GYROTONIC® Principles in Everyday Life

People choose to exercise in different ways for a lot of different reasons. Maybe they are an athlete wanting their technique to be better. Maybe they want to lose weight. Maybe they want to want to fix their posture. Or maybe they want to recover from an injury. It all depends on the person. In my case, I started working out with the GYROTONIC® method to help my dancing and rehab injuries. You can read about my personal journey here. 

In the case of the GYROTONIC® method, there are a number of principles that we work with and build on to create a more functional and better feeling body in our everyday life. My favorite of these principles is that you work with the body you have. Everyones' bodies are different and need different things. If you try to force your body to do something it is not ready for or capable of doing, injuries and unnecessary pain can occur. But if you listen to your body and allow it to improve its movement ability at whatever pace it wants, you will eventually find that it is capable of a lot more than you might have thought.

To give a specific example... let's say that someone has a shoulder issue (impingement, tendonitis, etc.) that is keeping them from using their full range of motion. They can no longer reach up for something on a high shelf or lift a heavy item. In a Gyrotonic session, we wouldn't have them start out trying to immediately move through their desired full range of motion (ROM). We would start by working with 70-80% of their current ROM. Making sure that everything is moving correctly with high repetitions and coordinated breathing. As they move, their ROM will gradually increase but we would never go past the point where the movement is painful or they start to try and compensate. This way, by the end of the session, they walk out feeling better than when they walked in and also have better awareness of how they can move their shoulder with out pain. As they keep coming back for sessions their understanding and awareness of their body increases. And over time they will be able to reach something on a high shelf again.

Another Gyrotonic principle that is extremely applicable to our everyday lives is what we call "narrowing". This is one of the foundational principles of the GYROTONIC® method. It is the very first thing every client learns in a session. Narrowing serves two main purposes. One, it prepares the body to move. Two, it teaches us how to attain our ideal posture without straining. Most people tend to think that good posture requires a maximum amount of effort at all times. And that just isn't true. Good posture should be comfortable and easy to be in. It should make us feel more confident in our movement, make breathing easier, and take pressure off our joints which can help with pain. 

Try out the GYROTONIC® method for yourself by booking a session below. 

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