Gyrotonic Figure 8s with Stepping: Master Balance & ADLs

Train for Real Life: Master Balance & Proprioception with Stepping Figure 8s.

Challenge Your Body’s Internal GPS to Prevent Falls During Daily Activities.

In almost every session I teach, I have my clients on their feet for at least one exercise. Most Activities of Daily Living are done when you’re on your feet so your training should prepare you for real life. Stepping, being one of the 7 Primal Movements, is an essential activity to train. A big upper body stretch while stepping really challenges balance and proprioception (awareness of the position and movement of the body).

This Upper Body Opening exercise, Figure 8s, has a yawning, stretching quality, which feels great when seated. Adding stepping increases the challenge of this exercise in two ways. One, you get a full body stretch, from the tips of the fingers on the upper hand down to the ball of the foot on the same side. In that stretch, you look upward. Vision is one of the three systems your body uses to balance. By looking upward instead of forward, your body is challenged to find balance with less assistance from the eyes, increasing the use of proprioception, which is an internal sense and doesn’t use sight. Two, by stepping you lengthen your base of support while in that full body stretch, which increases the challenge to your balance, like being on a balance beam without the possibility of falling.

How this can benefit you

By asking you to move in multiple directions at once while under resistance, GYROTONIC® training creates unique challenges to proprioception. Challenging your internal awareness of where your body is and how it’s moving, while in a safe and controlled environment, will help your body be able to maintain stability when doing ADLs. Reaching for something high while in a store or your own home become easier and helps reduce your chances of falling.