This might be my favorite exercise using the Wingmaster. When I used to teach online Wingmaster classes, this exercise, in either Setting 2 or Setting 3, would be included in almost every class. The feeling of this exercise is one of the most satisfying of all the Wingmaster material.
There are 6 ways you can move your spine. One of them, circumduction, is a circular movement of the spine, either internally or externally. The idea of this exercise is that its an internal circumduction if your spine was twice as long.
With internal circumduction, your spine makes a circle around the mid-line of your body at the level of the solar plexus, with the two ends of your spine staying in the same place. This exercise does the same thing, but the shoulder girdle is what’s the circle around the mid-line of your body.
There are 6 spinal ranges of motion. In our Activities of Daily Living, circumduction is the movement we most likely use the least. That doesn’t mean it has no value. This motion is excellent for the health of the intervertebral discs.
Our discs don’t have any direct blood flow. Movement pumps our discs through a process called imbibition. While all the spinal ranges of motion help with this, the rolling of the discs between the vertebrae in circumduction ensures the whole circumference of the disc gets some pressure and release. Circumduction is also the only spinal range of motion that has no end. It’s a circle. Circles have no end.
Single Spiral from the Handle Series is a fundamental exercise in the system. I’m sure the overwhelming majority of sessions I’ve taught, I’ve used Single Spiral. This Pulley Tower exercise is so central to the system that just seeing a picture of Juliu Horvath leading someone through this exercise inspired a PGA tour coach to call GYROTONIC® to learn more. He eventually worked with Juliu to create the Gyrotonic for Golfers course. Just from a picture.
Spirals are one of the 7 Primal Movements, which are movements we develop naturally as babies. It’s the second primal movement. Once you can get yourself sitting on your baby butt, you start turning around.