MOVE Trainer Mary stays healthy with GYROTONIC®

This week, we meet GYROTONIC® trainer and former client Mary Falcon. In retirement, Mary stays flexible, healthy, and mobile and supports her clients to do the same. She chats about her initial hesitancy to try GYROTONIC® which quickly transformed into an obsession, and shares some tidbits about her life.

Introduce yourself. What is your background? What brought you to MOVE?

My name is Mary Falcon. I have worked for the VA for much of my career, most recently in the field of patient safety. It was a rewarding career with the best mission in the world; serving those who served for us.

I came to MOVE as a client with my youngest daughter. We had taken Pilates at a studio across town but it wasn’t convenient after I moved to Dexter.  From the moment we first met Elaine and Robin and they shared their story about starting Move, we knew we found a good fit.

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

I’m not sure if people would be surprised that I have a 47-year old daughter, but it SHOCKS me.  

What about GYROTONIC® appeals to you? Why are you drawn to this movement system in particular?

When Robin suggested that my daughter and I try GYROTONIC®, I was a little hesitant.  I love Pilates and the way it helped strengthen and lengthen my body, so I was concerned about trying something new. I’m not very coordinated so it’s always a bit intimidating, but after the first GYROTONIC® session we were hooked! Sitting behind a desk for 40+ years, this form of movement was exactly what my body needed; it felt expansive and opening.  It was then that I knew “what I wanted to be when I grew up.” I wanted to be able to provide this movement to others in my age group who perhaps lived behind a desk as I did and were as limited in their movement as I was. So I became a GYROTONIC® instructor when I retired from the VA.

What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting GYROTONIC®?

I would suggest they just feel the movement and not get caught up in concepts at first because it all begins to make sense to the body after a couple of sessions.

What are you inspired by?

People and their stories.

What is your favorite exercise?  

The Arch and Curl Series with the handles in GYROTONIC®. It’s so opening.

Fun Stuff

What is your favorite food?  

Guacamole, but of course you need chips with that.

What is one conversation in history or now on which you’d like to eavesdrop?

Any of the conversations with our Founding Fathers. I’ve always been in awe of the minds that formed this nation.

Give us a recommendation. Can be anything.  

SMILE and of course MOVE.