Why rolfing

That said it is true that Rolfing to some degree will be uncomfortable or painful for brief moments in most sessions for most people. You injure some place and it hurts afterwards more or less depending on what happened.

But in Rolfing any discomfort you may feel goes away immediately as soon as the Rolfer removes their pressure. The tissue has not been traumatized. It always feels to me that tension was leaving my body not being inflicted. The good news is that this rarely happens because I have exquisitely sensitive touch to the integrity of the connective tissue.

Skillful means involves applying enough pressure to get the maximum change without applying so much that the body recoils. Rolfing is an art as well as a science.

Experience counts. In the Dr. Ida Rolf Section I talk more about her genius-level original insights on this matter. In the More on Rolfing Section I explain more about the fundamentals of this work.

Except that these tissues are tough elastic fibrous gelatin. These tissues are a colloidal medium. When they get compressed and stretched or torn or whatever it holds that pattern as it heals. There is no mechanism in it if a sprained ankle now rolls in when walking to get it back to where it works better. The compensations will spread even wider through the body as the other leg takes up the extra stress and the torso rebalances itself.

So while it is useful to just work on a sprained ankle much more needs to be addressed for optimum recovery. This is why Dr. Rolf said:. Rolf's insight that the body is more at ease and functions most effectively when its structure is balanced in gravity.

Athletes , dancers, children, business professionals, and people from all walks of life have benefited from Rolfing SI. People seek Rolfing SI as a way to ease pain and chronic stress , and improve performance in their professional and daily activities. It's estimated that more than 1 million people have received Rolfing work.

Research has demonstrated that Rolfing SI creates a more efficient use of the muscles, allows the body to conserve energy, and creates more economical and refined patterns of movement.

Research also shows that Rolfing SI significantly reduces chronic stress and changes in the body structure. For example, a study showed that Rolfing SI significantly reduced the spinal curvature of subjects with lordosis sway back ; it also showed that Rolfing SI enhances neurological functioning. The term "Rolfing" is the nickname that many clients and practitioners give this work.

It is now a registered service mark in 38 countries. The injuries from the accident left me off balance until I discovered the benefits of Rolfing bodywork, and I've been winning ever since. It tackled some specific injuries that were restricting me from training for the '98 Olympics and got me back on track.

You can ice and rest, but no matter how slow you train, until you lengthen out the tightness and scarring, it will come back. When people asked me what I'd been doing, I said you won't believe it, but it was Rolfing bodywork. The first time I tried Rolfing bodywork the rejuvenating effects were incredible.

Since then I have been recommending Rolfing [SI] to others. It's great. Athletes tend to use the same muscles over and over. They get tighter and tighter and this has an effect on the muscles. We can stretch but not reach everything.

Rolfing [SI] helps me reach areas like the ribs, abdominals, upper body, and hips that are hard to get. Olympic Bronze Medal long jumper; and Ivan Lendl, former tennis champion.

Low back dysfunction is a common cause of pain and disability. Though its mechanism is often unclear, evidence suggests several factors as possible contributors, including unhealed soft tissue injury, pressure on nerves, chronic muscle tension or insufficient muscle tone, insufficient circulation and fluid movement, and even emotional stress and hostility. And, outcomes of treatment — be it medication, physical therapy, exercise, chiropractic or massage — are often unsatisfactory.

A Rolfer believes that many musculoskeletal problems can be mitigated or resolved by balancing the length and tone of soft tissues throughout the entire body. This view is crystallized in Dr. Rolf's admonition, "Where you think it is — it ain't"; in other words, the place where it hurts is not necessarily the source of the problem. A Rolfer evaluates the client's entire body structure, considering not only the low back as the locus of the symptoms, but also the quality of support available to the low back from the pelvis, hips, legs and feet, as well as the mobility of the body segments above.

Do the middle and upper back, shoulders, neck and head engage each other with well-coordinated grace? A Rolfer works with the connective tissue, which not only surrounds every muscle, joint and organ, but also functions as the body's organ of support, to balance the span and tone of the connective tissue network as a whole.

Though recipients of Rolfing Structural Integration often report mitigation of low back pain and dysfunction, scientific research concerning its effects is just beginning.

Several promising hypotheses of how the Rolfer's methods might alleviate chronic musculoskeletal pain merit investigation, including:. At this point in time, these are only theories. Good scientific research needs to be done before we know which of these effects, if any, actually do contribute to the alleviation of chronic pain. Any of these hypotheses might also account in part for the therapeutic effects of chiropractic, osteopathy, massage or acupuncture.

For men, the gesture is powerful, possibly confrontational; for women, the gesture has an additional, sexual component, potentially drawing attention to their breasts. So where does this leave us as Rolfers?

For us, the guiding principle is adaptability : can our clients move through a healthy range of motion; can they recognise, and adapt, their habitual movement patterns?

If hiding your breasts as a young woman helped you to avoid negative sexual attention, or if walking a certain way stopped you from being beaten up by the lads, your postural responses served you very well, and they can remain a part of your repertoire and your history, at the ready to serve you again whenever you need them.

We want you to be a better happier! Facebook Twitter RSS. The idea of deportment goes back to the 17th and 18th centuries.