Will Sands

Sands has been passionate about sports since he was a young child in North Carolina. He continued playing soccer at a high level and realized that he wanted to find a way to expand his relationship with sports beyond being an athlete himself. Sands turned to studying exercise science to help athletes and the broader population perform at their best.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from Guilford College, Sands earned his Master of Science in Human Performance from Barry University in Miami.

During his graduate program, Sands became the Graduate Assistant for his university’s strength and conditioning program. He worked closely with the strength coach to implement training programs across four of the school’s NCAA Division II teams. Sands oversaw the coordination of athletic trainers, sports coaches, and the strength coach to help the teams stay healthy and address injuries throughout their seasons.

In Miami, Sands worked as a performance specialist at Fast Twitch, a performance-training practice where he designed and implemented programs for high-level executives and professional and youth athletes. Sands then worked as a personal trainer at Equinox in New York before starting his own performance and training practice in 2022, where he served collegiate and youth athletes, Broadway performers, and others working to improve their fitness.

Sands subscribes to the philosophy of movement as medicine and prioritizes meeting people where they are. “I always try to find a safe entry point for people. I want it to be challenging but not threatening,” Sands says. “A positive experience is going to promote adherence.”

Sands believes that ensuring people enjoy some aspect of physical activity when they are young can set them up for a lifetime of positive movement. To this end, he collaborated with the Mahatma Gandhi Mission Institute of Health Sciences in Mumbai to study health and fitness at a rural village school in 2016 and has remained the school’s sport and wellness advisor, meeting virtually with the PE teacher and visiting the town of Chikhale, India, several times over the past few years. Sands relishes the creative challenge of supporting all patients in exercising in any environment so they can maintain healthy routines at home and while traveling.

He especially appreciates seeing how his patients’ movement work impacts their overall life. “Seeing patients’ confidence grow and seeing them grow—not just from getting stronger in the gym—is really special,” Sands says.

Sands has developed expertise in assessing patients’ metrics such as muscle mass and VO2 max and in tweaking various parts of an individual’s performance to enhance their healthspan. As people live longer, he says, it’s more important than ever to ensure their healthspan keeps up with their lifespan, and to help as many people as possible reach this goal. “Exercise is for everyone,” Sands says.

“The great thing about Atria is we have all these incredible physicians, and in the movement lab, we have all this technology. We look at how we can investigate the individual, interpret their data, and then intervene to create a safe and effective program for each person.”

Sands is an avid runner and can often be found training for marathons and spending time with his fiancée and their husky. He is also a passionate fan of the Carolina Panthers, Duke basketball, and the New York Yankees.