Did you know NFL players use Rolfing® Structural Integration to get themselves ready for game day? Wayne Henningsgaard is the Rolfer(tm) for several Minnesota Vikings.
Neck Pain – Healing it through Rolfing
Is your neck bothering you now? Is it stiff? Do you have a numb arm? Chronic headaches? If so, you’re in good company. Neck pain affects two-thirds of the population at some point in their lives1.
The Source
Virtually all neck pain starts from the soft tissue–the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia (the connective tissue that holds the muscles together). Soft tissue tightens and shortens after an injury, due to postural strain, or just from stress. Then soft tissue literally pulls the bones out of alignment. Eventually, it may even cause the cervical discs to deteriorate. This compression may ultimately impinge on a nerve, causing shooting pain down the arm or numbness.
The soft tissue pulling on the head often causes headaches. Every client I’ve seen who was suffering from headaches also had a tight neck. Inevitability, when the neck released, the headaches would disappear. [Read more…]
Rolfing® brings woman relief from rare disorder
From the article “Rolfing brings woman relief from disorder” in The Oklahoman on July 15, 2008:
Muscle spasms and pain have racked an Oklahoma City woman so severely that her friends have described her body as a human pretzel. After 14 years of searching, she’s finding promise in a relatively unknown muscle treatment.
I’ll ruin the surprise and tell you that the treatment is Rolfing® Structural Integration. Read the rest of the article for more of this woman’s story.
Rolfing® and Starkey Laboratories’ health care costs (Video)
In a previous post, I talked about Starkey Laboratories. Here’s the news story as covered by WCCO-TV.
Allergies and Asthma – a Rolfer’s Perspective
Respiratory disorders, such as allergies and asthma, can actually alter the body’s physical structure. In the case of respiratory difficulty, restricted breathing can create a misshapen rib cage. If breathing is difficult–or even scary–the body will distort around that stress, adapting by creating fascial adhesions, or scar tissue. Not taking full breaths creates the restricted structure, reinforcing the experience that breathing is difficult.
So how do we reverse this pattern?
First, you free the chronic structural and soft tissue pattern by releasing the chronic tension held in the body. Rolfing was specifically designed to remove the chronic tension held in the body’s soft tissue, and can reestablish the subtleness to allow the rib cage to move more freely.
Twenty years ago, I conducted a study on Rolfing with elite runners at Arizona State University. The biggest improvement they collectively experienced was increased vital capacity (the ability to take in more air). Even the world-class runners—including an Olympic marathon runner—experienced breathing improvements. Chronic allergy and asthma sufferers, after decades of breathing restrictions, usually see considerable improvement with Rolfing.
The other key factor with optimal breathing is to learn not to respond to stress in the old tension-producing manner.
When I had a clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, we operated a Mindfulness Stress Reduction program for hospitals and corporations. In the eight-week course, we often had students who experienced breathing problems. After a few weeks of teaching their mind and body to relax in the face of stress, the respiratory symptoms would decline. The core of the course was learning to feel, and then let what was occurring to occur. When we stop resisting our bodies, we stop tensing. For whatever reason, we learned to hold our breath when stressed; when we just let go and breathe, the stress seems to dissipate. When the tension of stress is gone, we breathe naturally.
The Frame of a House: Markus Roßmann’s explanation of Rolfing
A friend once asked me, “What is Rolfing anyway?”
“That’s actually really simple,” I said. “But to answer your question, I have to ask you a question. How important to you are your health, your sense of happiness, your sense of presence, and your sense of self-confidence?”
“Those are all important,” replied my friend. “Why?
“Well, how about your ability to concentrate and your sense of direction in life?”
“Yeah, those are important to me. So what?” [Read more…]
What does structural integration have to do with emotions? (this time with detail!)
People often wonder how structural integrators can claim to elicit emotional change. Structural integrators claim that a sense of well-being can result, that sometimes our work is more effective at getting through emotional blocks than talk-therapy, etc. etc. We make pretty bold claims for some people to believe, so let’s look at the science behind such claims, shall we? [Read more…]
Was ist Rolfing? (ein Gespräch mit Markus Roßmann)
Markus Roßmann aus Bayern hat eine schöne Erklärung über die Philosophie und Ziele des Rolfings gefasst:
Ein Freund fragte mich einmal: „ Was ist eigentlich Rolfing“?
„Das ist eigentlich ganz einfach“, sagte ich. „Aber dafür muss ich Dir eine Gegenfrage stellen. Wie wichtig sind Dir Gesundheit, Lebensfreude, Ausstrahlung und Selbstsicherheit“? „Das alles ist mir natürlich sehr wichtig“, antwortete mein Freund, „aber warum fragst Du das“, erwiderte er…
Um den Rest zu lesen, bitte besuchen Sie sein Blog bzw. Was ist Rolfing? – Gespräche Teil I
***An English translation of this content is also available on this site***