Our Team

I spent my early years in San Diego and abroad in Tokyo, and I have been in love with seeing the sights of the world my entire life. As an avid athlete, my dream of attending a storied basketball college came true, and I will always cherish my time at Indiana University, where I earned my Bachelors of Science in Public Management and a minor in Kinesiology.
After earning my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, AZ, I spent time in Australia working with a professional Aussie-rules Football team. I eventually moved to Tucson to work as a PT in a hospital ER, where my eyes were opened to badly broken parts of our medical system. I saw the troubling consequences of opioid abuse, injections that masked patients’ pain, and ineffective, unnecessary surgeries that opened the door to future complications, and in most cases these patients had never tried Physical Therapy. At the same time, I was studying in my spare time to learn some new techniques that I put into place and saw tremendous results. I realized that my calling was to put those skills to use to help people BEFORE they went down the path of pills, injections, or surgery, and I wasn’t going to be able to do that in the Emergency Room.

I opened a practice out of my home, and I got so busy that I knew I had to get an office and find other therapists that shared my vision. At the same time, Phil Tygiel had been helping people for decades with their pain, and he was looking for the right person to take over his clinic, the one we are in today. I told him my vision for the future, and he knew that I was the right person to succeed him.

I share my love of world travel, musical theater, and college basketball with my amazing wife, Mel. We have two of the cutest wiener dogs on the planet, Winston and Wilbur, and we are so thrilled to live in a town as amazing as Tucson. Even though I guess it is still considered “work”, I still have a passion for educating people about how to live a better quality of life, and I spend many of my free weekends giving seminars for powerlifting gyms, Crossfit gyms, and other community partners.

I grew up in Kansas, lived in Boulder, Colorado for 5 years, then moved to Flagstaff, AZ in 2013 for college. I studied health and wellness as well as psychology and after graduation, attended ASIS Massage Education. My background as a professional cyclist initially interested me in massage therapy. I utilized massage therapy every week for recovery when I was training everyday so massage therapy was a great next step for me. I still love to mountain bike and trail run as much as I can. I moved to Tucson from Flagstaff in October, 2019 and I’m excited to meet new clients and explore the trails in the heat!

I manage Tucson Sports Recovery but I also still do some massages! I specialize in endurance athletes but enjoy working with athletes in all types of sports. I utilize a lot of deep flushing and fascial stretching in my massages to get you back to feeling great again.

Hi I’m Michelle. I am native Tucsonan. Graduate of Pueblo HS and ASU. It’s good to be here back here at Tucson Strength not only as a gym user, but also as a massage therapist at Tucson Sports Recovery. I have an integrative style in my massage practice and enjoy adding in stretching and movement into my sports massage sessions.

I decided to pursue a massage therapy career right out of high school! I wanted to help people feel better and move better, and massage therapy clicked with me. I specialize in sciatica treatment and trigger point therapy. I am also a certified stretch therapist! I enjoy incorporating stretch therapy into my massage sessions as well. I enjoy hiking and animals as you can see.

I have been training and competing in powerlifting for more than 30 years. I currently hold the Arizona State and National records for the USPF in the women’s sub-masters, and hold the Arizona State, National, and World records in the USPA masters division for my weight class. I love sharing my passion and experience in the sport. I am currently a USPA powerlifting coach at Tucson Strength and as with any type of strength and conditioning training, mobility can be affected, including my own. This led to pain and injury, it was here that I took an interest in mobility and fascial stretch therapy for recovery. FST has assisted so much in my own recovery, I made the decision to get certified in FST. Now I am able to help my clients in living a more mobile and relatively pain free life.

Rythian has lived a very interesting life thus far. Rythian has done a bit of everything, He was the massage therapist for the Arizona Rattlers, a professional indoor football team and he performs in the circus! Rythian came to Tucson Sports Recovery because he wanted to work with athletes who can really benefit from his style of massage therapy which is deeper pressure and incorporates more involvement of the client to actively engage in the session.

I’m originally from Tucson where I studied massage therapy and personal training. In my practice I like to blend different styles of bodywork like Myofascial, deep tissue and positional release. I’m also a yoga therapist and am always learning more from the movement and manual therapy world! It’s all about recovery, alignment and increasing circulation.

I’ve been in the therapy game for around 15 years, working throughout Arizona, California and most recently on the Big Island of Hawaii where I was SCUBA diving and working with Ironman triathletes.

When not working you can find me exploring the Southwest or at the coffee shop studying but, really I’m just thinking about diving.

I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana where I was first introduced to massage therapy. I’ve been a therapist for over 12 years and am well versed in just about every modality. I have used my skills to achieve the best results and greatest satisfaction for my clients.

I work with clients of all types from professional athletes to the everyday person looking for wellness and recovery. Each session is personally customized to fit my clients needs. I love fixing specific issues as well as general maintenance sessions.