Movement Options - Yummy and Effective Alternative Exercise Method

The GYROTONIC® tower is one of my favorite dance partners. Though there’s generally no music about when we move together, it sometimes feels like we’re making some of our own. The movement becomes the music; fluid and rhythmic, and the whole body is involved in the dance. I have to resist the urge to close my eyes to better feel and savor it. Sometimes the movement is a conversation we are having together. After a good session I feel taller and airier, sometimes wrung out like a cloth (in a great way). And oddly relaxed and centered; clear. It’s like getting a massage from the inside out!

Originally developed for dancers by an injured dancer, the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® has come into the mainstream as an alternative exercise system. Juliu Horvath is the genius who developed the system, in part from applying some of the physics found in nature. Juliu put together a system that seems natural in certain key ways, though may not be ‘easy’. The system, in my opinion, offers many benefits that traditional exercise does not. It also serves many different types of populations (i.e. - ‘weekend warriors’, general population, seniors, athletes, dancers etc.) for a variety of reasons, and is also used regularly in Europe as part of the physical therapy regimen for a host of injuries.

Personally, I find GYROTONIC® exercise delicious! I think it’s important to enjoy exercising, so that it’s something you want to do, and this system hooked me! I’d like to take time here to share some of the things I like about it and why I think it works, and you can decide for yourself if it sounds yummy…

I love that GYROTONIC® exercise dances (or can), and that the melody and rhythm carries the movement, making it more like play than work. It’s just fun! Don’t misunderstand, there are plenty aspects of the GYROTONIC® method that are quite challenging, and push the boundaries of comfort and ease, but they are interesting and engaging challenges, and the nature of the movement, and momentum can carry you through them; through to a balance of strength and flexibility, and through the awkwardness towards coordination and grace.

A key part of this system is the play between, and use of, opposites working together to create an energy that leads to more effective movement, and avoids brute ‘efforting’ to accomplish a goal. An image one often sees for active stability in yoga and elsewhere is that of a tree. Trees that have strong root systems growing ever downward into the earth are better able to grow upward towards the sky. This dual-reaching creates stability and balance. In executing the tree pose in yoga, the energy of that image works just as well. A tree like that is also safer in a storm – the reaching quality lending it a flexibility that allows it a bit of ‘give’ in the wind.

I think it’s neat that, though there are exercises specific to building abdominal strength, the abs are actively involved in some way in almost every exercise we do, simply because they are core muscles and at the center of most movement. Similarly, in the GYROTONIC® method, your intention can be aimed toward a particular muscle group, but the exercises chosen will almost always teach you how to move or stabilize the rest of the body in order to work the area you’re focusing on safely and effectively.

In my opinion, a unique quality of GYROTONIC® exercise is that it is multidimensional and circular in nature, the way we move in real life, not tracked in one plane or another the way a conventional exercise machine might move. I find it helpful, both as a teacher and as a client, that imagery from life can be used very effectively in metaphor to more thoroughly understand movements and grasp concepts. I find movements done on the tower to be useful and interesting to execute.

In texture, GYROTONIC® movement is not unlike swimming, dancing or yoga. And like these other disciplines it requires and develops what a client of mine calls ‘body intelligence’. However, unlike swimming (awesome exercise) there is a precision of movement that can be achieved on the equipment that cannot when in the water; and unlike yoga, the tower helps to ease the strain of gravity on the joints. To quote a phrase Juliu wrote, the movements create ‘a bridge between contraction and extension’. And that’s because we’re always doing both simultaneously in varying ratios. When done with intention, this alone builds stability, strength, control and flexibility. Just a quick note here – I think (or actually I know) that the approach and concepts inherent in the GYROTONIC® method will enhance and inform the practice of all 3 of these other disciplines and others.

So, who would benefit from practicing the GYROTONIC® method? Well I think everyone can for any number of the reasons I’ve already listed. But specifically:

• anyone suffering from back pain or joint pain
• seniors
• dancers of all varieties
• athletes of all varieties

Shaquille O’Neal has recently included the GYROTONIC® method as part of his regimen. To see what he has to say about it visit YouTube.com at at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnn6StOIrig.

Okay, so why might GYROTONIC® exercise be helpful for the populations listed above? Well, a great reason is just to get your body moving in new and interesting ways. Great for the body and important for the mind! Other reasons might be:

• for back pain sufferers. – increased circulation to the injured area, more correct posture and execution of movement, building of strength and flexibility of spine
• for seniors – increased concentration, more restful sleep, improved strength and stamina
• for dancers and athletes – wider ROM, increased coordination and efficiency of specialized movement, prevention/correction of imbalances from overuse that can lead to injury, and faster recovery for those who have become injured.

I’ve written this article because I love the GYROTONIC® method and want to share my enthusiasm with you. If you’d like to come give it a try or know someone who would, please let me know with your hubpages feedback. I teach GYROTONIC® exercise at a couple of great studios and my colleagues and I would be delighted to introduce you to our passion.

The NYC studio I work at is owned by Lisa DelSignore and is called Fluid Fitness. There’s a new client special going on right now. Please visit www.fluidfitnessny.com. The other studio is a Pilates studio in downtown Huntington, NY that also offers GYROTONIC®. The studio is owned by Maggie Amrhein and can be located at www.pilatesli.net. Again, if you would like to contact me directly, or if you have questions, please comment on hubpages.com and ask for my contact information.