Sophia Kopasakis

Hi there!

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My name is Sophia Kopasakis.

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When I was 5 years old, I was influenced greatly by the historic victories of my Greek culture, and ever since then, I wanted to achieve athletic greatness.

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In middle school, I was breaking records in the track and cross-country sports, while participating in multiple Greek dance groups and my church’s Greek basketball team.

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My high school years were filled with athletic accomplishments and major achievements in my running sports; however, the constant stressors of competing led me to give up competitive running before the start of my senior year.

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In college, I spent my first few years doing traditional weight training in the gym, while getting my bachelor’s degree in Exercise Physiology.

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I did have the desire to get back into competing as a runner again, however, I ended up experiencing overuse injuries in my feet and ankles.

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Because of my pain issues, I had to keep running on the shelf for now.

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Towards the last few years of college, I joined the crew rowing team.

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I was immediately the fastest rower on the team and broke all the college records, and I was carrying the team to athletic victory, just like my Greek ancestors.

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But yet again, my pain issues and the stress of competition got the best of me, and I experienced a major plateau in my physical performance.

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This was a plateau that I just could not break.

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In the process of putting my rowing life to rest, I found a circus art form called Prop Manipulation Arts and immediately fell in love with it.

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Prop Manipulation Arts is a circus art form where the artist twirls, juggles, or manipulates a prop (ex: spinning a fire staff or juggling clubs).

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As I became more skilled in the circus flow arts, I found myself in high demand and have been getting booked for various paid gigs almost every weekend.

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By age 29, however, despite my growing popularity and success in business as a circus flow artist, I started feeling my entire body hitting a massive wall.

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I was in pain almost everywhere in my body.

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My hips, lower back, knees, feet, and ankles were always in pain, and I had no mobility in my shoulders.

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I was very adamant about fixing myself and finding my own way, but I just got to a point where I was in complete agony all the time and I didn't know what to do next to help myself.

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So I hired Ryan to be my Functional Patterns coach to help me fix my body and develop a better understanding of my issues.

The moment I started training with Ryan, I realized I had been moving incorrectly almost my entire life.

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Even though I had an extensive athletic history, I was struggling very hard at the beginning of my Functional Patterns journey.

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The main thing that I struggled with the most was slowing down my movements when I train and slowing down in my life as a whole.

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I just didn’t want to stop moving quickly; because moving quickly was what got me gold medals for my entire teenage and adult life.

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Another thing that Functional Patterns showed me was my intense desire to always be moving.

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Not only did I struggle to slow down, but I never wanted to stop moving or rest properly.

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During the week, I would wake up early to get to work, train, and tend to my house chores.

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But on the weekends, I would spend hours each night, dancing into the wee hours of the morning.

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On top of all that, my diet was completely backwards.

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Not only was I moving incorrectly and not giving myself any time to rest at all, but I also wasn’t nourishing myself properly.

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Thankfully with Ryan's advice, over time, I picked up the Functional Patterns concepts.

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I started eating healthier, training smarter, my body started feeling much better and stronger, but I was still struggling with pain in my feet and ankles.

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My breakthrough with my feet and ankles came when I started to rest more and move less.

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Why has my body been having so many pain issues over my entire life?

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Because I wasn't training my body in an intentional way to correct my imbalances and I could not give up my party life on the weekends or make myself rest properly.

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Each weekend I was wrecking my circadian rhythm and stressing out my body further by "having fun."

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After years of battling with myself, I have finally gotten to a point where I no longer feel the desire to party as much and I have better ways to train my body properly.

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Now, I am almost completely pain-free most of the time, but still have a lot of work ahead of myself.

Functional Patterns, for me, isn't just a journey to change my body, it's a journey to change my lifestyle and mind.

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Before Functional Patterns, I was hanging out with the wrong people, in the wrong places, at the wrong times.

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I am not saying that you should never have fun.

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What I am saying, is, that there are other ways to enjoy your life without having consequences to your health.

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Now that I am more conscious of my dysfunctions and better aware of how to fix them, I am better able to enjoy each moment of each day because I am in less pain and more athletically capable.

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Another message I would like to offer is understanding the importance of patience and the art of slowing down.

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It is not a bad thing to slow down when you train your body.

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Being conscious of your biomechanics; this is how you’ll get even stronger and get out of pain.

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Think More. Move Less. Get Results.