top that list. In fact, all other forms of movement directly stem from the FP First 4.

Other systems choose to focus on movements that are beyond this foundation. Since getting someone to run better is a really tough task most focus on getting you to preform movements that are eye catching and flashy, but lead to very little change in your mechanics overall. We have found the formula that makes attaining lasting results possible.

Athletes like Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Deion Sanders excelled in multiple sports because standing, walking, running, and throwing are common denominators in high-level sports. Mastering these functions increases the likelihood of seamlessly transitioning between different types of human movement.

We don't claim this based solely on our training system's foundation. Nature has led us to this understanding because our movements are dictated by our environment. Planet Earth has set the rule, and it states that prioritizing the FP First 4 in training leads to a body that moves and reacts in ways that promote long-term health, minimizing degeneration and pain over time.

#functionalpatterns
#fpisthestandard
#stand
#walk
#run
#throw
#thefirst4

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

Summer 2023

Functional Patterns Minnesota practitioner camping trip to Afton State Park: a collective effort to get some regenerative time out in nature

#functionalpatterns
#fpminnesota
#nature

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

The FP Intro Program

@funcpatterns
#functionalpatterns

[Nick Gaasvig @nick_gaasvig]

POSTURE, VALUES, SLEEP, DIGESTION & MELANIN RESULTS

Annie Aldag

“Before - Nov, 2018. I was doing Breakdancing, yoga and CrossFit. Poor circadian rhythm, digestion and skin tone. Would burn easily. Was often anxious. Got injured doing CrossFit in early 2018 (stabbing pain down R side back, leg). Tried massage, Chiropractic care, two types of PT, Rolfing. Poor structural integrity and joint stacking (banana knees, Rib shift L)

Now - Oct, 2023. FP only since spring 2019. HBS 2 completed June 2023. Improved circadian rhythm, digestion and skin tone. Burn rarely and spend more time outside. Not anxious as lifestyle values have changed. Improved joint stacking, structural integrity, deep core engagement and V taper. Zero pain down right side. Have been working with @fpchris1 virtually once weekly since Feb 2023. Also entire FP Minnesota crew, esp https://t.co/I5lD60tqQi.douglass have directly contributed to improvements over the years.”

@funcpatterns

#functionalpatterns #fpminnesota