Total Gym

Total Gym = Total Workout

This post was written by GRAVITY Instructor Suzanne Sweeney. She has 20 years experience in the fitness industry as a Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer and Pilates instructor.  She uses a holistic approach, considering health, fitness, nutrition and stress management to design workouts.  You can reach her at zenfit@gmail.com.

Hi there Total Gym enthusiasts! My name is Suzanne Sweeney, certified personal trainer,

Pilates and GRAVITY instructor. I started out my career as a gymnast turned dancer and fitness instructor. I have worked in the fitness industry for nearly 25 years. I currently reside in Auckland and visit my hometown near San Diego, California in the summer months (I fly north for the winter!).

In New Zealand, I teach GRAVITY Pilates and GRAVITY Group strength at our local leisure center. At home I use the Total Gym for myself and to train my clients. I use the Total Gym to help my clients reach their flexibility, strength and fitness goals. I teach with a “fusion” approach to exercise.

If I have a client that might benefit from Pilates or yoga based exercises one day and strength training the next, we can do it all on one machine! One does not have to go to the Pilates studio, then a maze of weight machines and cardio equipment in different rooms.

As a Pilates instructor, I am often working with a lot of clients that work at a desk all day and have very tight shoulders, hips and backs. The Total Gym helps me accommodate any level of flexibility or postural imbalance. As an example you might have tight hamstrings, hips or lower back and sitting on the floor or weight bench is not particularly comfortable. With these tight muscles you would certainly be compromising your posture and inefficiently working your target muscles.

On the Total Gym, you can simply raise the height of the glideboard for seated exercises facing forward. With the feet now lower than the level of the floor we are no longer struggling to sit in a nice upright position and can focus on good exercise technique.

I was first introduce to the Total Gym’s Gravity Training System in 2005 by a friend who was recruiting Pilates instructors to teach this new program called Gravity Pilates Evolved. I had no idea what I was going to experience, but one session and I was hooked. I immediately saw all of the possibilities. It was like having several pieces of Pilates and strength training equipment right in front of me (like a kid in a candy shop).

A couple years later my mom was having a knee replacement. Room space was a limitation so the Total Gym was a perfect solution. I loved the versatility and mobility of it so much that I bought 2 more for myself and my business.

I’m looking forward to hearing from the Total Gym users of the world and sharing some tips and tricks from my end.