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I had three workout sessions today; two Pilates hours––morning and afternoon, one with Mari, one with Alissandra–– and one hour of Gyrotonics.
Gyrotonics is. . . um . . . something like . . . um . . .I don't know what it is.*
It's done on apparatus that looks like this:

and like this:

My instructor was a man named Andy who was super-nice and funny and who used to be a singer and dancer in New York theater. He used all kinds of colorful imagery to try to get me to move my limbs and joints and muscles in very subtle and mysterious ways––things like painting the wall with my heels, and moving my torso like it was a block of wood, and something about a pipe cleaner that escapes me now. He was very, very nice and it all made sense at the time.

There was a lot of great stretching, and I'm sure my posture was much better during the hour.  It was interesting and fun, and now I've experienced Gyrotonics, though I'd be hard-pressed to explain any of it to anyone. (Hard-pressed is how I felt during a lot of it, too. Ha ha.)

*GYROTONIC^® methodology allows users to stretch and strengthen muscles, while simultaneously stimulating and strengthening connective tissues in and around the joints of the body. These exercises are synchronized with corresponding breathing patterns, thus enhancing aerobic and cardiovascular stimulation and promoting neuro-muscular rejuvenation.

I've definitely improved at some of the Pilates movements, even after just these three sessions. I can roll up consistently––the move I could just barely accomplish at home on my own––and I'm more flexible in many directions. I see a very clear benefit of having an instructor's one-on-one attention, and of using the equipment and not just doing the mat work. Mari says there's no reason I need to be sore as a result of doing Pilates, so that's good to know. Because I don't feel sore. I feel pretty good.

Ben and I spent a good deal of time in the car today, though, because we had to go back and forth to Santa Monica twice, in terrible traffic: Mari has just changed the location of her second studio, and she had a reception for the official opening tonight. We did our Pilates workouts with her there, then back to Beverly Hills to change, then back for the reception.




Now I'm going to throw some pictures at you, because I'm leading up to something for which I, SADLY, do not have a photograph:

Breakfast quesadilla

Mari's Santa Monica studio

The Cadillac in the Santa Monica studio

Random shot of L.A. from my hotel room balcony

And now––– ding ding ding––the jackpot:

As we waited for the elevator at the hotel before our drive to the reception, at around 5:30 pm, there at the other bank of elevators was Jon Hamm.

How did he look? Is that what you asked?
He looked very, very good.