About Us
When I was “fit” I was strong, but tense and tired…
Would you like to get rid of pains and tension? Want a body that moves more freely? To recover faster and get more energy!
I’m Jukka Harju, the founder of AFT. I’m from a small town and exercise was my main hobby as a child. I started training hard at 14 and continued as long as my back could take it…
I trained to be a personal trainer in 2003 and coached and trained others for a living while training hard myself. At 26 I was in “the best shape of my life”, could deadlift 235 kg (picture on the left), and was also pretty fast. I counted calories and grams of protein and did everything “right”. BUT my muscles were really tense, I had sprains often, and I was always tired…Soon after that record lift my back gave in, I got a slipped disc…
My life changed in a major way: to fix my back, I had to learn a lot of new things. I wanted my back to be healthy, to be able to walk and do everyday things normally. But I didn’t want to stop there. I still wanted to be “fit”, it just didn’t mean just muscles, strength, and endurance, because being fit doesn’t mean tightness, pain, and being tired. Being fit is strength, being relaxed, intensity, energy…HEALTH and fitness.
I went through massage, osteopathy, movement control therapy, pilates, and yoga. I combined them with my background in strength training, and during the years AFT - Anatomic Functional Training was born. Not simply therapy, not just basic training and not pure strength training. But genuinely comprehensive training based on anatomy and a body that functions well in practice.
I had always been tense. My body was stiff by nature and 12 years of strength training had not helped the matter…My new life started at 26 years old with my slipped disc, and at 34 I did my first split, sitting in a straddle I could touch the floor with my chest. Was this pure luck for one person? Read more stories about how this system has affected people below.
BUT what makes this program different is that it’s not just stretching, not purely training for mobility and stability. With this combination I, IN ADDITION, achieved a personal best in the single-arm snatch, the Turkish get-up and can lift twice my own weight in deadlift, without any support belts or straps! This was the result when all these things were combined.
It wasn’t easy, and it took years, but now that I have walked this path, it’s easier to build into ready-made programs. And by the way, I didn’t do any static stretching; I left it out completely because I tested and measured different techniques on myself and my clients. This is active mobility and control training and activation of the body, improving the ability to move, practical, effective and based on the latest information on anatomy and physiology - a relaxed, painless, strong and moving body without tension. That’s the body we want for everyday life, and that’s the body that’s great for training. It doesn’t take away from intensity and life, exactly the opposite!
Read more on our blog, order our free programs, and become more familiar with these ideas below. Maybe we’ll meet sometime in workshops, seminars or at least through online training.
Our other coach, physiotherapist, Olympic athlete, medalist in the World Championship and two-times winner of the Finnish Championship in ice hockey, Eveliina Similä, was 16 when the ligaments in her knee tore for the first time and 25 when it happened the second time. At 32, she couldn’t even squat. She started the AFT training, rehabilitated her knee and at 34 could deep squat. Now at 40 she has, for example, improved her personal best at clean by 15 kilos.
We have over 10,000 individual customers and below you can find some of their stories. We have provided continuing education and advanced training for over 1200 professionals, from physiotherapists to masseurs, coaches, and trainers, using the AFT system. It means paying attention to the fasciae and nervous system in movements using specific techniques and exercises. We also provide consultancy for athletes.
“Hi Jukka, I had a slipped disc a couple of years ago, that ended 27 years of playing football…I tried rehabilitation with a couple of physios, and the physiatrist recommended surgery…then I ran into AFT and I got immediate relief, after 12 weeks I was like a new man (my back is, of course, still not back to normal). Later on, I got the glute training program and now the fascia workshop." Ilkka O
"Natural Bootcamp training, a lot of respect! I had a very painful and difficult slipped disc in summer 2017, and before then, I have a long history of hip and back pain. In the autumn 2017, when I went back to work I wondered if I will ever survive this, will I ever be able to exercise and when, everything was extremely uncertain and still very painful. I thought about where I could find help for exercises and comprehensive rehabilitation and this training and Jukka Harju caught my eye! I found more information on this and understood that others had survived a slipped disc through this by rehabilitating themselves. I took part, if I remember correctly, at the start of the new year. This journey has been unbelievable! The change, which has slowly but surely taken place in my back and legs during this training, has been enormous. One example of this is how I was sure I would never be able to run again and the day before yesterday I have taken the first running steps on a treadmill in nearly one and a half years. I was close to tears when I could run for a moment, and I strongly believe that little by little, with small steps, I can run more! :) A big thank you goes to Jukka Harju! :D" Maarit Meinander
"I have multiple sclerosis which has significantly lowered my ability to handle stress, there are large side-to-side differences in the body which causes tension in different parts of the body. These training sessions have been a lifesaver! It’s possible to vary the length of training and do lighter or heavier training by switching between different weeks. One great thing is also that you have included different stages for the exercises, because even though I’m not (yet) able to do some of the more challenging things, it’s possible to choose to do for example one more challenging option and then for the rest of the time do something a bit easier. Overall this has improved the quality of life a lot, muscle pains are under control, I feel relaxed and balanced, side-to-side differences have decreased significantly, training doesn’t take energy from everyday life, it’s exactly the opposite. So a big recommendation. 👍🏻"Susan Mäki
"I have to admit I have only done those 15 minute training sessions, BUT I have done them before I train at the gym every time, which is 5 times a week and even with just these I notice clear changes: for example, squatting technique has improved the most as the body opens up much better before the training compared to for example a warm up using just a cross trainer! :0 :) And when training at the gym, I have been able to increase the weights as the technique improves. I plan to do other bootcamp training from now on too!" Sini Lindström
