Carol Todor, second from the left, training her Functional Fitness Fascia Class to move naturally.
A local woman has exchanged the gym for a playground in a new fitness craze she has dubbed Functional Fitness Fascia.
Carol Todor has pursued athletics all her life. Training fitness leaders, yoga and dance students, Todor realized something had always been missing from her fitness classes. When Todor happened upon the idea of fascia, the network connections between and around our body systems and muscles, she began to learn how the human body works as a continuous unit.
“Because I had a back injury, I started exploring for different information about fascia, and I came across this guy who was doing a “Fascial Active Stretching Technique,” so I started to incorporate little bits into my yoga and my dance, and for myself. I thought, this is starting to feel a little better, and it feels pretty natural,” Todor explains.
After learning about fascia, Todor was inspired to reach further in an effort to properly educate herself and integrate the ideas into her daily fitness routine. Todor’s efforts were rewarded when she found “MovNat,” a program that revolves around the natural movement skills every human has: walking, running, jumping, balancing, crawling, climbing and swimming. In addition, the training also focuses on manipulative abilities like lifting, carrying, throwing, and catching.
“I saw what was involved in moving naturally. I was really inspired because I wasn’t too crazy about just walking, and this gave me activities to do while I was walking, so now it’s like walking has opportunities to find ways to move naturally.” Todor says, “Basically, it’s based on all the moves we learn when we are very young but we forget to use them. So if we find a log in the bushes, we squat down to pick it up, balance it, and push it up over our head.”
Todor has found herself looking forward to her future exercises, classes and health. The Functional Fitness Fascia classes Todor had introduced in Drumheller ran for six weeks, and she is contemplating another set of sessions in Mid-August.
