Meet our Instructors

Read more about our instructors and their journeys below.

Mora

Director and Level 2 Instructor
IMG_1798
Qualifications
  • BSc (First Class Hons) Applied Sports Science
    (Edinburgh University – 2012)
  • Foundation Training Level 2 Certificate
    (Boulder, USA – June 2019)
  • Anatomy Trains Fascial Dissection Livestream
    (Online – April 2020)
  • Anatomy Trains in Motion
    (Copenhagen – June 2017)
  • Foundation Training Level 1 Certificate
    (New York, USA – October 2015)
  • Postural Assessment and Corrective Exercise Instructor
    (Premier Training, 2015)
  • Level 1 Strength and Conditioning
    (KBT, 2015)
  • Level 3 Personal Training
    (Fitness Education Academy, 2014)
Contact Information
My Story

Being in pain affects every aspect of your life. After breaking my ankle in 2014, I struggled to regain my fitness. I did what the physios told me, but my body still felt wonky. I remember walking in the Scottish hills and saying to my mum, that it felt like my hip wasn’t being held in the socket. I was in agony and I had to take pain killers to make it to the top (not something I’d recommend anyone to do now). I was 26, a Personal Trainer, I’d been studying the human body for 8 years and I could barely walk up a hill! Luckily, the answer to my frustration came a few weeks later.

 

Foundation Training allows us to get rid of pain by bringing our bodies back into natural balance. I’ve long been fascinated by the human body – how we move and the science behind it. After my degree in Sport Science I decided that I wanted to be able to help people get the most out of their bodies and I qualified as a Personal Trainer. It quickly became apparent, however, that although we could get people looking fitter, I wasn’t convinced that we were helping our clients create genuine long term improvements. It worried me that so many clients showed up in pain; were the techniques we had been equipped with as PTs actually causing damage?

 

Ironically, I’d been suffering from lower back pain, sciatica and sore hips for 8 years too. I’d been trying to get stronger through gym work but my pain was getting worse. ‘This isn’t working for me so why would it be working for others’ – I needed to do my own research. I dug deep into the scientific literature, postural analysis and attended injury prevention courses, but there was still something missing.

 

While in conversation with my Mother, a sports massage therapist, she mentioned that an associate had come across Foundation Training and achieved a positive result. We looked up Foundation Training and watched Eric Goodman’s Ted Talk. Dr Goodman was clearly explaining a completely different approach, and his personal story of pain relief, having been advised that spinal fusion surgery was his only option, but eliminating his pain in a year, was impressive. I was intrigued. I tried the Founder exercise and felt muscles working that I’d never felt before – this was definitely different!

 

I read Eric’s books, practiced the exercises diligently, and within weeks I was pain free. Then I went to New York to get certified thinking I would tick a box and get the qualification to use alongside my Personal Training. I was wrong. The course blew my mind, it made the anatomy and biomechanics I’d studied suddenly fit together and I knew this was something I could teach people to relieve their pain too.

 

I‘ve been teaching Foundation Training full time since 2015 with clients from around the world…17 countries and counting – from Ireland to Indonesia and Norway to Nigeria. I travelled to the United States on several occasions to learn directly from Dr Goodman and I’m the first Level 2 certified instructor in Europe. Here in the UK I also enjoy supporting other instructors to build their businesses and develop their teaching skills – we have a great team.

 

Every single client we work with offers an opportunity to learn something new. Teaching a wide variety of people means our instruction and knowledge base continue to improve and evolve as we look to find the best for each individual.

 

I know from personal experience that being in pain affects every aspect of your life and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do what I do. Teaching people (like Jane) to relieve their pain is extremely rewarding and something I will never tire of.

 

Jane, “Foundation Training has completely changed my life. I cannot express my gratitude to Mora for her expert tuition. My personal story is all too common, working long hours at a desk-based job suffering with an achy back but just putting up with it until the inevitable happened – I suffered a really bad disk bulge (L4-L5). I honestly thought “This is it, I am never going to be pain free again, every movement hurts and this is going to be life until the day I die”. Wrong. My chiropractor recommended I went to see Mora and over time she helped to actually pull my body out of pain. I know this sounds crazy, but it is true. My mobility has improved so much, I am now 100% pain free and this is because of Foundation Training…”

Mora

Director and Level 2 Instructor
IMG_1798
My Story

Being in pain affects every aspect of your life. After breaking my ankle in 2014, I struggled to regain my fitness. I did what the physios told me, but my body still felt wonky. I remember walking in the Scottish hills and saying to my mum, that it felt like my hip wasn’t being held in the socket. I was in agony and I had to take pain killers to make it to the top (not something I’d recommend anyone to do now). I was 26, a Personal Trainer, I’d been studying the human body for 8 years and I could barely walk up a hill! Luckily, the answer to my frustration came a few weeks later.

 

Foundation Training allows us to get rid of pain by bringing our bodies back into natural balance. I’ve long been fascinated by the human body – how we move and the science behind it. After my degree in Sport Science I decided that I wanted to be able to help people get the most out of their bodies and I qualified as a Personal Trainer. It quickly became apparent, however, that although we could get people looking fitter, I wasn’t convinced that we were helping our clients create genuine long term improvements. It worried me that so many clients showed up in pain; were the techniques we had been equipped with as PTs actually causing damage?

 

Ironically, I’d been suffering from lower back pain, sciatica and sore hips for 8 years too. I’d been trying to get stronger through gym work but my pain was getting worse. ‘This isn’t working for me so why would it be working for others’ – I needed to do my own research. I dug deep into the scientific literature, postural analysis and attended injury prevention courses, but there was still something missing.

 

While in conversation with my Mother, a sports massage therapist, she mentioned that an associate had come across Foundation Training and achieved a positive result. We looked up Foundation Training and watched Eric Goodman’s Ted Talk. Dr Goodman was clearly explaining a completely different approach, and his personal story of pain relief, having been advised that spinal fusion surgery was his only option, but eliminating his pain in a year, was impressive. I was intrigued. I tried the Founder exercise and felt muscles working that I’d never felt before – this was definitely different!

 

I read Eric’s books, practiced the exercises diligently, and within weeks I was pain free. Then I went to New York to get certified thinking I would tick a box and get the qualification to use alongside my Personal Training. I was wrong. The course blew my mind, it made the anatomy and biomechanics I’d studied suddenly fit together and I knew this was something I could teach people to relieve their pain too.

 

I‘ve been teaching Foundation Training full time since 2015 with clients from around the world…17 countries and counting – from Ireland to Indonesia and Norway to Nigeria. I travelled to the United States on several occasions to learn directly from Dr Goodman and I’m the first Level 2 certified instructor in Europe. Here in the UK I also enjoy supporting other instructors to build their businesses and develop their teaching skills – we have a great team.

 

Every single client we work with offers an opportunity to learn something new. Teaching a wide variety of people means our instruction and knowledge base continue to improve and evolve as we look to find the best for each individual.

 

I know from personal experience that being in pain affects every aspect of your life and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do what I do. Teaching people (like Jane) to relieve their pain is extremely rewarding and something I will never tire of.

 

Jane, “Foundation Training has completely changed my life. I cannot express my gratitude to Mora for her expert tuition. My personal story is all too common, working long hours at a desk-based job suffering with an achy back but just putting up with it until the inevitable happened – I suffered a really bad disk bulge (L4-L5). I honestly thought “This is it, I am never going to be pain free again, every movement hurts and this is going to be life until the day I die”. Wrong. My chiropractor recommended I went to see Mora and over time she helped to actually pull my body out of pain. I know this sounds crazy, but it is true. My mobility has improved so much, I am now 100% pain free and this is because of Foundation Training…”

Qualifications
  • BSc (First Class Hons) Applied Sports Science
    (Edinburgh University – 2012)
  • Foundation Training Level 2 Certificate
    (Boulder, USA – June 2019)
  • Anatomy Trains Fascial Dissection Livestream
    (Online – April 2020)
  • Anatomy Trains in Motion
    (Copenhagen – June 2017)
  • Foundation Training Level 1 Certificate
    (New York, USA – October 2015)
  • Postural Assessment and Corrective Exercise Instructor
    (Premier Training, 2015)
  • Level 1 Strength and Conditioning
    (KBT, 2015)
  • Level 3 Personal Training
    (Fitness Education Academy, 2014)
Contact Information

Mike

Creative Director and Level 1 Instructor
Mike
Qualifications
  • Level 1 Foundation Training
    (San Diego, USA – February 2024)
Contact Information
My Story

Pain ruled my life for over 10 years, to the point where I thought it was normal to wake up with an aching lower back and sore joints. I relied on physios, massage therapists, osteopaths, and acupuncturists to repeatedly put me back together. Although these appointments helped with short term relief, I seemed to continue to relapse regularly. I knew I needed to find a longer-term solution.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was forced to come home having been on the move from job to job and country to country for most of my working life. My world collapsed around me, and I went through the deepest depression of my life, overwhelmed and anxious like I’ve never experienced before. The final straw was in mid-2020 when I woke in the middle of the night and felt a stabbing pain in my lower back. What followed was 3 months of debilitating sciatica, sleeping only 1 hour a night, heavily sedated on a cocktail of pharmaceutical painkillers. The back spasms would put me on the floor, writhing in pain and unable to move, it could take me weeks to get back on track and the frequency and severity was increasing. I was at a loss with what to do, and with the restrictions of lockdowns in place, I was forced to manage this myself.

I had discovered Foundation Training back in 2018 using it intermittently to help relieve my back pain symptoms pre-pandemic. I reached out to Mora at Foundation Training Instructors UK (FTIUK) and after only one online session I felt some relief and started sleeping through the night again.

Foundation training, and specifically Mora, have been a huge part of my pain management journey. Mora stuck with me, pushed me, and had the patience of the saint.

So why did I become a Foundation Training instructor? Well, Foundation Training genuinely changed my life.  It gave me back confidence in my body, allowing me to do the things I love again  – surfing, free diving, skiing and climbing in the mountains.

I now want to help people do the same, as I know it’s possible.

If I can play some part in helping people on their journey to get their bodies back in action, that’s all that really matters to me. Teaching Foundation Training also encourages me to keep doing my daily practice, and pushing myself. It’s often said that you’re best at teaching the things you need to do yourself, and I need to do my practice every day to keep on top and keep progressing.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been a photographer and filmmaker. I love this work and it has developed into creative directions for companies which I hope to support FTIUK with too.

What does the future look like? I’m looking to split my time between my photography and film work and learn and develop as a Foundation Training instructor. I’m fascinated by sound therapy and the positive effects of meditation. I’m also proudly Dyslexic and ADHD and always looking at how I get the best out of myself with tools tips and tricks to help me be less overwhelmed and anxious. I hope to be able to help with not only Foundation Training but also specifically in the neurodivergent space.

Mike

Creative Director and Level 1 Instructor
Mike
My Story

Pain ruled my life for over 10 years, to the point where I thought it was normal to wake up with an aching lower back and sore joints. I relied on physios, massage therapists, osteopaths, and acupuncturists to repeatedly put me back together. Although these appointments helped with short term relief, I seemed to continue to relapse regularly. I knew I needed to find a longer-term solution.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was forced to come home having been on the move from job to job and country to country for most of my working life. My world collapsed around me, and I went through the deepest depression of my life, overwhelmed and anxious like I’ve never experienced before. The final straw was in mid-2020 when I woke in the middle of the night and felt a stabbing pain in my lower back. What followed was 3 months of debilitating sciatica, sleeping only 1 hour a night, heavily sedated on a cocktail of pharmaceutical painkillers. The back spasms would put me on the floor, writhing in pain and unable to move, it could take me weeks to get back on track and the frequency and severity was increasing. I was at a loss with what to do, and with the restrictions of lockdowns in place, I was forced to manage this myself.

I had discovered Foundation Training back in 2018 using it intermittently to help relieve my back pain symptoms pre-pandemic. I reached out to Mora at Foundation Training Instructors UK (FTIUK) and after only one online session I felt some relief and started sleeping through the night again.

Foundation training, and specifically Mora, have been a huge part of my pain management journey. Mora stuck with me, pushed me, and had the patience of the saint.

So why did I become a Foundation Training instructor? Well, Foundation Training genuinely changed my life.  It gave me back confidence in my body, allowing me to do the things I love again  – surfing, free diving, skiing and climbing in the mountains.

I now want to help people do the same, as I know it’s possible.

If I can play some part in helping people on their journey to get their bodies back in action, that’s all that really matters to me. Teaching Foundation Training also encourages me to keep doing my daily practice, and pushing myself. It’s often said that you’re best at teaching the things you need to do yourself, and I need to do my practice every day to keep on top and keep progressing.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been a photographer and filmmaker. I love this work and it has developed into creative directions for companies which I hope to support FTIUK with too.

What does the future look like? I’m looking to split my time between my photography and film work and learn and develop as a Foundation Training instructor. I’m fascinated by sound therapy and the positive effects of meditation. I’m also proudly Dyslexic and ADHD and always looking at how I get the best out of myself with tools tips and tricks to help me be less overwhelmed and anxious. I hope to be able to help with not only Foundation Training but also specifically in the neurodivergent space.

Qualifications
  • Level 1 Foundation Training
    (San Diego, USA – February 2024)
Contact Information

George

Level 1 Instructor
George head shot_square
Qualifications
  • Foundation Training Level 1
    (Santa Barbara, USA – September 2016)
  • MEng Mechanical and Offshore Engineering
    (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen – 2012)
Contact Information
My Story

Have you ever suffered from back pain? I have and we are not alone. From a survey done in 2020 done by versus arthritis during the pandemic, 80% of the respondents were experiencing some kind of back, neck or shoulder pain.

 

I first experienced back pain in my mid twenties in 2014. As an active person and keen cyclist this didn’t seem to make sense at my age. In 2012 I graduated with a masters in engineering which involved being in a job sitting at a desk 5 days a week. Turns out sitting at a desk was causing my body to suffer not just on the bike but in my daily life as well. I knew that I needed to make some changes!! Sound familiar.

 

I went to the physio and was diagnosed with a bulging disc in my L5-S1, this was causing pressure on my nerves resulting in the pain I was experiencing. I was given exercises which initially relieved the pain and allowed me to resume my normal life. 6 months later the pain was back and the exercises from the physio weren’t providing me with relief.

 

Back to the drawing board.

 

I heard about foundation training through Bryony my flatmate at the time, I did a bit of research and signed up for my first session with Mora in 2015. The first session was different to any exercises I had done before. I left feeling  optimistic and felt like my body had been worked in ways that I had never experienced. My lower back was burning like someone had lit a furnace there, but it felt great.

 

Working the lower back seemed so counter intuitive to all the advice given around back pain, but from a structural point of view it all began to make sense. Loading a structure in a way that it isn’t designed for will inevitably lead to weakness just like my body.

 

Take a suspension bridge for example, think of the cables like your muscles, if one these large supporting cables were to snap or become weakened the whole bridge would become unstable and eventually collapse.

 

The more I practiced Foundation Training the stronger I felt. There was a moment when I realised, I don’t have back pain anymore “I feel great”. At this point foundation training became a valuable tool for improving my athletic performance.

 

Do you know the Cairn O’Mount? It’s a beast of a hill in Aberdeenshire that tests even the best cyclists.

 

I was out with a friend cycling, normally he kicks my ass on the hills and  I presumed that day  would be no different. We hit the hill, normally within the first 10 minutes he would overtake me and leave me to slog it out. However today was different. I felt my body responded to my requests for more power and oxygen. Everything felt connected and I felt strong. After ten minutes I looked back and I was still ahead. WOW I thought. Foundation training had not only given me the tools to relieve my back pain, but also succeed in other areas of my life.

 

This had such a positive impact I signed up to become a Foundation Training instructor myself. In October 2015 I went all the way to Santa Barbara in California to complete my initial training. I gained my certification in 2016 and have been practicing and teaching ever since.

 

So the moral here is don’t give up hope, I have been teaching foundation training for over 4 years now and have seen so many people move away from their pain. Everyone has to start their journey at some point so what are you waiting for?!

George

Level 1 Instructor
George head shot_square
My Story

Have you ever suffered from back pain? I have and we are not alone. From a survey done in 2020 done by versus arthritis during the pandemic, 80% of the respondents were experiencing some kind of back, neck or shoulder pain.

 

I first experienced back pain in my mid twenties in 2014. As an active person and keen cyclist this didn’t seem to make sense at my age. In 2012 I graduated with a masters in engineering which involved being in a job sitting at a desk 5 days a week. Turns out sitting at a desk was causing my body to suffer not just on the bike but in my daily life as well. I knew that I needed to make some changes!! Sound familiar.

 

I went to the physio and was diagnosed with a bulging disc in my L5-S1, this was causing pressure on my nerves resulting in the pain I was experiencing. I was given exercises which initially relieved the pain and allowed me to resume my normal life. 6 months later the pain was back and the exercises from the physio weren’t providing me with relief.

 

Back to the drawing board.

 

I heard about foundation training through Bryony my flatmate at the time, I did a bit of research and signed up for my first session with Mora in 2015. The first session was different to any exercises I had done before. I left feeling  optimistic and felt like my body had been worked in ways that I had never experienced. My lower back was burning like someone had lit a furnace there, but it felt great.

 

Working the lower back seemed so counter intuitive to all the advice given around back pain, but from a structural point of view it all began to make sense. Loading a structure in a way that it isn’t designed for will inevitably lead to weakness just like my body.

 

Take a suspension bridge for example, think of the cables like your muscles, if one these large supporting cables were to snap or become weakened the whole bridge would become unstable and eventually collapse.

 

The more I practiced Foundation Training the stronger I felt. There was a moment when I realised, I don’t have back pain anymore “I feel great”. At this point foundation training became a valuable tool for improving my athletic performance.

 

Do you know the Cairn O’Mount? It’s a beast of a hill in Aberdeenshire that tests even the best cyclists.

 

I was out with a friend cycling, normally he kicks my ass on the hills and  I presumed that day  would be no different. We hit the hill, normally within the first 10 minutes he would overtake me and leave me to slog it out. However today was different. I felt my body responded to my requests for more power and oxygen. Everything felt connected and I felt strong. After ten minutes I looked back and I was still ahead. WOW I thought. Foundation training had not only given me the tools to relieve my back pain, but also succeed in other areas of my life.

 

This had such a positive impact I signed up to become a Foundation Training instructor myself. In October 2015 I went all the way to Santa Barbara in California to complete my initial training. I gained my certification in 2016 and have been practicing and teaching ever since.

 

So the moral here is don’t give up hope, I have been teaching foundation training for over 4 years now and have seen so many people move away from their pain. Everyone has to start their journey at some point so what are you waiting for?!

Qualifications
  • Foundation Training Level 1
    (Santa Barbara, USA – September 2016)
  • MEng Mechanical and Offshore Engineering
    (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen – 2012)
Contact Information

Isla

Level 1 Instructor
Isla head shot_square
Qualifications
  • Foundation Training Level 1
    (New York, 2017)
My Story

From a young age dance was a big part of my life and I went on to train professionally at one of the UK’s leading Contemporary Dance School’s, graduating in 2011. I struggled with chronic injury throughout my training and despite multiple weekly visits to numerous different therapists, I still spent years feeling trapped and restricted by the continuous pain I was unable to shift.

 

When my twin sister, Mora, returned from her first Foundation Training Certification we felt that this may finally be a tool to help me. I worked hard with Foundation Training and it took a while due to deeply engrained patterns of movement from dance. The process, though. taught me a huge amount about myself and my body and I finally started taking positive steps forward.

 

I am now fully confident in the benefit of Foundation Training, and completed the Instructor Certification in 2017. Although not my main job, I love helping Mora and Kat with workshops, covering classes when I can and continuing to spread the word.

Isla

Level 1 Instructor
Isla head shot_square
My Story

From a young age dance was a big part of my life and I went on to train professionally at one of the UK’s leading Contemporary Dance School’s, graduating in 2011. I struggled with chronic injury throughout my training and despite multiple weekly visits to numerous different therapists, I still spent years feeling trapped and restricted by the continuous pain I was unable to shift.

 

When my twin sister, Mora, returned from her first Foundation Training Certification we felt that this may finally be a tool to help me. I worked hard with Foundation Training and it took a while due to deeply engrained patterns of movement from dance. The process, though. taught me a huge amount about myself and my body and I finally started taking positive steps forward.

 

I am now fully confident in the benefit of Foundation Training, and completed the Instructor Certification in 2017. Although not my main job, I love helping Mora and Kat with workshops, covering classes when I can and continuing to spread the word.

Qualifications
  • Foundation Training Level 1
    (New York, 2017)