Both modalities are great systems of training or rehabilitation for the body. Both systems lengthen and strengthen the body, focusing on eccentric muscle conditioning, muscle balancing, and integrating core and breathing patterns into the exercises. Both Pilates and Gyrotonic have mat work and specialized equipment training.

Pilates is a system of exercises developed by a man named Joseph H. Pilates. He died in the '60s, and there is a great deal of information about him and his legacy. His training system is about isolating movements while integrating them into an irradiated core system that includes the pelvis, spine, and core. It has its own Pilates breathing that goes along with each exercise. Pilates breathing basically creates intra-abdominal pressure and intra-thoracic pressure to stabilize the spine while performing exercises that help maintain this pressure or challenge it. Pilates exercises are a strict discipline created over 100 years ago, and they are a course of study that ranges from rehabilitation to advanced level exercises.

Gyrotonic is a movement modality created by Juliu Horvath. Juliu is alive today and maintains a rigorous training program in Germany. Gyrotonic has similar attributes to Pilates except that the core system moves rather than stabilizes. Exercises are more integrative, complex and take the body into planes of movement where Pilates doesn't go. The breath is very different than Pilates integrating several other disciplines based on the family of exercises.

Gyrotonic has its own specialized equipment, which is very different than Pilates equipment. Gyrotonic focuses on spirals, diagonal movement planes, deep extension, and flexion of joints. The exercises are challenging and complex, but they do have a beginning to an advanced formula that is strict for a reason.

Both disciplines are unique and produce beautiful results such as long, lean muscles, deep core strength, improved flexibility, and increased muscle definition without bulk. You become a more efficient calorie-burning machine. Tracy always says, "Pilates is like ballet, and Gyrotonic is like modern dance". I use both modalities for both injury rehabilitation and fitness, strength building, muscle balancing, mobility, and increased range of motion.

You will find more group classes in Pilates training than you will Gyrotonic because Pilates has been around longer, and the education is much easier than Gyrotonic. More recently, you see classes forming in Gyrokinesis yoga which is the yoga that goes along with Gyrotonic.

Gyrokinesis is different than Hatha yoga in that you are constantly moving. Exercises go from seated on a stool to standing, floor work, and focus on spinal articulation and full joint range of motion and strength.

Pilates mat work is about an hour-long in its original format. The exercises can go from beginning to advanced, but each exercise can be varied into any level of difficulty. The work creates a muscular, fit physique, and results are seen very quickly.

Aline Studios has been using these modalities to help our clients since we first opened in the 1990s. Most of our clients like to do everything rather than just focusing on one modality over the other. Since clients train for so many years at Aline Studios, they look forward to the workouts' change-up.

Tracy has about half of her business dedicated to helping people recover from injuries or illnesses. She uses both modalities to help people recover or prepare for surgeries, help women pre-postnatal, help people with chronic inflammatory diseases or specific joint problems like back, neck, hips, knees, and shoulders.

So you could train at several different studios to get everything that you get at Aline Studios. Every time you train, you learn a new exercise or a new way to approach training or healing your body.