The Gyrotron is a human-sized gyroscope. Three concentric rings move independently, letting the human user in the middle spin in any and all directions. Three bucks a ride.
It gives a total body work-out in three minutes. I climbed into the middle of the rings, where the assistant secured gravity boots around my ankles and a belt loosely around my waist. As I grabbed the bar arching above my head, he gave the outside ring a big swing.
If he'd kept pushing, I could have just gone along for the ride, which was fun enough - head over heels, cartwheels, heels over head, and all directions in between. Not a hint of motion sickness, either; that's because there's no fixed axis.
But by bending my knees, leaning back and pulling with my arms - like when standing up on a swing, trying to take it higher - I could influence speed and direction. Quickly I was using every muscle I could summon, and began to understand what 'total body work-out' meant. Stopping to adjust my position and thus my centre of gravity, I could work the lower or upper body more. Altogether I lasted no more than a couple of minutes, yet felt nicely invigorated. Two days later, I was still a little sore in my neck, shoulders, triceps, a back and legs. Not bad for 120 seconds' work.
Such human-powered gyroscopes, I learned, were developed in the 70s to help astronauts train in simulated weightlessness; they've also been used by fighter pilots to acclimatise to aerial manoeuvres.
All Star Entertainment rents the Gyrotron (tel Seattle 935 9640).
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