GREAT FALLS — With so many people resolving to hit the gym more in the new year, now might be the ideal time to try out a new fitness trend called Essentrics.
Access Fitness in Great Falls is one of the only facilities in the state that offers the full-body workout that's gaining popularity in Canada.
According to instructor Kimberly Woodring, it is a form of therapeutic fitness used to strengthen, tone, rehabilitate, and prevent injuries to the body through strengthening and stretching.
“Our goal is to balance all 650 muscles, work all 360 joints, just put your body back in alignment so you can get out and enjoy life,” Woodring said.
Woodring explained you don’t have to be a fitness fiend to give this trend a try: “That’s why I love when we enter January is just because people are coming to the gym, They’re excited. But they don’t know where to start."
That’s where Woodring’s exercise expertise comes into play. “It gets your body back to where you can enjoy life,” Woodring said.
She claims the exercises help realign your body, making you mobile, flexible, and pain-free, and she does this by helping her clients coordinate their brain and bodies. “Learning how to use your brain to tell what muscle you want to work to work,” Woodring said.
Woodring adds that while Essentrics is an ideal workout for beginners, it can also be practiced by exercisers of all ages and ability levels.
“It is sweeping Canada just phenomenally. We have lots and lots and lots of instructors in Canada, Europe. It’s just now starting to take off in the United States,” Woodring said.
Although Essentrics hasn’t made its way throughout the U.S., it has drawn interest in Montana over the past few years.
"I started it in Albuquerque and then I moved to Montana and started it in Montana, and I needed three people here to help me at the gym because it exploded,” Woodring said.
If you’re interested in trying Essentrics yourself, click here to see Access Fitness’ full workout class schedule.
