our team
Texas’s first CERTIFIED MUSCLE SYSTEM SPECIALISTS and texas’s certified muscle system specialist instructor
AMR's owners, husband and wife team Brandon and Shannon, care passionately about helping people live life without limitations. With their combined talents, AMR offers muscle restoration, fitness, and holistic health restoration services. We have a mission to serve those underserved by the fitness industry.
Brandon and Shannon's core beliefs are as follows:
The body is designed to heal and can heal given the right tools.
Life is not meant to be lived half way.
Physical pain and limitations impact emotional, spiritual and relationship well-being.
Every program designed for health restoration must be custom fit to the needs of the client.
Keeping long term goals in mind helps inform better decision making.
A holistic team approach creates the best possible results.
Everyone can exercise with appropriate help.
Every client should receive the same level of service that a member of our family would receive.
A healthy diet and lifestyle play a critical role in restoring muscular and neuromuscular functioning.
No one should suffer if interventions are available that can alter unwanted pain, stiffness, movement limits or unwanted sensations.
No condition is too catastrophic or too complicated for intervention. No client should be left behind. Novel solutions can always be found and we never give up looking for those solutions.
Optimal muscle restoration and fitness goals are achieved when the client and practitioner communicate and collaborate with transparency and trust.
Our values include faith, family, wellbeing, acceptance/ inclusion, collaboration/communication, hope, kindness, compassion, trust, honesty, transparency, authenticity and mastery expertise.
ABOUT THE AMR TEAM
AMR is a dream come true for husband and wife team Brandon and Shannon whose passion is to help people live life without limitations.
Brandon O'Connor,
CMSS, MATm, RTSm
Co-Owner (Shannon's Husband)
Mastery Muscle Restoration Specialist
STEPHEN DANSEVICH,
CMSS, MATs, RTSm
Exercise Director
Corrective & Medical Muscle Specialist
Melanie Echanique,
CMSS & COre Pro
Muscle Restoration Specialist
Pelvic Floor & Core Specialist
SHANNON LEA O’Connor,
M.S. Psychology
Co-Owner (Brandon’s wife)
Chief Empathy Officer Radical Health Restoration Coach
MEET THE MUSCLE DOC
Specialist Obsessed with radical muscle restoration for clients with complex cases
BRANDON O'CONNOR, CO-FOUNDER, CMSS, MATm, RTSm
My name is Brandon O’Connor, and I am the founder of Austin Muscle Restoration. Several members of my family have been impacted by autoimmune disease and chronic injury and I have developed a passion and expertise for healing people with extremely compromised muscular and neuromuscular systems. I have seen Shannon struggle through systemic lupus and cancer and I know the suffering that comes with serious physical limitations. I have been in the fitness industry for 20 years and I have been a muscle restoration specialist for 10 years. I have attained mastery level expertise in muscle restoration with over 15,000 hours of table based muscle restoration practice. I have been able to help a wide variety of people recover from serious injuries, improve their health and well being, and achieve personal goals. Twenty plus years of professional experience led me to create AMR's unique Muscle Restoration System© to help you recover from injuries, gain strength, and improve your life. I am a Muscle Restoration Specialist and one of the only people in the world who is a certified mastery specialist through the Muscle Activation Techniques, Resistance Training Specialist and Certified Muscle System Specialist Mastery Programs. I am also an instructor for the Certified Muscle System Specialist Program. My mission is to prevent people from living with unnecessary pain and movement limitations. No one should live half a life if novel solutions are available.
Brandon O’ Connor
CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
CMSS, Certified Muscle System Specialist
MATm, Mastery Certified Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist
MAT Rx Hand & Foot Practitioner
RTSm, Certified Resistance Training Specialists Mastery Specialist
The National Academy of Sports Medicine
Perform Better Functional Training
International Sports Sciences Association
MEET THE SENSEI
Zen master committed to fitness inclusivity (because no one should EVER feel judged in a fitness space!) and biomechanics ninja providing black belt level exercise expertise to custom dose and progress resistance training to injured athletes, gym novices, weekend warriors, and those with STROKE or chronic illness
STEPHEN DANSEVICH, EXERCISE DIRECTOR
CMSS, MATs, RTSm
My name is Stephen Dansevich. My interest in fitness began 40 years ago when I decided I needed to exercise regularly to make up for a post-adolescent change in body composition. Over the next several years I experienced the extremes of the fitness/exercise continuum, from chronic overtraining to anorexia & everything in between. I eventually started working with a personal trainer who was passionate about his work and helping his clients reach their fitness goals in an empathetic, non-judgmental way. His passion sparked mine & started me on a journey to better educate myself about the science of exercise. Through these trials, I came away with a desire to better educate myself about fitness, which became my true passion. I graduated summa cum laude & Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity University in San Antonio, and spent many years getting a variety of training certifications. The more I learned the more I realized I still didn't know. In 2008 I started taking classes for the Muscle Activation Techniques internship & the mastery level of the Resistance Training Specialist program, which stresses an understanding of muscle and joint function and the physics of exercise and resistance. I am now a certified Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist, a Certified Muscle System Specialist, and one of about only 65 Mastery certified Resistance Training Specialists in the world. I now understand that effective exercise is all about the strategic application and control of forces on and within the body, based on a given person's goals and capabilities. I always match the exercise to the client, not the other way around. I am passionate about dosing and progressing exercise properly to each client, as well as providing a non judgemental space where all can feel comfortable improving their fitness.
STEPHEN DANSEVICH
CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
CMSS, Certified Muscle System Specialist
MATs, Certified Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist
RTSm, Certified Resistance Training
Specialists Mastery Specialist
Certified National Academy of SportS Medicine Personal Trainer
Certified National Academy of Sports Medicine Integrated Flexibility Specialist
Certified National Academy of Sports Medicine Corrective Exercise Specialist
Certified MEDICAL FITNESS SPECIALIST, MedFit
Certified Stroke Recovery Fitness Specialist
National Academy Of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement SpecialisT
American Council on Exercise Certified Personal Trainer
International Sports Sciences Association. Certified Personal Trainer
Training, Art of Strength & Perform better
Training, Functional Movement Screening
MEET MIGHTY MEL
The science nerd who is a ton of fun and deeply desires to meet you where you are and progress you to your goals - safely
MELANIE ECHANIQUE, Certified muscle System Specialist
CORE SPECIALIST, FITNESS PROFESSIONAL & PERSONAL TRAINING
My name is Melanie and I am a problem solver. When I work with a client, I take into account that each person’s body comes with its own story and unique combination of circumstances. I meet people where they are with positivity and compassion, and treat every person that enters these doors like they are my family.
My training style embraces customization and seeking non-traditional answers to non-traditional problems. I've been working in the fitness industry for seven years as a group fitness instructor and NASM-CPT. Before that, I was an animal trainer and informal science educator for 17 years. My unusual background lends to a welcoming, energizing personality, a natural love for how things work, and an ability to alter my approach to a challenge when it’s needed.
I started my fitness journey as a way out of a tangled past—after battling addiction for 3 years and finding myself back at square one multiple times via traditional rehabilitation, I turned to marathon running as my outlet. I own my life because I reconnected with my body, and now I help others find their own sense of freedom through movement and exercise.” I have been in the fitness industry since 2013
MELANIE ECHANIQUE
CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Certified Muscle system specialist
NASM-CPT
ACE Group Fitness Instructor
Lagree Fitness Certified
TRX Certified
CPR-AED
MEET THE BOSS LADY
Co-Owner who runs the biz and restored her health after Lupus and cancer left her disabled. She is eternally grateful to brandon and stephen for helping restore her physical health and participate in exercise again. and she now helps others restore their health from autoimmunity through wellness coaching.
SHANNON LEA PICKERING, CHIEF EMPATHY OFFICER (CEO)
M.S. PSYCHOLOGY
Hello, I'm Shannon. I am Brandon O'Connor's wife and the co-founder of AMR. I schedule your appointments and keep the business running smoothly. I consider myself the Chief Empathy Officer (CEO) of AMR. I love people and I look forward to speaking with you and getting you started on your road to muscle restoration!
As that commercial goes, I am not just the AMR owner, I am also a client. Both Brandon and Stephen were instrumental in helping me recover from 6 autoimmune diseases including Systemic Lupus and Fibromyalgia, as well as from Stage 3 cancer. I was completely disabled with pain and movement limits in 2014. Brandon and I intimately know the suffering that comes with serious physical problems. I overcame my challenges and we have made it our life's mission to help others overcome their challenges as well. Based on my journey to health, I became a Radical Health Restoration Coach, with a mission to help others restore their health and wellbeing with nutrition and lifestyle changes. In my previous roles as a psychologist, college professor, coach, and corporate manager and trainer, I have more than 25 years of clinical and corporate experience and 5 current health and performance coaching certifications. I accept private health coaching clients and I will be offering health classes for AMR clients this year. I am also a life coach who would love to help you live a life of However, my daily role is helping AMR clients make appointments and running the AMR business day to day. Find me on Instagram and Facebook @autoimmunefoodie or on my website at www.autoimmunefoodie.com
SHANNON LEA PICKERING
CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Certified Bulletproof Coach
Certified Human Potential Coach
Gallup Certified Strengths Coach
Gallup Entrepreneurial Coach
Strengths Strategy, Inc. Certified Coach (People Acuity)
Certified Irlen Method Screener
"Two years ago I weighed 135 pounds and could barely lift a water jug.
Now after working with Brandon O’ Connor, I weigh 160 pounds and can leg press over 400 pounds. Brandon will continually keep everything, from workouts to rehab, entertaining and progress you through your goals until you eventually accomplish athletic feats you never could have imagined!"
-JARED S.
“Mel is terrific!”
“Always positive and motivating. She takes the time to make sure you are working the targeted muscles and getting the most out of each routine. Her workout plan gets you continual results, which keeps you motivated to do more. She is a great addition to the AMR family.”