We all know the expression, ‘no pain, no gain’!  A client who did the original Rolfing 10-series and the advanced Rolfing 5 series now comes to me every 2 months or so for his’ tune-up’ session, as some call it.  When he first arrived at my office, he had stopped dancing (tango & California swing) and had stopped riding his mountain bike because his lower back was all seized up and he could hardly walk.  And he had tried many things; chiropractic, physical therapist, hot tub, stretching and yoga classes, etc.

He thought that you have to push and force to get something out of the workout (and many people do as well).  And in doing so, he caused his muscles to tighten up and shorten, and ultimately, shorten and twist the joint space, which equals movement problems.  This on top of whatever had happened to him when he was a boy, his acquired approach to life from him family and community, genetics, and his personality and so on.  When he came in originally, he was not only in pain, but scared that it might not get better.  In his early 60s, he still had to work and I could feel that this was a major concern for him.  And to top it all off, he had lost his activities for reducing his stress!

Yikes…

During the original sessions with him, I began to realize that he misunderstood about how Gravity affects our bodies.  Many of us do!  We have the erroneous belief that we are weight bearing or that we are to carry weight in our joints.  But to live this way will only bring pain and unhappiness because Gravity does not work this way nor is our body capable to doing this without negative structural changes over time.  We are designed to feel weightless in space, allowing our weight to transmit through our joints, into our knees and ankles, and through a relaxed foot into the earth.  The laws of physics are entirely different between machines and buildings than in our organism.  We are what could be called ‘tensional integrity’ or floating compressional members.  In other words, our bones are held in space by the continuous tension of the connective tissue of our body (a unitary system)- and ask any surgeon, bones do not touch one another.  If they did, you could not move well.

So this client began to realize that only with relaxation and more vertical posture could he keep himself from shortening up to the point where he lost mobility.  I remember the moment where he ‘got it’!  He blurted our excitedly, “No strain, no pain”!  From that moment on, he has not had a problem, though if he pushes too much, he does notice his tightness tendencies coming back- though never like before his ‘aha’ moment.  Gravity is the organizing force on Earth and if we do not know how to interact with it, we will eventually have mobility issues.  So Rolfing is an educational, hands-on modality to help release holdings in the body that are the result of our mis-understanding and mis-education.  This client has told many people about my work!

Osteopathy & yoga, among others!

Dr. Ida Rolf was seeking solutions to her son’s physical problems that the medical community could not provide.  She investigated homeopathy, osteopathy, yoga, and the movement schools of the early part of the 21st century, among others.  She knew that fascia went through a state shift when an energy source was introduced, and her motivation to help her son is what resulted in the Rolfing method of Structural Integration.

She learned that yoga is a science of maintaining length in the human body, as well as maintaining the opening of the joint system.  She saw that physical problems were ultimately joint and fascia problems, where the body contracts and shortens so that it twists the bones, negatively affecting joint mobility.  All movement happens through the joints.

Maintaining Your Rolfing Benefits…

Six months after receiving my Rolfing series, I noticed that my original patterns started creeping back in.  I had returned to my day-to-day life with all the same habits and patterns which had caused my body to lose its original balance and grace.  I was shortening again.  A voice therapist who I was working with saw what was beginning to happen and insisted that I go back to my Rolfer and ask for exercises that would help me maintain its benefits.  My Rolfer, Patrick Clough, said that he didn’t know any exercises but my friend, who had recommended Rolfing to me, recommended Psychoalisthenics^®.

I took the Psychocalisthenics Training in 1979, and results of the exercises combined very well with Rolfing benefits.  I have practiced them daily since I learned them.  I was certified to teach Psychocalisthenics in 1988, and have been teaching it to my clients, either privately or in small half-day classes ever since.

Without regular, scientific exercise and a balanced diet, you cannot expect to maintain Rolfing benefits, since we live such stressed lives. We need ways to release the accumulated stress on a daily basis.  Psychocalisthenics is a sequence of 23 movement and breathing exercises that activate the flow of vital energy through all muscle groups, organs, glands and tissues.

Psychocalisthenics is easy to learn. The entire series takes only sixteen minutes to complete and produces a flash of vital energy through the entire body. If you want further information about Psychocalisthenics, please contact me. You can also follow the link to the website (www.pcals.com).

© 2010 Oscar Ichazo. Psychocalisthenics is a registered trademark of Oscar Ichazo. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

© 2010 Rolf Institute. Rolfing is a registered trademark of the Rolf Institute. All rights reserved. Use with permission.

Rolfing, Excruciatingly Helpful

By AUSTIN CONSIDINE

Then there was a period where I started getting the serious bicycle riders.  One was a member of the US Postal Team.  They have there own tensional patterns, bikers do.  Where as the runners had it in their legs, the bicyclists had it in their hips and upper body, especially in the shoulder girdle.  Again, working with serious athletes is working for your money in many cases.

There was a long period where I attracted many ballet and Broadway dancers; these are incredible athletes.  It is like the Olympics really with the level of competition for work; you have to be at the top of your game at all times. They train very hard for years and because of repetitive motion, they often seek help for joint issues and for overall loosening and balancing of their body.

What I can say in general is that these operations, while they do a good job mostly to repair the problem, there is further need to work with someone who can both help to improve overall body mobility, but as well to help resolve the trauma from both the accident and the surgery.  This is where I can be of help as I have 25 years of working with joint injuries of all types. When we have an accident, there is often a residue of fear that is still held in the nervous system.  This trauma causes metabolic changes in the joint, and since all joints are part of one system, eventually all joints will take on some of the burden in order to keep you mobile.

Nurse practitioner…

I worked with a nurse who had had a bad accident a few years ago where she broke her wrists.  After healing from the injury, she discovered that the trauma had been taken into her shoulder joints from the impact, though the medical people had not noticed this.  When she came to me, she too was unaware that there was trauma in her body.  We worked with her to free up the ribs cage from the shoulders as much of the tissue had glued to the ribs which is a protective measure that the body produces.

Others have discovered trauma that they had forgotten about from past accidents while on my Rolfing table.  Trauma holds that memory of the fear that was experienced during the accident in the skeleton, and so my work addresses this directly and gently as well.

Shoulders; only one bony connection…

If you look at the nature of the shoulder girdle from above, you see that the only bony connection is at the sternum in front.  The rest is mostly soft tissue which is more suseptible to metabolic changes due to injury.  So these shoulder operations can use some reorganizing in order to improve mobility and function.

Bob comes to me because his wife insists on it; she is the one who found me, called me, and set up the appointment on his behalf.  He owns a company and business is very slow, on top of China taking allot of his business since they can do the work at a fraction of what he needs to charge.  If anyone has a fear of losing, Bob does.  He employs 30 plus individuals who depend on him for their livelihood and he is fully aware of it.  But he keeps thinking that the back pain will just go away as it did when he was younger and it keeps being there no matter how positive his thoughts are.  He is literally stuck.

And the way that he has always managed his stress is mountain biking, but he hasn’t been able to do it for a month or more.  So now he is in a double bind.  It will likely only get worse because stress and fear is key factor in Bob’s condition and the body responds to stress and fear by shortening.

Everyone experiences back pain…

Most everyone will have back pain at some point in their life.  But way less than one in ten people will ever get to the surgeons table for spinal surgery.  The Journal of the American Medical Association reported today that there are between 2002 and 2007, 35% more complex back surgeries were done although they may not have helped any more that low invasive surgeries to clean out metabolic debris (4/7/10) .  These surgeries are more complicated than the non-invasive surgeries, take hours longer to accomplish, and in some cases have lead to further complications, especially in older person situations.  Why do these surgeons do them; are they not reading the research, or is it business as usual?

From the Rolfers metabolic point of view of our organism, the lumber spine (lower back vertebrae) is directly behind the intestines.  With the case of someone with a poor diet, full of rich foods and inexpensive oils, sugars, and additives, over the course of a lifetime, the tissue in this area of the body can go degenerative changes, thus causing back problems caused by fibrosis.  And most us do not do the kind of exercise that will maintain the health of the joints in the body, and  of course, joints have ALL to do with mobility.  In other words, all movement happens through the joint or spaces between bones.

Fear of losing…

Psychologically, this area also has to do with issues of loss.  I see lots of middle aged men who hare having sudden back problems and they say it suddenly just came on.  But if I gently probe a bit, I discover that they either have a fear of losing their job, or position, a wife, their kids, financial security, or their your or even their life.  In ancient times when you wanted to make a person your slave, you whipped him/her in the lower back over time, and eventually, they felt like a ‘loser’. They had no motivation to escape but just do what they were told- they had given in psychologically.

So Rolfers hear from many folks of all ages, but especially over the age of 35, who hare needing help with back problems and in most cases, we can help elongate and reorganize the segments of their body  via connective tissue so that they are no longer ‘carrying’ their body around, but that the segments (head, shoulders, thorax, pelvis, legs) are more appropriately spaced and balanced, one over the other.  It is rare, though, that I will take someone who wants me to fix their back, but who understands that in balancing the entire system, their back with get fixed.

Standing straighter and with less pain…

Bob is amazed even after the first session that he is standing straighter and with less pain, although I did not directly work in his lower back.  He comes for a full series of 10 sessions and is feeling 20 years younger he tells me before we part at session number ten.  I make sure that I have taught him a few exercises that will keep his small back muscles conditioned and elastic.  And, with his wife’s support, he is changing his diet to less fast food and more close to nature, unprocessed foods that will not gum up his body again.

PS: When to Consider Surgery

In most cases, your physician will not consider operating unless conservative treatment options have failed, or have rendered themselves limited in effect. Usually, spinal surgery is reserved for situations in which you have a spinal nerve that is compressed, or a fracture in the spine that is extremely serious.  If the discs are bulging, they will not do spinal fusion with is a serious surgery and is a last effort when all else fails in my 26 years experience.

Tom tells me about Rolfing…

My actor friend Tom Sparber told me about Rolfing, and Patrick Clough.  He said to me, “David, singers love Rolfing”!  And I knew of Rolfing because at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where I was trained as an actor, I overheard my first year acting teacher Matt Chait telling some 2nd year repertory class actors about his experience of being Rolfed.  And I trusted Matt more than anyone (though not sure why I couldn’t let him know that).  So when Tom said this to me, I wanted to try it; Tom had me call Patrick that moment and I was on his Rolfing table that next morning at 7:30 AM!!  I was never the same after that.

I felt as though a straight jacket was being removed session by session.  I had no way of knowing that I was so repressed, inflexible, and frozen since it had always been like that.  Each session, Patrick would work on the border between pleasure and pain (never into it and I was always in charge) and in time I began to feel taller, more open, freer, more energy and energy flow, and my voice studies bloomed.  After my seventh Rolfing hour, I went over to the Ansonia Hotel at 73rd and Broadway from Patrick’s place, and what I experienced changed my understanding of singing FOREVER.

Margaret was teaching at the Guild Studios, run my Mina Bozza and her son Fausto, and in the worst room for acoustics.  This room had ugly shag carper and a low ceiling and I could never set that room off before.  It was like singing in a paper bag- dead!

This day was different! Mizzar began her sessions having us sitting at the piano and working very quietly doing what she called ‘line-up’.  She took you through a scale, but it was not that loud screeching stuff that everyone else does.  It was quiet, gentle, and it was mindful.  She would stop you as many times as she needed if your were not lined up- which meant that if you did anything other than natural speaking to produce the ‘oo’ scale, she would stay with you it until you found it.  She was a dedicated and brilliant teacher.

This day the entire room was responding to the ‘oo’ scale; it was like someone turned on a switch and the room was alive acoustically.  And I didn’t feel like I was ‘doing ‘ it; it was happening without any force or tension whatsoever.  I felt electronic.  Mizzar (Ms. R) told me six months later that she knew that day, that I was going to become a Rolfer and bring this knowledge back to the singing world.  She knew what had happened and so did I.  It was so simple and obvious.  We are an instrument and all we have to do is get out the the way, learn to set off that instrument like a cello or clarinet, and it, in relationship to the air molecules around it, does the rest. As she would say, “just flip the switch and the light goes on- it’s that simple”.

Certified Advanced Rolfer Working On-Site Helps to Reduce Problems Related to RSI

According to Larry Miller, Director of Human Resources at Starkey Laboratories, workers’ compensation costs were “going through the roof” when he introduced a new element into Starkey’s employee wellness program in 1992. The cost increases were due in large part to the growing number of repetitive stress injuries (RSI), including carpal tunnel syndrome.

That year he brought in Siana Goodwin, Certified Advanced Rolfer, to provide Rolfing on-site for employees with RSI symptoms. For the last six years, Sandra L. Jones, Certified Rolfer, has been the on-site Rolfer at Minnesota-based Starkey Laboratories (one of the world’s largest custom hearing aid manufacturers), with dramatic results:

• The year before the program began, 7 employees had carpal tunnel surgery.
  There have been no carpal tunnel surgeries at the Eden Prairie plant in the last 6 years. After receiving Rolfing, one employee who’d had surgery and was recommended for another never needed the second surgery. The cost of the Rolfing work was about $600; the cost of surgery would have been about $35,000!
• Starkey’s modification factor (a measure of risk that determines insurance
  premiums) dropped from .92 to .61, an incredibly low rate. The average national MOD factor is .95, with .85 considered highly desirable, especially in the injury-prone manufacturing sector.
• Starkey’s workers’ compensation costs decreased 92% in seven years.

Starkey has benefited in many other ways from their on-site Rolfing program, including reduced absenteeism and increased productivity. Furthermore, Starkey’s cost savings in areas such as turnover, unemployment costs, health insurance, training and productivity are estimated at about $2,500/employee/year.

Starkey recently purchased two other hearing aid companies and in 2005 built a new facility in Eden Prairie, increasing to 1300 the number of employees there with access to Rolfing. In 2005, Erin Herdina, Certified Rolfer, began to bring Rolfing to the 228 employees at the plant in Glencoe, MN. Also in 2005, Jon Martine, Certified Advanced Rolfer, brought Rolfing to Starkey’s plant in Colorado Springs, CO, where 27 employees receive Rolfing on a volunteer basis.

This program was recognized as one of the “best practices” by the Minnesota Quality Awards in 1996.

The hallmark of Rolfing Structural Integration is a standardized approach known as the Ten Series, the goal of which is to systematically balance and optimize both the structure (shape) and function (movement) of the entire body over the course of ten Rolfing sessions.

Each session focuses on freeing restrictions or holdings in a particular regions and through various relationships of major segments of the body. A practitioner also maintains a cpmprehensive view of the client’s entire system during each session, thus ensuring the transformational process evolves in a comfortable and harmonious way.

The Ten Series can be divided into three distinct units.  NB: Advanced Rolfers are likely not using this standard approach and are skilled in doing what is needed based on their present moment experience of what they see and feel is needed.

Sessions 1-3: Called the “sleeve” sessions, session 1-3 strive to loosen and balance surface layers of connective tissue. Specifically, the first session is devoted to enhancing the quality of breath with work on the arms, ribcage and diaphragm. The second session helps give the body a stable foundation by balancing the foot and muscles of the lower leg. The third session typically involves a “side view” for an understanding of how the head, shoulder girdle, and hips are positionaly related to one another when standing under the influence of gravity. Then, the body is addressed within the context of this new vision.
Sessions 4-7: Sessions 4-7 are referred to as “core” sessions and examine terrain found between the bottom of the pelvis and top of the head. The idea of core also includes the deep tissue of the legs for its role in support. Session four begins this journey, its territory extends from the inside arch of the foot and up the leg, to the bottom of the pelvis. The fifth session is concerned with balancing surface and deep abdominal muscles to the curve of the back. Session six seeks to enlist more support and moment from the legs, pelvis and lower back, while the seventh session turns its sole attention to the neck and head.
Session 8-10: “Integration” is emphasized throughout the remaining three sessions, as session 8-10 provide an opportunity for the practitioner to blend previously established advancements, and ones yet to be made, into the body in a way that encourages smooth movement and natural coordination. During sessions eight and nine, the practitioner is free to decide how best to achieve this integration, as the protocol is unique for each individual. The tenth and final session is also one of integration, but more importantly, serves to inspire a sense of order and balance. Once completed, the wisdom of the Rolfing Ten Series will drive and support the body with health for years to come. Source: Rolf Institute website