Rolfing - Health and Fitness Alexandria Vigrinia

Health and Fitness Alexandria Vigrinia

Rolfing ®-Structural Integration is a specialized method of hands-on physical manipulation that can straighten posture, improve range of motion and release tense and tightened muscles.  It increases general vitality by progressively stretching and lengthening the soft tissues of the body, the myofascia, that surrounds the muscles throughout the body.  To align and organize the segments of the body, Rolfing systematically addresses the body's soft, connective tissue network. This connective tissue network, known as the myofascial system, is "the organ of structure" in the body.  Fascia is laid down along the lines of strain and both surrounds individual muscles and in place large areas. It supports the skeleton and soft tissues, positions the bones, determines the direction of muscle pulls and of movement, and gives the body its shape.

Structural Integration was developed by Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D.  As her work gained popularity in the 1960's, it came to be known as Rolfing, which is a trademarked term of The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (www.rolf.org), which she founded in 1971 in Boulder, CO.

 ROLF'S DISCOVERIES

 Ida Rolf earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University in the 1920's. During her scientific research, she made a fundamental discovery about the body: the network of connective tissue which contains and links the muscle system when it's healthy can be used to reshape and reorganize it when it's been pulled out of proper order. Every muscle is enveloped in connective tissue called fascia. Toward the end of each muscle, this fascia thickens into the straps we call tendons or ligaments, which work to bind muscle to muscle and muscle to bone. Some of us believe connective tissue might better be called the prima materia, the basic stuff of the body. Part of it evolves into bone, and the muscles actually develop as tissue tendrils growing out through the fascial network in the embryo.

 Dr. Rolf's discovery of the importance of the fascial system revolutionized thinking about the body. Instead of muscles, her students emphasize their covering, much as if, when looking at an orange, one emphasized the rind rather than the meat. The enwrapping fascia supports the muscles and holds muscle and bone combinations in place. However, it has one troublesome property: it can support whatever patterns of movement and posture the body adopts. The fascia can assist normal balanced movement and posture. However, when muscles are overloaded by the constant strain of off-balance movement, these connective tissues can take over some of the load by shortening and giving up their elasticity. In this way the body actually changes shape to reflect how it's ultimately being used. The good news is that the fascia can be restored to health with manipulation that by allows muscles and bones to return to their proper alignments and subsequently inducing proper motion through movement education.

 Dr. Rolf's discovery of the importance of the fascia was based upon another insight. She recognized that gravity has a special role in shaping the body. We have to balance our bodies and move against the pull of gravity. From birth to death, gravity is always present. As a result, deviations in the muscle-bone system are rarely local only. Gravity's influence spreads them throughout the body. If the natural balance of the body is disturbed–if it doesn't follow the best geometry of the skeleton–then the whole body will gradually change form to adapt to the deviation. For example, a child falls from a bicycle and injures a knee. To avoid pain and maintain stability, he or she tightens the muscles around that knee. Since the body must work against the pull of gravity, the entire muscle and fascial system gradually shifts to compensate for the initial change.  These compensations begin to ripple through the entire body.  Movement through the pelvis is influenced, as is the pattern of breathing and the set of the head. Because muscles alone cannot carry the additional tension, the fasciae shorten to support the new movement pattern, and, in time, the shape and function of the whole body alters with them.

 The human body can be looked at like a house. It's structured so that each part has its proper place, and each piece interlocks to balance the load of the others. As in a well built house whose every post and beam is in place, the well used (more than well built) body functions efficiently. Since gravity pulls down on everything, out-of-place body parts–beams out of alignment and unsupported by a post– are pulled into painfully unnatural positions. What a Rolfer seeks is a return to construction more in line with the original blueprint specifications.  Putting one out of place piece back into place is often not enough. The entire system should be realigned before a house can stand or a body can work smoothly.

 This kind of arrangement, in turn, produces what Dr. Rolf called "the gospel of Rolfing: when the body is working properly, the force of gravity can flow through it. Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself."