Welcome to GYROTONIC® Training — your comprehensive resource for understanding and mastering this transformative exercise system. Here you’ll find in-depth articles about the three essential pieces of equipment — the Pulley Tower, Ladder, and Wingmaster — along with detailed explorations of specific exercise families, movement principles, and proven strategies for building strength, mobility, and functional fitness. Whether you’re new to Gyrotonic traiing or deepening your existing practice, these articles provide the knowledge and inspiration to understand why this system delivers results that conventional training cannot match. Explore our collection and discover how Gyrotonic training can transform your body, your movement, and your life.
I’ve made it a part of the way I train clients that they get on their feet for at least one exercise in every workout. Part of developing the Wingmaster material was incorporating primal movements like squats. The benefits of a complex exercise that includes squats, like this one, go beyond leg strength and even include benefits for your brain.
To quote this article, leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health. They help keep your brain working correctly in a physical way.
When you’re doing Levitation exercises on the Ladder you’re strengthening your posterior chain: primarily your back muscles and your glutes. And it’s called “levitation” because you’re floating up against gravity. Then wouldn’t using a strap be a little bit of a cheat?
It could but it isn’t in this case.
This video makes the exercise look deceptively easy. There’s alot going on. One of the most important aspects of core strength is stability. In this exercise you’ve got to stabilize in all three planes of motion.
If you put your arms out to the sides, that is your frontal plane. Anything in front or behind you is your sagittal plane. And when you turn to either the left or the right, that’s your transverse plane. In this side lying exercise on the Ladder, keeping the legs at the same level as the torso (and vise-versa) is stability in the frontal plane. The movement of your legs and upper body is in your sagittal plane and you’ve got to stabilize your pelvis so it stays perpendicular to the padded rung.
The Waterfall series on the Ladder or the Archway is the absolute best for pure front of the body core strengthening. While you’re working the same muscles as a sit-up or crunch, you’re asking your body to do the same thing in the opposite direction. The extra space you gain by being off the ground allows you to add fun variety, like Press Ups.