About a week ago the Personal Euphoria team got together to take a class. About four times a year we try to get together and take a different class or workshop together–something that isn’t Pilates.

We all love movement so we are open to trying new things, but what I like best about our little adventurous outings is that it always reminds me how someone completely new to Pilates feels in my class. Half the time I had not idea what I was doing. I was constantly questioning the movement and wondering if I was doing everything right. You always have to try and let go and know that you’re not going to do everything right your first time out. It takes practice. At some points during the class I’d hear one (or more) of us chuckle because we didn’t know what we doing. But that’s okay. That’s half the fun.

This time we took a Gyrokinesis class will Melanie Johnson, owner of Powerflow Studio in New Haven. None of us really knew what we were getting into. Katy had gone online to watch a few videos and read about it a little bit, but for the must part we were all walking in without knowing what to expect.

From our experience I walked away feeling like Gyrokinesis is a series of very fluid movements focusing on the mobility of the spine. Many of the movements felt wonderful in my body. My spine wants to roll and spiral and wave. It likes to be in motion. For me it posed a similar challenge in Pilates. In both there must be fluid, flowing motions, but you are in control of them. The more I move my body, the more I feel like there is a very fine line between having control over the movement and being out of control, but too much control may reduce the fluidity. It is literally all about balance.

Gyrokinesis reminded me a lot of dance. And it seemed like it would come more naturally to a dancer or someone who had taken Pilates.

Melanie was a good instructor and started with some background about Gyrokinesis and Julio Horvath, the creator. We all enjoyed her and hopped back it the car, feeling great. The next day about half of us had sore backs (in a good way–as if our muscles had worked). The other half just felt great. So it’s certainly something to try if you’re curious. I think we’d all go back and try it again.