Improving Our Posture

Written by - Emi Komatsuzaki

Improving Our Posture

In this internet era, we tend to sit down on the chair for a long time and our sitting down time has gotten longer and longer. We scroll down social media and websites, play the games, and watch movies or YouTube on the chair or the bed all the time. Moreover, the pandemic has added more time to it. The longer we sit and engage with those activities, our postures become more hunch over. Our body slowly but surely adapt the poor posture, and consequently that causes the round shoulder syndrome, tight chest muscles, shoulder and neck pain, and even leads to back pain.

In the book "Overcoming Poor Posture," the author, Steven Low and Jarlo Ilano, explain that improving posture provides us so many benefits beyond what we expect.
First, good posture makes us feel more powerful and confident. In fact, when we lift our chest and head, we feel tall and open.
Second, good posture opens up the space for the lungs and makes us breathe properly. It facilitates a more efficient breathing pattern. Moreover the authors say that "good posture can boost testosterone, decrease risk of developing illnesses, and increase pain tolerance. Neck angle can even affect cognitive processes in older adults."

Improving posture is not one day job, but possible to have good posture by recognizing the bad habit and exercising and strengthening and stretching the chest and back muscles.

Let's step back from the desk and try to move often, and you might feel much better afterwards

- Emi Komatsuzaki

Happy New Year

-Written by Joana Corrêa Assunção

Happy New Year

A poem by Rumi :

“I died from minerality and became vegetable;

And From vegetativeness I died and became animal.

I died from animality and became man.

Then why fear disappearance through death?

Next time I shall die

Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;

After that, soaring higher than angels –

What you cannot imagine,

I shall be that.

Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book

nor from tongue.

If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is

illumination of heart.

If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action.

I said, ‘Thou art harsh, like such a one.’

‘Know,’ he replied,

‘That I am harsh for good, not from rancor and spite.

Whoever enters saying, “This I,” I smite him on the brow;

For this is the shrine of Love, o fool! it is not a sheep cote!

Rub thine eyes, and behold the image of the heart.’

Make yourself free from self at one stroke!

Like a sword be without trace of soft iron;

Like a steel mirror, scour off all rust with contrition.

A Star Without a Name

When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,

it easily forgets her

and starts eating solid food.

Seeds feed awhile on ground,

then lift up into the sun.

So you should taste the filtered light

and work your way toward wisdom

with no personal covering.

That’s how you came here, like a star

without a name. Move across the night sky

with those anonymous lights.”

(Mathnawi III, 1284-1288)

“Say I am You” Coleman Barks Maypop, 1994

- Joana Corrêa Assunção

Holiday Traditions and Decorations

- Written by Maria Holm

Holiday traditions and decorations are a large portion of December for me, being Swedish. We celebrate with easy things you can make at home yourself with family and friends, that brightens up our homes in the darkest time of the year.

These traditions, passed down through the family through generations, brings us all together over a cup of coffee, or hot mulled wine, Glögg, in Swedish, which is also a December tradition for us.

Here is an easy and beautiful decoration that maybe some of you make as well. We hang these in our kitchen windows and put in bowls on tables as decorations, to brighten our homes with the beautiful aromatic scent of orange and clove.

Oranges with dried cloves and red silk ribbons.

Use large beautiful fresh oranges, wipe them off to have a clean smooth surface to work on, on your orange.

Push dried cloves, one by one, in to the surface of the orange, in patterns you like. Be carful with your fingers, since the cloves are sharp. When you have a pattern you like and your orange is beautiful, you are done with the cloves.

Next, take red silk ribbons and wrap the orange in enough ribbon so you can hang it in your window. You can wrap it intricately or simple, your choice on how much red you want on your orange. If you are putting the oranges in a bowl or on the table as a decoration, just use enough ribbon to make it festive and nice. Make as many as you like, or one for each family member.

Now your orange and clove holiday decorations are done. Decorate your home and enjoy the bright aromatic scent!

It’s an easy decoration that last all december long, and even the youngest members of the family can make. I hope you try it and bring some Swedish holiday cheer and scents into your family traditions for this time of the year!

Happy Holiday Traditions from my family to yours!

Maria Holm

More with Less

- Written by Emi Komatsuzaki

Emi Komatsuzaki

Connecting

- Written by Joana Corrêa Assunção

⭐️⭐️Connecting ⭐️⭐️

A moment of suspense

A pause before inhaling

A rhythm that takes over 

Spontaneous inhalation 

Generous exhalation 

Shallow, fast, deep, slow 

All embraced by rhythm 

Embracing harmony in the process of strengthening the whole body.

Little by little.

⭐️

Wishing a great October for everyone⭐️

Joana Corrêa Assunção

Tensegrity, Biotensegrity

- Written by Maria Holm

What is Tensegrity and Biotensegrity, and why is it important to know and think about as we practice the GYROTONIC® Method?

If we look at the GYROTONIC® Machines, the Pully Towers we practice on, we can see the Pully system and the weights of the machine clearly, and feel how they help to suspend our body into a “floating” place. Where the joints can be open and move freely in their full range, and our muscles support that full movement while working more fully threedimentionally themselves. We also use a “rhythm” of our breath to the movement to move our bodies in a continuous flow. Breath supports the movement, and breath and movement is one, in unison. There is a “pulse”, a Biological Pump through our system. We feel longer, taller, lighter.

How can we achieve this by ourselves, anytime, anywhere?

By thinking about ourselves as a “Pully system”. If we apply pushing and pulling, contracting and releasing, suspending and grounding, breathing and suspending breath, action and function. Not using more force through the body than the action needs, or we have an anchor for, or being too passive.

That way we can suspend ourselves into a physically stronger place, where we use our whole body more fully, feel lighter, more open and available. Become more graceful and have smoother movements. We might feel more calm, since everything is working in harmony and unison.

This benefits not only the body, but our whole system, body, mind, spirit and breath, since it all is interconnected and feeds off each other.

The result is an available, present Body, Mind and Human being.

When we practice and work on the machines in the studio, we learn and remind ourselves of this feeling, action and work, and give our body the sense of how it can move, how that feels and what to do.

“Tensegrity, tensional integrity, or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually bars or struts) do not touch each other while the prestressed tensioned members (usually cables or tendons) delineate the system spatially.” - Wikipedia

“Biotensegrity, a term coined by Dr. Stephen Levin, is the application of tensegrity principles to biological structures. Biological structures such as muscles, bones, fascia, ligaments and tendons, or rigid and elastic cell membranes, are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. The musculoskeletal system, maintains tension in a continuous network of muscles and connective tissues, while the bones provide discontinuous compressive support. Even the human spine, which seems at first glance like a stack of vertebrae resting on each other, is actually a tensegrity structure. - Wikipedia

“Biotensegrity is the exhibited strength that results when push and pull have a win-win relationship with each other” - Cranial Intelligence, Sumner & Haines, page 40

See you on the Machines!

Maria Holm

TOKYO OLYMPIC 2020

- Written by Kumiko Nasu

Finally Tokyo Olympic 2020 opened its door last Friday on July 23rd and welcomed 11,100 athletes to Japan.

There are many things happened/happening to Tokyo Olympic. Of course the event was postponed a year due to worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and it became “fan-free” Olympic for the first time in the history. Tokyo is in the middle of their 4th State of Emergency and the athletes are getting tested daily. It is impossible to imagine how these athletes prepared themselves for the Olympic during the pandemic. Everything has been unsure and unknown. They are still facing the hardship even after traveled to Japan.

For more happier and future hopeful news. There are 4 new sports debut at Tokyo Olympic; Karate, Surfing, Skateboarding and Sports climbing. Japan got a few medals on surfing and skateboarding. More opportunities for the young boys and girls to dream dream of becoming Olympic medalists. Baseball and Softball are the returning sports.

Also this Olympic aimed to put sustainability “Be better, together – for the planet and for the people” All the medals were manufactured 100% with the recycled used cell phones and small electronic devices collected from the publiccreating gold, bronze and silver. The podiums are 3-D printed made with the recycled plastics also collected by the public. The Olympic Village is powered by renewable technology called hydrogen power providing athletes light, heat and hot water.

Tokyo hosted Olympic once before in 1964, 57 years ago. That Olympic seems to have a relationship to my life how I ended up living in New York.

My father was trying to make extra money during Tokyo Olympic in 1964 and he worked as a limousine driver for the tourists.  His first clients were two couples from Kansas, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins and Mr. and Mrs. Conner. Somehow they became very fond of him and asked him to be their chauffeur for their entire stay in Tokyo. On the last day, they told him if he ever wanted to come to America, he could visit them. So he did. He went to Kansas and stay with them for 3 years while attended university. My father used to say they were his parents in America and kept close relationship. They were the reason my father felt comfortable to send two daughters to university in Iowa. If something happened, they were close by to ask for help. Mr. and Mrs Connel’s son is the reason I was able to come to New York to study at Martha Graham School. He knew Martha Graham Company was very prestigious and he convinced my father this was the school I should attend in New York. While pursuing a dance career, I became GYROTONIC® instructor. When my parents and my sister’s family visited me in 2014, I took them to our studio introducing  GYROTONIC® method. My father had 1-hour private session with Maria while I taught my mother, sister and brother-in-law. Now my father takes GYROTONIC® session once a week at La Feuille Aoyama, Tokyo for more than 5 years. I feel the life is a circle - what goes around comes around.

I have a few Olympian clients in the studio too. I have 80 plus years old male clients and 70 plus years old female clients who want to feel better with their bodies and try to figure out what they can do to improve. They are my idols, hoping I will be enthusiastic and curious as they are to keep my body and mind in good shape when I reach their age.

The athletes have 1 more week to compete until the closing ceremony. There are many good surprises and sad surprises happened already. Hope at the end of the event, all athletes will be happy to have come to Japan and all Japanese are proud to host Tokyo Olympic 2020 when things are difficult. I am sure some encounters happened in this Olympic will lead a path for someone’s future, like it did to me.

The life is a circle - what goes around comes around

Kumiko Nasu

A Long Beautiful Journey

- Written by Emi Komatsuzaki

Long Beautiful Journey,

This year 2021 is our 10th year anniversary since Maria, Kumiko, Joana, and I took over the business from a GYROTONIC® master trainer, Young-ah Kim, in 2011. We are very grateful that we were able to continue our business after the lockdown, and truly appreciate the support and the generosity from our clients, families, and friends.

For 10 years, we have kept not only Young-ah's studio, but also the studio's atmosphere, teaching style, simplicity, and sincere attitude towards the work and teaching. Her conception for the studio is still there and we still respect that a lot. Some of our clients have continued coming to our studio since Young-ah's period, for more than 10 years, and many of our clients have reached 5 -10 years now, just like GYROTONIC® has become a part of their lives. It is so unique and organic movements that make our bodies feel so open and relaxed. Also people love the studio!

Maria Holm, who is also my teacher, often told me that in order to do well in GYROTONIC® we need to have strength, flexibility, and body connections. Those three have to be interdependent.

Also, in March 2021, GYROTONIC® headquarter offered the online Breathing Workshop for three weeks every day. This was a beautiful experience for me that my body, mind, and breath started synchronizing almost in a meditative state during the class. My body felt much lighter and centered.

My client, who is a long time yoga practitioner, told me that yoga needs mind, body, and consciousness. I think that GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® also require mind, body, and consciousness, as well as body connection, strength, flexibility, and most importantly breathing. It is not easy to have all together, but it is possible.

The reason why many people continue GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® for a long time might be because it is simply just a great form of exercise, but maybe because of the depth of this method: it might seem easy, but it is not easy at all and needs a long time practice. As we keep practicing, I hope we will experience those important elements are eventually interconnected and that makes us strong and centered. It will be a long journey yet beautiful experience!

Warmly,
Emi

⭐️Movements Beyond⭐️

- Written by Joana Corrêa Assunção

⭐️Movements Beyond ⭐️

A Love Letter to our Soho Home

In 2010 I was about 4 months into breastfeeding baby Juliano when Olympia Dukakis was looking for a physical therapist that would teach the GYROTONIC® Method close to her house in SoHo.

I came to the bright, alive, unique studio and... never left. 

Since then, Movement Beyond continues its beautiful journey. 

We have grown so much together and has developed a very unique style in business that we are all so proud of. A place where we can accommodate for all kinds of conditions and needs, goals and desires.

Diversity with unity, responsibility with freedom, secret generosity, courage to dare and persue our dreams are important points we follow in the studio. 

We all have the need for healing and strengthening in an harmonious way and the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® is the Method we are deeply committed to. It’s where everything makes sense, empowering us and our clients towards avery healthy and wholesome lifestyle.

A body capable of self regenerating that can move beyond its limitations and little by little be invited into a place of harmony, autonomy and deep strength. Those are some of the benefits we are able to harvest through this wonderful work. As we develop the capacity to be surprised by our super intelligent system, a new unthinkable reality is joyfully presented to us. 

Hanging, stabilizing through contrast, spinning, rocking, spiraling are some of the elements the body was designed to do, to feel happy, protected, functional, strong and a relaxed and elegant human being like you. 

Continuing education is a must for us. We love learning together and updating ourselves beyond the requirements through the years.

Reconnecting with our dear teacher Maria, meeting Kumiko and Emi was life changing for me. Will remember forever coming first time to the studio with my baby in a sling... feeling the light and the tremendous good energy. The power of all of us together in our big loft on the twelfth floor in the heart of SoHo, showed me how much we can achieve, in so many levels, when we choose LoVe over fear:) 

Ps: For us, GYROKINESIS® is the fuel that keeps the flame alive.

⭐️Sending big Hug to All. Hope to see you soon,

Photo/ Drawing: Copyrights Joana Corrêa Assunção, all rights reserved

Joana Corrêa Assunção

We Move, We Go Beyond

- Written By Maria Holm

Welcome!

To our New Website and Blog. We hope you will like it as much as we do. We are very excited for our next chapter as a studio and sharing it all with you!

To take part, see and share in our new virtual look, creating and expanding our virtual community and our studio as well. With our monthly Blog which is a new thing for us and so fun, where the four of us will take turns sharing thoughts on very different topics.

Our Newsletter that will reach you with exciting news of group classes, events and trainings. The more we can re-open and put them back in our schedule and move out of the pandemic we’ll share it with you, and new fun projects and events, don’t forget to subscribe ;-)

To our Zoom group classes and community, that sprung out of necessity during the lockdown in the beginning of the pandemic, and have grown and continued ever since. It has become a wonderful way to connect and move together, no matter where we are and what we do.

To our social media, where we have connected and shared even in the deepest part of lockdown and will continue to do so about our daily studio life and seasons.

Welcome in to our Studio!

We are so excited to still be here. Slowly and safely opening back up to normal studio capacity, slowly but surely. We are open for In-studio sessions since September 2020, so we hope to see you soon, when you are ready and want to come in and start to move.

We welcome you all!

New clients, who might be curious about our studio and want to try it out, who are new to our movement method and ready to start, or maybe fully new to a movement routine and want to gently ease in.

Welcome Back!

To our beautiful, faithful, dedicated clients who has been with us for so long, in both highs and lows, so supportive and kind! We appreciate you all so much and will see you when you are ready and want to come in to move in person again.

To the ones of you who are thinking of becoming Instructors in our Movement modality and looking for a Pre-Training, contact us and let us know! We are Welcoming all who wants to teach and share this wonderful way of experience Movement and start your journey in our studio and with us!

Welcome to our next 10 years as a studio! This is a Anniversary Year! We are very excited and can’t wait to share it all with you!

We are moving forward, out of Pandemic lockdown, still with 33% capacity - but - still here, open, moving, breathing, teaching, and we hope you’ll join us, enjoy and be part of our journey to our New Normal and Beyond, as much as we do.

Welcome in! See you soon!

Take good care and Be Well,

Maria Holm