FitFest to Reduce Stress

As the spring 2022 semester was winding down and the intensity of finals was ramping up, CSUN students had an opportunity to learn to stay positive, active, mindful, and fit through a collaborative event called FitFest, thanks to faculty from the departments of Child and Adolescent Development and Kinesiology.

Another opportunity for a series of similar events starts soon.  Scroll down for info.

The FitFest event was funded by a Campus Care Recovery Grant which is sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost in conjunction with the Campus Care Recovery Program (CCRP) Committee and facilitated by Child and Adolescent Development faculty Nancy Miodrag, and Kinesiology faculty Teri Todd and Jacob Jensen.

The grant supports educational projects, scholarly research, creative activities, and other programmatic initiatives that promote wellbeing and campus recovery efforts for the benefit of the CSUN community. The CCRP provides programming and activities that will foster resilience and create space to process the pandemic’s socio-emotional impact for faculty, staff, and students in the CSUN community.

The one-day FitFest event was presented by Into Fitness Together–Mindfulness (IFiT-M) which is a fitness mindfulness program and research study at CSUN led by Miodrag, Todd, and Jensen. All participating students were given a yoga mat and blanket, resistance band, and lots of fun swag to facilitate their workouts.

The session was led by student fitness instructors from the Department of Kinesiology. With all abilities welcomed, and encouragement for students to find their own pace, a mindfulness practice was included to help students to de-stress and, especially, cope with pandemic fatigue.

IFiT-M was established in 2014 by Miodrag and Todd out of a need to help college students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) become more physically active. 

Since the Campus Care Recovery Program was geared toward pandemic recovery for the entire campus, the Fitfest event was for everyone on campus. The IFIT-M program is designed for people with ASD, but we over the last few years, the program has been opened up to include people without ASD. This rounds out the academic research, and also brings wellbeing to more people.

In the program, college students participate in a 10-week program supported by kinesiology students, meeting every Tuesday evening. The program even went online during the pandemic.  It is now returning to campus with the fall program starting September 27^th, 2022. Open to students 18-30. See the flyers below for registration information - note that one is for people WITH ASD, the other is for those WITHOUT.

More About iFiT:

Hailing from the same graduate program at McGill University in Montreal Canada, Nancy Miodrag and Teri Todd just happened to be hired at CSUN in the same year (2012) and were brought together because of their passion and commitment to the field of ASD. They met Jensen at CSUN and he joined the project, bringing his expertise in sport and exercise psychology and mindfulness training.

They soon established IFiT out of a need for college students on the spectrum to get more physically active. There is evidence to suggest that people with ASD often face unique challenges to engaging in physical activity, both socially and physically.

Poor motor skills, learning problems, and social deficits are a few of these barriers. Still, the benefits of physical activity can be wide ranging, just as it is for people without ASD.

IFiT-M is a peer-mentored fitness program tailored to the unique needs of young adults on the spectrum. In 2018, Jacob Jensen joined as a co-investigator, bringing his wealth of knowledge and experience in mindfulness to add to the IFiT program, now called IFiT-M.

 See the flyers below for registration information. Note that the first addresses those with ASD, and the second is for those without. 

For those without ASD:

Go directly to registration