Rolfing

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live” –Jim Rohn

Rolfing

I decided to try a type of bodywork called Rolfing. Rolfing works to loosen and balance the layers of connective tissue called fascia. Fascia is like a web of connective tissue running throughout your body that supports and forms muscles. The connective tissue can become shortened, glued or splinted due to accidents, injury and stress.


When I had arrived I met Brooke, a young rolfer who decided her career path after her rolfer saved her from TMJ (Temporomandibular joint disorder). Brooke began by watching me walk across the room. She then had me change into my bra and underwear and sit on the massage table. She looked at my back and neck. After listening to my symptoms and asking me what I wanted out of the session she began to work on my mess of a body.


I pictured a cord of tangled phone wires being unraveled as she ran her fingers down the length of my arm. She used her elbow and forearm to press down and work out the tightness in my hips and thighs. Then she walked around the table and began the same technique on the other side. After a few minutes my body began to feel lighter. She worked my entire top half before moving to my ankles and feet. Rolfers believe that everything is connected, so they believe in treating the whole body instead of working on parts of the body in isolation. When one part of our body is weak, another body part will compensate and do more work then it should, resulting in pain.


I began to notice the posture of those around me. Walking down the street I saw a man and realized his knees were in external rotation. When we were waiting in the checkout line I told my boyfriend he was standing wrong. I saw rounded shoulders, forward heads and uneven hips all around me. Brooke calls this the “curse of Rolfing” because once you become more self aware of your posture you start noticing posture problems in others.

Brooke always starts and ends by working on my neck. She loosens up the back of my neck, the sides of my neck and the area right above my chest. Each session, however, has a different focus. This is called the “rolfing ten series”, a framework that rolfers often follow.

The first session focuses on improving breathing by working mainly on the arms, ribcage and diaphragm. “No pain, no gain” I repeated to myself as Brooke pressed her fingers down hard and pulled them across my leg. She moved slowly and watched my face for a reaction to the pressure. I could feel slight tingling sensation under my skin. As she continued I began to feel a strange feeling of relaxation sweep over me.


When I got home from my first appointment I felt sore, like I had ran several miles. Brooke told me it was normal to feel that way for about 24 hours after my appointment.

The second session involves the feet and lower leg. Brooke took the bottom of my foot into her hand and worked her thumbs up it. She then moved up the leg; the ankle, the shin, the knee and the thigh.

Brooke gave me lots of pointers to help me feel good between sessions. She taught me that when sitting the most important thing to do would be to sit all the way back in my chair, on my sit bones.

She taught me that when lifting I should stick my butt way out. That way my neck muscles aren’t doing the work my lower body should be doing. She said even if it looks funny it will make lifting much less painful and she was right.

She told me after a long day in front of the computer I could stretch by placing one hand flat against the wall and leaning my neck to the opposite side. I felt the stretch from my fingertips to the top of my shoulder.


The third session focuses on the head, shoulders and hips and understanding how they relate. At the end of the session she had me sit on the edge of the table, feet flat on the floor and looked at my back. She had me arch my back and press on my sit bones lightly. She then had me return to neutral and felt my back again, looking for any changes.


I felt good for about three days after the session, then my pain returned. How do we measure “getting better”? Sure, the absence of pain is one way. Can it be a longer span of time each day before the pain comes back; instead of getting pain at 5 pm it comes at 8 pm? It is being able to do certain activities without pain- lifting a box or taking a jog? Or perhaps it is simply having pain that is less severe than before. I decided all of these things are signs we are getting “better”. Brooke told me that each week I should gradually be seeing a longer period of feeling well after each session.

The fourth session focuses on the bottom of the pelvis, top of the head and deep tissue of the legs. Brooke worked up my muscular thighs to the side of my hips. When her hands approached my hips I cringed; I was in extreme pain. Brooke explained that sometimes clients are surprised when they find out where their true problem areas lie. I was shocked to learn that many shoulder and neck problems are caused by a lack of support from lower body parts. If you are not properly supported from underneath, the shoulder and neck must take on responsibility for supporting the head. When she lifted her fingers off my skin I felt a release, like she had just given my tight muscles permission to relax.

She had me turn over onto my stomach. She moved her fingers in a line from the bottom of my butt cheek to right before the knee cap. I felt a light burning sensation under my skin. She worked slowly and asked me often if the pressure was manageable. I stood up. I felt like a 10 pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders-literally.

Spring came and I pulled out my metallic wedges. At the end of the day the ball of my right foot began to hurt. I suddenly felt guilty for putting fashion above ergonomics- was I harming my body simply by my fashion choices?

The next day I noticed that my left hip felt sore, along with the pain in my right foot. I immediately noticed the connection; because my hip was not functioning properly I was putting more pressure down on my right leg and therefore my right foot.


In the fifth session Brooke worked on my abdominal muscles for the first time. It felt almost like a tickle. She pressed her elbow into my hip and put her weight down.

I felt much better after this session as if Brooke had put my hips back into place. I did notice however, that my knees would seem to lock up. My knee was trying to tell me something- but what? Often we don’t listen to the sounds our body gives us until it is too late. I did some research and found out that this could mean there is a misalignment of the bones and muscles around the knee. I paid careful attention to the way, trying to stop my habit of turning my right foot out and the pain seemed to go away.

Session six was done almost entirely with me on my stomach, focusing on my legs, pelvis and lower back. Brooke put her elbow on the left side of my lower back and put her weight down. She then did the same thing on my butt cheeks. This, surprisingly, was the more painful spot.

After the session I sat up and turned my neck left to right, up and down and was amazed how my range of motion was increased.

One day sitting up reading at night, I realized that I had gone five days in a row with barely any pain and no nightly migraines. What did this mean? It meant I could sit up and read a book, watch T.V. or movies or sit at the computer as long as I wanted without having to stop what I was doing because the pain was unbearable. I felt like when I went away for my first semester of college- I had sudden freedom; freedom from pain and freedom to do the things I wanted, as long as I wanted. I suddenly felt like there were more hours in the day. It was no longer a race to get done as much as I could before the debilitating pain hit.

Session seven’s focus is on the head and neck. Brooke worked her way up my arm, all around my shoulder and up my neck. She slipped on some rubber gloves and began to do work in my mouth, moving her fingers along my top gums and my bottom gums. She explained to me that head and neck problems are often connected to problems with the jaw muscles. She moved her thumbs across the edge of my face making her way to the back of my head and down my skull.

Session eight focused on the top and bottom of the spine. Brooke worked on my feet, ankles, calves, hips, hands, arms, neck, and head. I continued to feel better and prayed the good feeling would last.

Sessions nine and ten focused not on one particular thing but on incorporating all the work together. The day of my tenth session was bittersweet. I had found some comfort in going to rolfing each week and had come to be very comfortable with Brooke.

I began to go to the gym again. Now I had no excuse not to go. I pulled and pushed on the elliptical. I climbed on the Stairmaster. I moved my hips to the beat in Zumba class. I welcomed back the exhilarated feeling of completing a strenuous workout, a feeling I had not felt in about a year.

As I left an hour long session at the gym, sweat dripping off my overheated face, I realized something; that I was so blessed. I had a healthy body that I now appreciated more than ever.