Here’s a good article in the New York Times
about what high heel shoes do to women. Every woman given a pair of these shoes should get a Rolfers business Card.
Rolfing(R) Structural Integration
Here’s a good article in the New York Times
about what high heel shoes do to women. Every woman given a pair of these shoes should get a Rolfers business Card.
Research continues to point to how inflammation is the cause or a strong co-cause for most illness. The C-reactive protein test, which detects the undetected inflammation in your body, is the best indication of cardiovascular disease. It’s not the acute inflammation of an injury that is a concern. It is the chronic inflammation produces disease.
You can continue to treat the affect of the inflammation, or you can treat the cause. The cause is an irritant, which is stress to the body. It might be a repetitive motion injury, an allergen, a toxin or the psychological stress of life.
Along with inflammation, the body produces scar tissue, be it in the blood vessel or the fascia of your leg. You see it with that bad ankle sprain you had many years ago. First, it hurt like hell and swelled up. Today you are left with a thicker retinuculum, a band of fascia around the tendons above the ankle. Over time, full range of motion is restricted while making your ankle more vulnerable to strains.
Mark Hyman, MD wrote an excellent article explaining the role of inflammation in disease and what you can do to not only prevent disease, but stay young. He doesn’t address what Rolfing addresses, the soft tissue system. I would also add that all infection starts with inflammation. But after watching his video or reading his post you will better understanding how chronic irritation produces chronic inflammation leading to dis-ease.
As Rolfers, we help release the stressors of mis-alignment, movement maladaptation and the emotional stress stored in the soft tissue recreating more stress. A Rolfed body not only contains less stress, it is more adaptable to stress there by not being so “irritated.” Without constant irritation, there is not inflammation and scaring.
As Hyman says, deal with the cause. Don’t keep treating the symptoms with a litany of drugs.
How Rolfing is able to help kids and adults with their scoliosis.
How understanding the soft tissue and structure of the head and neck can lead to resolving chronic TMJ problems.
How many feet problems are caused by misalignment and tension of the lower leg.
How Rolfing improves performance through bring out the body’s natural abilities.
While I had my clinic in Scottsdale, AZ I treated many ultra-marathon runners and trail runners. These runners like others saw a huge improvement with their injuries and their performance. Walking and running are natural activities for our bodies. When performed with the help of gravity you move as if you are going downhill.
The elite runners in the study we did with ASU collaborated what my clients were experiencing. Rolfing fixes the problems, then enhances you ability to run naturally with more ease.
Certified Advance Rolfer from Boulder, Colorado Dave Sheldon wrote an excellent article on trail running for Trail Running Magazine. I highly recommend the article for any runner.
Our local newspaper publisher writes about his first session of Rolfing. He is a runner, check it out.
A lot of us believe that the secret to better skiing is better equipment. Let’s face it—the sport equipment companies are very convincing. So we spend hundreds of dollars getting top-of-the-line equipment, we dream of strapping it on and taking that great run.
But to ensure a great ski season, there’s one vital piece of equipment: your body. Even with all your state-of-art equipment, you need your body to be at its peak. Your body needs to be more than strong; it needs to be loose, aligned and relaxed to assure top performance. [Read more…]
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…]
There’s an 80% chance you will see your doc about back pain during your life. In the last article, you learned the distinction between acute and chronic back pain, and how to not cause either. And you learned that breathing is the key to preventing and healing back tension. This article will explore, in greater depths, what is behind chronic back pain and what you can do about it.
As a Rolfer, I tend to treat people after they tried everything else. This in not because other treatments are ineffective – it’s because the tension that is causing the persistent problem is old. After many years of repeated back problems, the entire body gets tighter and more distorted. The original problem might have been from a childhood injury. Over the years, the body has more stress, more injuries and more patterns of compensation that all add to increased tension. At some point, the body exhausts its ability to counteract the original strain pattern. Now you are worse off – you have the original tension plus years of coping with it.
The Often-Overlooked Source of Back Pain
We all know we get shorter as we age. But it’s not our bones shortening—it’s the soft tissue shortening and screwing down. Here is a quick test to evaluate what your low back is up against:
Stand up, and place your fingers on your pelvis.
Push in a little until you feel that lower twelve rib.
Optimally, you should have the space of three finger widths between your pelvis and your lower rib.
Rarely do I find that much space. Two finger widths is great, one is adequate. When you are at no space or having your ribs inside your pelvis, you have a problem.
This is where we lose most of our height. Our discs are like jelly donuts being space fillers between the vertebras allowing the spine to move. They become pancakes from this compression. When the discs compress and the tissue around them tighten, they dehydrate from lack of circulation and movement. This sets up the bulging or ruptured disc that may require surgery. This chronic tension and shortness just makes you more vulnerable to back injury and pain.
Strengthening your back will often give your short-term gain; you’ll have increased movement, and you may develop a new pattern of compensation. Over time, the soft tissue just gets tighter.
We need to go in the other direction. We need to release and lengthen the tissue. Unfortunately at this point, stretching does not work for most people. Stretching these muscles is like stretching a steel cable. We need to make the soft tissue soft again.
What Is Possible
If the body created soft tissue strain, it can usually un-create it. When the correct amount of pressure is applied to the right area, the tissue begins to release. Over time, hydration, subtleness and movement returns. The body begins to unwind as it lengthens out. The space in between the pelvis and the ribs returns.
Once the body attains a level of order and relaxation, the change becomes sustainable. All our bodies prefer pleasure to pain. When we are so used to pain, it can take a while for our bodies to trust that our backs can be as they were when we were younger.
Part of returning this vibrancy to our tissue comes from changing simple behaviors. The first is learning not to protect your back. The natural behavior of holding to avoid or reduce your back pain over time only makes your back tighter. I have seen people where their pain is long gone, the back is loose, but the person still protects out of habit. Noticing how subtlety we hold is huge. A lot of little holding all the time adds up to be significant. A lot of subtle letting go adds up also.
Rolfing is certainly not the only means to releasing chronic tension; it just may be quickest, though. Teaching the entire body to deeply and consistently relax can do a lot. As mentioned in the previous article, learning to breath and dealing with stress can significantly improve chronic pain.