BOLDFACERS

Feeding the Soul

“Everything in moderation,” she says of her nutrition philosophy. If you love bread, she says, don’t deprive yourself. Have it before noon. If you love wine, indulge. Just don’t drink the entire bottle.

Posture at Work

“The body starts to get stiff around age 13,” says Kathy. To relieve stress and tension without ever leaving your cubicle, she says, try this: Sit up straight in your chair with both feet on the floor. Place your right hand on your right hip, your left hand on the inside of your left thigh. Turn and look over your right shoulder, winding your spine as though it’s traveling up a spiral staircase. Return to center. Repeat to the left.

Winding Down

And yet when she does rest, Kathy makes sure it counts. She admits a slight addiction to the Bella Provence Body Treatment at Bella Sante. “Owning a busy studio can prove to be a bit stressful,” she says. “But 90 minutes at Bella Sante always relaxes me.”

Bella Sante: The Spa on Newbury
38 Newbury Street
Boston
(617) 424-9930
www.bellasante.com

Fueling Up

When we say Kathy doesn’t stop, we mean it. A day of teaching and training can be as long as 13 hours. For assistance, she calls on Café L’Aroma. “The largest soy latte they have helps me survive!” she says.

85 Newbury Street
Boston
(617) 412-4001
www.laromacafe.com

BOLDVERTISEMENT: The Joint Whisperer

Keywords: Entrepreneur

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Kathy Van Patten reminds you, in only the very best way, of a sock monkey: wide-eyed, loose-limbed, a body swimming through space. Does that back of hers ever wake up stiff? Surely not: It’s not the sock monkey way.

She's been in motion her entire life, first as a ballet dancer and teacher at the esteemed Joffrey School, in New York, and now as owner of the Movement Center of Boston. In 1988, Kathy studied Pilates under grand mistress Romana Kryzanowska and brought the method to Boston. It was like moths to a flame: In her tiny Beacon Hill townhouse, she’d see up to 13 clients a day. But fitness types are always after the Next Big Thing, and in 1995 Kathy happened upon Gyrotonic, a resistance machine-based exercise method that draws from dance, martial arts, weight training, and Pilates to improve joint mobility, condition the nervous system, increase circulation and respiration—everything. The world suddenly made sense.

As the fastest growing exercise system in gyms right now, Gyrotonic would seem the New Next Big Thing, for real. Kathy describes it as the antidote to bad habits like sitting, driving, slaving to the desk; the counterbalance to, well, life. The anti-ager supreme. Two years ago, Kathy had a hip replacement, and barely skipped a beat. Now, she’s working on getting gyrokenesis—a mat-based form of Gyrotonic—into the Boston public schools. The younger you start, the theory goes, the younger you’ll stay.

Her sleek, newly renovated Newbury Street space is the first Gyrotonic studio in New England, and one of only ten specially-equipped studios in the United States. To Kathy, a Master Trainer, the body is a puzzle: She’ll recommend Pilates, Gyrotonic, or a combination, and then pair you with whichever of her 16 top-notch instructors you’d be best suited. Would-be instructors come from all over the country to train with her; everyday students include VIP's from the political and media arena, dancers from the New York City Ballet, as well as Olympic skaters, gymnasts, professional ballroom dancres, the recently injured, and gymphobes like herself.

And though your joints will be worked toward their supple, sock-monkey potential, working at the Movement Center is not just about the great changes you’ll see in the mirror (though you will), or in simple everyday actions like climbing out of bed (that, too). When you notice your golf swing suddenly improve, or your tennis elbow vanish for good, you’ll feel like the king of the jungle.

The Movement Center of Boston
38 Newbury Street
Boston
(617) 723-8090
www.movementcenterofboston.com

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