What is the GYROKINESIS® METHOD

McCall Pilates Studio announces a new method of movement at the studio.  Deb Fereday, a comprehensively certified Pilates Instructor since January of 2017, became certified to teach GYROKINESIS® during July of this year.  Deb traveled to Boulder, CO to receive her Pre-Training in April and during July she completed her Foundation Training at GYROTONIC®BODHI in Boulder, CO. Below is a brief description of GYROKINESIS® taken from a publication in the IDEA magazine, a Health and Fitness Association, by Rosalind Gray Davis on Sep 01, 2007

GYROKINESIS® Exercise

 GYROKINESIS® is a total-body conditioning and balancing system of movement that encourages the spine and joints to stay open and strong. The work stimulates the anatomy’s major organ systems and incorporates special breathing techniques, particular to each group of exercises within the methodology. Fluidity of motion while performing the moves is also a key premise. 

Advocates of the method maintain that regular practice fosters increased mobility, assists the body’s regenerative capacity and opens energetic pathways, increasing blood flow and oxygenation. The result, they say, is a renewed sense of vitality and well-being. 

“Your body is basically a repository for the physical and emotional trauma that you have been through in your life. It records this information internally, like a videotape; what Gyrokinesis does is erase that tape,” says Billy Macagnone, master trainer and owner of Body Evolution studio in New York City. “[With practice,] the body will regenerate and reorganize after pain and injury or from incorrect or [insufficient] movement. The benefit of the work, bottom line, is a new home for your body.” 

Three Key Principles

1.Narrowing of the Pelvis. This principle, which applies in all positions (sitting, standing and lying down), facilitates the creation of space between the vertebrae. Physical therapist and master trainer Johannes Randolf of Linz, Austria, describes the technique this way: “A basis for all the work, it is a unique type of muscle engagement that incorporates among [other areas] the pelvic floor (without “just” squeezing), the transverse muscle and the oblique muscle.

2. The Fifth Line.    “It can be compared to central currents of electricity that move through the spine, the arms and the legs. This energy can enter and exit freely, and clients are taught to reach from their center, through these energetic lines, while performing Gyrokinesis movements,” explains Matt Aversa, vice president and chief operating officer of Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis International Headquarters. The Fifth Line is really not only a straight line of energy; it’s more of a continual flow, whether it is in the form of an arch, a side bend or a forward bend. We want to be working through the Fifth Line of our spine, and limbs, at all times.” 

3. 3. The Seed Center.  “The Seed Center, or yolk center, is that place of germination where the life force begins. It starts from the energy body and moves into the physical or anatomical body,” she says. Aversa describes it as “the engine of the organism, where the body’s energy is activated, where one’s strength and vitality originate. In Gyrokinesis we begin moving from that place to awaken this vitality and release blocked or dormant energy.” Working from the Seed Center, according to Master trainer Lisa Marie Goodwin of White Crane Movement Arts in Marina del Rey, California,  allows students to connect with the moves on a deeper level. 

Class Content and Structure

Instruction is offered at all levels, beginner to advanced, with classes lasting 60 to 90 minutes. During each session, the entire body is taken through seven types of spinal movement: bending forward, extending backward, side-arching left and right, twisting left and right, and moving in a circular pattern. Classes begin on low, padded stools, either 16 or 20 inches tall; continue on the floor; and finish with participants standing. Exercises follow a special sequence that naturally divides the class into three sections: preparation; “the main part” (as Julio Horvath, creator of Gyrokenisis calls it); and ending. 

Gyrokinesis can be adapted for a broad range of clients, from the super-athlete to the physically compromised or disabled person. The goal is really the same for anyone, even a super-athlete. The person is challenged with more and more complex, vigorous and sophisticated movements, studying them in ever-increasing depth”,  says master trainer Magali Messac of Gyrotonic Seattle, a former principal ballerina for American Ballet Theatre who has worked with the system since 1983.