At the onset of Covid-19 and resulting gym closures, I was in the midst of writing the first in a series of books on my passion Gliding, an alternative technique that harnesses the natural locomotion of our everyday walking, running and overall mobility habits.
Had Covid-19 not occurred, I would never have had the chance or need to revisit the original 30-page outline, given to friend’s years earlier; of 20 points and descriptive paragraphs, general instruction and do’s and don’ts.
With the sudden demand for home workouts and the mounting frustrations around my delayed book, I realized that Corona Home Gym would be the perfect place to share my outline so that readers can begin Gliding right without having to wait for the release of the 80-page Intro Book and subsequent Series.
I was 22, living in London, where I attended my first Iyengar yoga class after which I flew out of the room feeling as though I had a new and improved body. I found myself in awe of the specific instructions which align and guide one to engage and feel the power of full-body muscle activation.
I began marvelling at the dynamic phenomena of the opening seated posture and quickly realized how much this one posture alone, could potentially deflect a lifetime of bodily crises whether a person attended yoga classes or not. Subsequently this eureka became the kindling spark which compelled me to dream of one day shouting these yoga-inspired foundational body basics to the world.
On a daily basis in the years that followed, I applied the two main guidelines from Iyengar’s Yoga Postures, Ocean Breathing and Shoulders Down. These are the first two Gliding Keys that help the body to function, so that we learn to ‘use our body instead of it (ab) using us’.
Unwittingly at the age of 40, as a result of my related studies I found myself critiquing my movement habits which allowed me to intuit additional pearls, which soon grew into a more complete list of Gliding Keys. Now I had not only the seated Yoga posture to bestow, but also a method for improving human ambulation. Now with Gliding I couldn’t keep all these gems to myself and that little spark that first urged me to share grew into a roaring blaze.
This initial Gliding experience interrupted a 10-year trial and error in the gym world. I was spending too much time getting ‘to, in and from the gym,’ over-training, over-bulking, in pain and exhausted. This new relaxed way of exercising was truly welcome and I imagined there must be many others like myself who might also need and want a more effective and easier way to work out.
At the time of this epiphany friends began commenting on the sudden sleek changes in my appearance, asking if I had been working out more than usual. My answer was, “less than ever.” Thanks to the interest of these friends, the first draft on Gliding emerged.
Presently, as in the past, many of us hold the belief that traditional training methods are to be aspired to, though injury often results.
All methods on Corona Home Gym may prove useful to those who find exercise difficult, tiring, boring or painful. Those who may be unnecessarily over exerting, breaking the body down, burning out, and risking injury on top of injury, may also find this information a useful mental and physical re-set.
I believe that Gliding can eradicate the source of everyday common aches and pains that plague our human body, by refining our poor ambulating habits which are often caused by abysmal neglect and misuse.
Instead of seeking out others to alleviate aches and pains Gliding serves partially as self-physio by helping us to define our own form and posture, which is hard to learn and even harder to teach.
This personally proven walking and running method can help Any Body get in and stay in shape. The realization of the effectiveness of Gliding and how drastically it improved the overall quality of my life confirmed what I had often read, that indeed ‘exercise is medicine,’ meaning the only way out of pain is through exercise.
For three years I reaped the benefits of this effortless exercise and to my disbelief I witnessed the emergence of an ‘inner athlete’ I never imagined existed within me.
Then an injury and the resulting long recovery process, foisted itself upon me, though very painful, it fortuitously provided me the opportunity to study first hand; the muscle chain, compensation and pain-relief through self-physio. The nature of the injury proved to be so de-balancing that it inadvertently led me beyond Gliding into a whole new world of ‘equalizing’ rather than exercising.
Committing my thoughts, revelations, research and restructured content to paper, though frustrating, has proven to be a true labour of love. With all this knowledge gained, the original 30-page manuscript grew into a voluminous unstructured draft and before long the simple seed of Gliding was lost.
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I told a friend that I’ve been mentally knitting the two sides of my body back together since my injury in 1997, and her response was, “you are an example of the body’s ability to regenerate itself.”
Thanks to Gliding I avoided ending up in a wheelchair and my weight has remained stable. I can attest to the fact that like a good wine and cheese, the human body can actually improve with age.
Here on Corona Home Gym is that original Gliding seed, BKS Iyengar’s Seated Yoga Posture, along with an amazing set of Floor Exercises given to me in 1993 by Glen Cunningham, founder of CORFIT. All of these are indeed the ultimate in Core Exercise.
