Victoria Durham Pilates Written by: Angie Sellers & Lauren Lyons Website: https: www.pilatesbodiesbyvictoria.com
Fit Columbia and Midlands Anchor honors local women in fitness with a monthly feature celebrating their contributions to our midlands community. These women are the best of the best in the health and wellness industry. These women are local small business owners, active in the community and have a minimum of five years experience. Our July feature is Torri Durham. Our feature is written by Fit Columbia's Lauren Lyons and Angie Sellers.
Bodies by Victoria is a Pilates studio located on Main Street in downtown Columbia. The space has been customized to provide the ultimate Pilates experience- the renovated historic studio houses a wide variety of Pilates equipment including reformers, cadillacs and stability chairs as well as space and small props for mat classes.
The goal of Pilates exercises is to strengthen the postural muscles and correct muscle imbalance that leads to injury. The quality of movement is valued over quantity of repetitions. Studio owner Torri Durham is trained in the Pilates Method of exercise and offers private and group equipment based and mat classes. Mat based classes use the own body for resistance with the addition of props such as balls and Pilates rings. Equipment based sessions such as Reformer classes use spring resistance that mimics muscular contraction. Both small group and private classes emphasize rebalancing muscles around the joints, proper alignment and balancing strength and flexibility.
Q&A with our Fit Feature
Favorite Snack: Natural Almonds! Protein, fiber and trace minerals all in one!
Pets: 1 dog and 3 kitties. The sweetest dog ever, my 4year old pit bull named Chance. Mr. Lucky is 12, Crawlspace is 6 and Mr. Grey is 5. All were found either on the side of the road or they showed up at our home.
Why Columbia? : I moved here to go to USC and now Columbia is home. I’m so excited by the progress and development in the city and am so glad that I have been able to grow with Columbia.
A local woman, friend or family member that I admire and why: This one is tough because I know a lot of amazingly strong, intelligent and generous women. If I have to pick just one, I’ll choose my sister-in-law, Susan Chappell. She is one of the wisest and kindest people you could ever be so fortunate to know. She is incredibly strong and she lends that strength to so many. She is a role model for many and I am incredibly thankful that I am a part of her family.
Favorite kids toy or my own memory of a childhood activity: One of my best memories is of summer afternoons spent building miniature towns, parks and ponds in the backyard with my brother. Back then a bottle cap could become became a merry-go-round and block of wood could became a school. That would keep us occupied for hours until one of us decided it was time for a pick-up game of ‘baseball’ or to dare one another to ride our bike down the ‘big’ hill with no hands.
