Why this program was created
The research surrounding musician injuries is still developing, but one conclusion is clear: musicians, regardless of age, instrument, or experience level, face a high risk of developing performance-related pain.
What's even less clear is how to resolve that pain, or how to build the physical foundation to prevent it in the first place.
Many musicians who apply for 1-1 training have already pursued a wide range of medical and movement-based care, including surgery, physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage therapy, acupuncture, medication, or somatic approaches such as the Alexander Technique or yoga. For those who aren't dealing with chronic tension or pain, they're ready to move beyond maintenance and build real physical capacity for the demands of their career. While these paths differ, both are left without a clear, long-term strategy for managing their bodies to support resilience, performance, and overall career longevity.
This is why 1-1 Training Programs are offered in three distinct tracks. Active Recovery, Somatic & Movement-Based Training, and Fitness & Aerobic Training each take a personalized, whole-body systems approach. Rather than relying on isolated fixes or generic protocols, each track focuses on how breathing, movement, load, and recovery interact over time, so strategies translate directly into practice, performance, and long-term career sustainability.
This program was a life changing experience and I can’t recommend it enough. One of the kindest, most empathetic, super intelligent and knowledgeable people I have ever encountered in my life. Sign up for his programs injury prevention course, go to his clinics, follow his career, don’t wait. Totally worth it.
Anna Mattix, English Horn, Buffalo Philharmonic
Alexa Young, CA
Who is this Program for?
This program is for musicians who:
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Are dealing with pain, tension, or physical limitations that are affecting how they breathe, move, or play.
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Are tired of passive rest, generic advice, or fixes that don't hold up under a real performance schedule
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Want a long-term strategy for their body, not a short-term patch
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Are ready to actively participate in their own recovery or training, not just show up and be told what to do
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Value working with someone who understands the mental and physical demands of being a working musician, not just a general trainer or therapist
Training Program Tracks
Every musician starts somewhere different. Some are working through tension or pain, others are ready to build long-term physical capacity.
That's why Training Programs is built around three distinct tracks: Active Recovery, Somatic & Movement-Based Training, and Fitness & Aerobic Training.
While each track leads with a different focus, all three draw on the same core mechanisms: recovery, movement quality, and capacity, just in different proportions. Every track gives you a personalized plan that meets you where you are and helps you progress based on your fitness and health goals.
Track 1 - Active Recovery
Recovery is a skill, and like any skill, it gets stronger the more deliberately you train it. Active Recovery is designed to help you develop and apply downregulation tools that decrease tension, improve movement quality, and restore your system's capacity. This track primarily uses movement as its recovery mechanism, not passive rest. Sessions draw on breathing drills, decompression work, soft-tissue release, joint mobilizations, positional resets, and relaxation strategies to help your body recover more efficiently between practice, rehearsals, and performances.
Who this track is designed for:
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You deal with chronic tightness, tension, or a history of overuse injuries
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You want to replace passive rest with active tools you can use to take care of your body
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You want a toolbox and daily routine to alleviate tension, manage stress, and prevent or manage flare-ups
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You want to improve your ability to manage stress in high-stress performance situations
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You're curious how your nervous system affects your playing and want to work with that directly
Track 2: Somatic & Movement-Based Training
Somatic & Movement-Based Training is built for those who already value modalities like Alexander Technique, Body Mapping, martial arts, or Feldenkrais — and want to build on that foundation with a biomechanics and sports science perspective. Rather than teaching those disciplines directly, this track layers in a movement and somatic lens — including foundational positional drills, core work, energy transfer, movement quality, and breathing-based explorations — to deepen the work you've already started and translate that awareness directly into how you play. This track and Active Recovery have been shown to help with chronic tightness, tension, and musculoskeletal pain, but the approach differs. Active Recovery leans on downregulation and passive-rest alternatives, while this track works through it via somatic and movement exploration.
Who this track is designed for:
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You have prior experience with somatic practices — Alexander Technique, Body Mapping, Feldenkrais, yoga, Pilates, martial arts, or similar
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You want to play your instrument with less tightness, tension, and effort
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You're drawn to a movement-based, exploratory approach that's flexible and creative, not rigid or prescriptive
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You're interested in refining movement quality and breathing patterns through hands-on, experiential work
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You want to integrate movement exploration into a consistent daily practice
Track 3 - Fitness and Capacity Training
Fitness & capacity training builds your aerobic foundation and overall capacity, the foundation that supports endurance, longevity, and how quickly your body can adapt and recover. This track blends aerobic conditioning, strength training, mobility, movement quality, and recovery into one system, making it the most complete track from a physical health and wellness standpoint. This track is built for musicians who are ready to invest in the fitness base that supports everything else. Due to the tools used in this program, access to a gym, club, or home gym setup is highly recommended.
Who this track is designed for:
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You're ready to train, or already have experience in strength training, Pilates, or general fitness activity
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You want a personalized fitness program built around the demands of performing and your specific instrument, not a generic, cookie-cutter program
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You're playing the long game: building a body that can sustain a career and thrive season to season.
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You want a long-term strategy to build strength, endurance, improve recovery, and extend the performance life of your career
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You want a physical foundation that holds up under touring, long seasons, and high-demand performance schedules
Our Process
What's Included
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Comprehensive virtual assessment and intake
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A personalized program built around your instrument, goals, and track
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1 -4 coaching sessions per month, based on your goals and assessment
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Ongoing program updates and refinement between sessions as you adapt
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Ongoing messaging support between sessions to encourage motivation, gauge progress, and answer questions along the way
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Structured accountability between sessions through check-ins and reflections
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A long-term strategy you can continue to refine and progress independently
About Your Coach
You'll be working directly with Austin Pancner, a biomechanics and movement coach.
Austin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where his research focused on musician health and injury prevention. Alongside his seven years coaching with TFM, he works in person at Beyond Exercise in Cincinnati, OH, where he specializes in movement- and recovery-based training. His credentials include NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist; Certified Biomechanics Specialist; and TRS Level 1/2, with ongoing training in the UHPC model, amongst others.
His coaching is built on a simple premise: your body isn't separate from your playing - it's what makes your playing possible. Rather than treating pain or limitation as something to manage around, Austin's approach looks at how breathing, movement, posture, and physical capacity work together, so the strategies you build translate directly into how you practice, perform, and sustain a career over time.
Client Experiences and Testimonials
Nick Schwartz - Bass Trombone
Austin curated such a helpful course that really helped me find a way to play without pain. He makes himself very available throughout the program and is always available to help. In addition, it’s great to have these exercises going forward to help me maintain my pain free playing.
Nick Schwartz, Principal Bass Trombone, New York Ballet
Tristen Jarvis - Double Bass
Austin’s program has been the single greatest health & wellness investment I’ve ever made. I have immense deference and gratitude for the work we started, and I intend on building upon that work so that it soaks into all facets of my life, especially in my teaching (EVERYONE should know the things Austin has in this course). Life will never be the same, and I definitely now identify as a Functional Musician!
Tristen Jarvis, Double bass and Lecturer at Ithaca College
Matt Gordon - Euphonium
"I am proud of reframing my relationship with pain and tightness so that I now respond to it with curiosity rather than fear."