Over the last six months I have finally, and firmly, committed to yoga. I’ve enjoyed the switch from the sweaty and mean institution known as the gym to the sweatier but much more tranquil milieu found at the yoga studio.

Recently I’ve been hearing a lot about the newly opened Movemeant (850a Adelaide Street West) by fitness guru Matt Kenny, and the idea of a gravity class sounded intriguing. So, I decided to give it a spin (which is both funny and intentional as Movemeant doubles as a spinning studio). 

So what exactly is this gravity class? If you imagined a dance party-style workout where the trainer loops mega catchy tune “Gravity” by Canadian pop group Soul Decision as you reminisce about sexy spiked hairdos with frosted tips, you would be very wrong. Much as I was. 

In fact, the Gravity Training System is a full body strength workout that utilizes your own body weight. It consists of a singular machine with a glideboard on rails that have adjustable incline settings. There are currently five gravity machines at Movemeant, which results in an intimate class setting and lots of personal instruction by the mega fit kahuna himself, Mr. Kenny. 

I am happy to report that Matt was kind, despite being…vocal.  As he says, “I will ask you point blank: why are you here? It is my job to push you when you give me bullshit excuses like, ‘I am too tired.’  A lot of people say I am super hard on them, but I don’t see it that way—I always think, you pay me to be the enemy.  No matter what I say, it is always laced with love.”

He uses laymen explanations—not pretentious, scientific jargon—to explain what is happening in our bodies and which muscles are being targeted through each exercise. He also reminds us that “summer bodies are earned in the winter.” Fuck, he’s right, isn’t he?

As Matt says, “You don’t have to be the best to start, but you have to start to be the best. I know how terrifying it is to do something for the first time, and if you are not physically active to start, the fear is ten fold.”

We start with the upper body and variations of arm exercises. Then the lower body, with a combination of squats and twists that leave me with a slight tremble in the legs…in a good way. We then move on to several exercises that target the core.

To finish off, Matt instructs us to lie on our backs. “Excellent,” I think to myself, “I do some of my best work on my back.” What followed proved this statement to be totally inaccurate as we were made to do several variations of some rather dynamic sit-ups. Imagine a wet Chihuahua, sliding around in snow, wearing balloons for shoes. Then add a ponytail and subtract a tail. You get the idea…

“With over 200 excercises available on the Gravity GTS, the options are truly endless,” Matt summarizes. “It is a system that can work with every body type and every skill level.”

The calf muscle workout spoke to me in particular (strong calves prevent you from looking like an asshole while wearing heels).

One of my initial worries was my fractured tailbone (thank you Russian circus school instructor for letting a 10-year-old fall off of a trapeze suspended from the ceiling as you tended to your French manicured acrylic tips)—but wasn’t an issue at all. That’s what makes Gravity great: there are multiple ways to achieve the same fitness goals, plus a wide range of modifications.

“Ideally, you will achieve a long, lean, strong body,” says Matt. “Like pilates, a lot of the work will lengthen the body and strengthen the core. What is great about the Gravity system is that once your body has achieved a certain level of ability, we can start to increase the weight load so you will not plateau as easily as with other systems.“ 

This system must also be pretty foolproof, because if there’s a way to fuck up and hurt myself in a stupid incident—see circus mishap of 1996—I will. But even I managed to exit the shiny door without any bruising, of body or of ego. As Matt says, “you should leave filling spent, not obliterated.”

Besides being certified in Gravity, Matt is a spinning instructor, TRX instructor, and is certified in Restorative Yoga. He has spent the last 10 years “training different bodies,” but realizes that “throughout all of that, I spent a lot of time training myself. As I say in my classes, I train minds. You can take care of your body, but once I’ve strengthened the muscle between your ears, you can take care of the rest.”