By Bess Hochstein

When Mary Balle’s doctor advised her to add weight-bearing exercise to her swimming routine, she groaned, dreading the drudgery of weight-lifting. “It’s so boring, and you get all sweaty and sore,” exclaimed the sixty-one-year-old Massachusetts resident. As an alternative, she delved into Pilates. But as soon as her instructor introduced her to Gyrotonic®, Balle was hooked.

Gyrotonic is a cutting-edge fitness discipline developed in the 1980s by Juliu Horvath, a former principal dancer with the Romanian State Opera. It’s designed to lengthen and strengthen muscles, stimulate circulation, and enhance flexibility, joint mobility, and coordination. Like Pilates, Gyrotonic emphasizes synchronizing your breath with the movements you perform on specialized equipment – in this case the Gyrotonic Expansion System® (GXS). Unlike Pilates, which is based on finite, linear movements, Gyrotonic exercise fosters flowing, circular, multidimensional motions, drawing on aspects of yoga, dance, Tai Chi, and swimming. In the fitness realm, it has followed the same path as Pilates; becoming popular among dancers, athletes, and physical therapists before catching on with the general public.

Balle finds that Gyrotonic has improved her range of motion, especially in the ball and socket joints. “In Pilates you move back and forth. Gyrotonic lets you move your arms and legs all the way around.” The unique design of the GXS enables smooth, cyclical movements. Straps attached to the base and top of its curvilinear pulley tower pivot and glide freely, enabling full extension of the limbs without the jarring start and finish of conventional exercise equipment. Weights provide both resistance and support in exercises that flow seamlessly from expansion through contraction of the muscles.

According to Matthew Aversa, Managing Director of Gyrotonic International Headquarters, the GXS was “designed with an awareness of how muscles and bones should move.” The exercises counteract the tensions we develop sitting at a desk for hours. “People lose that supple quality that’s required to move in three dimensions,” says Aversa. “We’re designed to move freely. Gyrotonics helps to release the fascia and create muscles that have dexterity. It helps re-establish the body’s natural way of moving and corrects the alignment of the spine.”

It’s working for Mary Balle. “I have much more flexibility now,” she claims. “I stand taller and my shoulders aren’t hunched because I’m stretching muscles across my chest. It’s lengthened my spine and taught me to hold my head up. Plus my physique has slimmed down and my body is firmer.”

In addition, the long-term pain she has suffered in her feet due to fallen arches has subsided. “They put the straps on my feet while I’m seated and have me make small steps in each direction. It broke up my pattern of walking so now the sides of my feet know they’re supposed to be helping.” Balle also sites the benefit of balance. “It helped my mind get the left side of my body to work as much as the right side.”

This benefit is what sold Angela Sundberg on Gyrotonic. A physical therapist in Arizona, Sundberg was drawn to the system the first time she saw it in action. “I immediately saw how biomechanically sound it is,” she says. “It lets your body find its own balance as opposed to other forms of rehabilitation that force muscles to move in unnatural patterns.” Sundberg specializes in sports-specific training; her practice, Gyrotonic Scottsdale at Bodyscapes, attracts many professional athletes.

In German orthopedic hospitals and clinics, Gyrotonic is a common physical therapy protocol, especially for joint problems involving knees, hips, and spines. The U.S. is catching on; in January 2000 The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies ran a positive assessment of Gyrotonic for shoulder rehabilitation.

It’s also a stimulating form of exercise. Says Aversa, “It’s very aerobic. Because there’s no endpoint you can keep moving for twenty minutes without disruption. The circling and spiraling movements help increase circulation and improve metabolism.”

I gave it a whirl at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts, under the tutelage of Donna Rainone, Registered Dance/ Movement Therapist and Certified Physical-mind Instructor. She tailored each session to my ability, providing a sample of the system’s 100-plus exercises. For each exercise, Rainone demonstrated what seemed to be a simple, undulating movement and then adjusted the machine to my body. Each time I discovered how something that looked so easy engaged my entire body as well as my mind. The body moves in multiple planes, challenging coordination. An exercise that seems to be about the legs also works the core. My body extended in all directions; it was confusing at first but by the third session I became more comfortable and smooth. I left my final session feeling open through my shoulders and worked out, not worked over. I seemed to be walking taller with looser limbs. And it was fun.

Mary Balle knows these feelings well. “When I’m done, I feel strengthened mentally and physically,” she says. “I feel rejuvenated.” While her husband Jack prefers Pilates, Mary credits Gyrotonic with helping him recover from a stroke in the left side of his brain. “It has helped him strengthen the right side of his body,” she claims. “His muscles, especially on his right side, were starting to atrophy. Gyrotonic enabled him to straighten his limbs and made him more cognizant of what he’s doing. It’s been helpful for his balance, flexibility, and mobility. And he’s interested. At age ninety-one, that’s something. It’s a mind/body experience that he doesn’t get in any other form.”

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