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.
Canoeing is an exercise from the Upper Body Series. Like much of the material in the Wingmaster course, when I developed this exercise I thought “How did no one think of doing this before me?” A big portion of the Wingmaster material is previously existing material re-imagined for the Wingmaster.
Doing exercises on your feet is essential training for basic life. Most activities of daily living involve being on your feet. What this GYROTONIC® Wingmaster exercise adds to the standing position is a hip hinge, which is one of the 7 primal movements. Primal movements are the building blocks of how we learn to move naturally as we develop when we’re infants and toddlers.
When you do a hip hinge while standing, you change your center of gravity. Learning to keep your balance while also doing purposeful controlled motion, in this case, spiraling from one side to the other, trains you to help keep you from falling while doing every day activities like laundry, pulling things our of your car trunk and playing with your kids. Gyrotonic exercises aren’t for looking like a dancer, they’re functional.
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.