Meet Christopher Torres of Miami Freerunning & Parkour Academy

Since I was in high school, I wanted to own a gym. I loved to exercise and learn as much as possible about human physiology. I ran a gym after college which led me to business school. Through business school, I came to realize there are limitless opportunities in the world so I took on a few new career and personal challenges. I started a new career path at Carnival Cruise Line and met my wife-to-be within a week of each other. I also tried out for American Ninja Warrior a few weeks later. I failed HORRIBLY on the first obstacle (bounding steps). I swore it wouldn’t happen again so I went searching for a gym that could help and found Adrian Gonzalez and the Miami Freerunning & Parkour Academy (MFR). I fell in love with Parkour and Freerunning. Adrian and I become good friends, and when he decided to move to Colorado my wife and I decided to buy the gym. It has been a life changer to say the least.

HECK NO! There is nothing smooth about running or owning a business. Some people may make it look easy, but I have never met one that said it actually is easy.

We are trying to create a new culture that makes everyone feel at home at MFR and feel supported in everything they do. This goes for our team and students alike.

In addition, we are trying to grow awareness for the sport and remove the stigma of it as an extreme sport. Parkour is not just what you watch on Youtube and the athletes jumping on rooftops or flipping from large heights. Those are elite athletes that have trained for years to achieve that level just as any athlete from any sport does. What unfortunately is not highly visible on Youtube is the time and effort it took to gain that skill starting from the most basic jumps on flat ground and slowly working their way to harder and harder challenges.

It is our goal to make parkour facilities accessible to as many people as possible so that they can gain from the confidence building, exercise, and absolute fun parkour provides.

MFR is South Florida’s only dedicated parkour and freerunning facility. Our gyms are giant playgrounds for people of all ages to run, jump, climb, and allow our child-like spirits come out. We provide classes for beginners to advanced athletes that allow them to grow from the most basic movements to the flips and tricks you see on social media.

Although we teach parkour and freerunning, the outcome we are most proud of is not when a student does a cool trick. It is when a student conquers a fear that makes it all worthwhile. We are blessed to see our athletes gain huge amounts of confidence in themselves and realizing they are limitless.

Success has many different boxes for us. Financially, success means the gyms are able to provide financial freedom for our family and an ability to invest in more gyms. Operationally, success is the growth of our athletes and coaches in skill but even more so in confidence. We would love to see MFR’s bank accounts filled to the brim, but it would still not compare to seeing our coaches thrive and having new athletes tell us they heard about us because one of our athletes raved about us. There is no better compliment.