Whole-Body Integration

A Dancer Speaks of His Body, a Rolfer Interprets

Here is a beautiful video, "Body of a Dancer," a cinematic poem about Tim Persent, a South African dancer based in the Netherlands. While it is stunning to watch, there's so much wisdom in the words he shares, which I'll discuss through the lens of my experience as a Rolfer™ working daily with people and their bodies, their injuries, their pain, their posture, and their transformations.

Body of a Dancer from Daniel Gallenkamp N.S.C. on Vimeo.

I was struck by so many of the things Persent says about his relationship to his body. While I'm not a dancer, it parallels what I have learned from my own trajectory of embodiment, and from my work as a Rolfer with so many other bodies. Let's start with Persent's opening statement: "I am a dancer – my body is my instrument. I take good care of it. It has treated me well. I have been dancing for the past twenty-five years." There are so many key ideas here, I want to parse it out:

• "I am a dancer – my body is my instrument." For all of us, our bodies are instruments. Most basically, they are our vehicles through life, but more than that, they immediately express our presence, our energy, our emotions.
• "I take good care of it." How many people take good care of their bodies? And what does good care mean? To me, good care is more than just the right food, sleep, and exercise, good care is about a dialogue and relationship with your body. This is something that many people awake to only when their bodies fail them, when an injury or illness prevents "business as usual." But has the body failed them, or is it trying to say something? (More on the dialogue with the body coming below.)
• "It has treated me well."  This is an expression of gratitude, not rejection. How many of our statements about our bodies reflect appreciation and gratitude, rather than rejection and complaint? From so many of my Rolfing® Structural Integration clients I hear negative statements, things like"I hate my legs," "I don't like how I look," or "Because of this injury I can't do xyz." What if we instead spoke of our bodies in a relationship of appreciation? If you are in relationship with a person and only complain, how good will that relationship be? A relationship benefits from scrutiny, but also from efforts to improve it and to enhance the appreciative elements.
• "I have been dancing for the past twenty-five years." I would venture that part of the reason Persent has been dancing so long is that he has treated his body so well, and that has allowed him a long career.

After this opening statement, Persent describes how he warms up, and how he "asks" his fingers to relax. This is so important! When we ask our body something, and listen for a reply, we are in dialogue. If the body says something hurts, we listen and attend to it. If it says it's tired, we find ways to rest. If it says it wants to move, we allow that. If we try a new form of exercise, we ask the body how it feels, and modify the activity accordingly.

This type of feedback loop is the antithesis of the Nike slogan "Just do it," which encourages us to force ourselves and our bodies to do things along a one-way circuit without feedback. I see many clients who have injured themselves through this attitude, and who delay their recovery by continuing to "just do it" even though the bodies is saying "I can't run ten miles right now." Thankfully I also see many clients who are working with their bodies and dialoguing and learning what is uniquely right for each of them. For one Seattle Rolfing client, the Nike attitude and her friend's encouragement got her to sign up for a Boot Camp exercise program. Through the pain and muscle tension that were aggravated, her body told her to find a different form of exercise, at least for now, while her body was releasing old patterns through Rolfing sessions and learning how to regain length and flexibility.

Persent says he imagines his fingers to reach out so they become longer. Thus, even in stretching there's a gentle touch and an invitation to the body, through the mind, to expand. This is very different from an ethos of stretching that sees the body as a series of mechanical levers (bones) and muscles to be pulled on as if objects. In asking the body, imagining, and listening for a response, he is working with the mind-body as a unity, an embodied, intelligent presence. As Persent states, "By thinking an idea, something will happen to the body." Yoga and tai chi are wonderful body disciplines because they invite you into an idea (an asana, a form) with a mindfulness that works this mind-body loop, but mindfulness can be present in any activity, whether eliptical at the gym or a charge down the basketball court.

Persent also says, "Dancing is spirit made flesh: it physicalizes ideas, emotions, thoughts. That's why it is beautiful, powerful, and freeing." As a bodyworker, I see daily how many of us use out bodies to either contain and restrain our energies and emotions. The fascia, or connective tissue, that I work with as a Rolfer is the shrinkwrap that locks the muscles and bodies in physical constraints, and often those physical constraints involve a history of emotions, or injuries, of old self images. We could call this the "personal history made flesh." In freeing the fascia, we free those energies and emotions and make space for a new self image. In doing a Rolfing series, or any transformative bodywork, there is potential for every body to be more "spirit made flesh." This is a renewal, so it's also spirit and body made fresh.

While the average body, not trained for years in dance, will never be able to do many of the things Persent can do, we all have the potential to evolve to experience our bodies with the presence, consciousness, and embodiment he exemplifies. 

Rolfing® SI Helps NFL Players Stay in the Game

As we are in the football season, I thought I'd share some memories, thoughts, and resources for those interested in how Rolfing® Structural Integration can help professional athletes.

I personally am not a football fan. I've never tried to learn the rules of it, so I see large men clobbering each other to advance a few feet on the field, then everyone takes a break. I hear there's alot of strategy involved for those in the know that makes it compelling. While my interest in the game is minimal, I am nevertheless fascinated by the bodies.

Many years ago, when I was doing deep-tissue massage at a spa on Maui, I had the privilege of working on two NFL players. I say "privilege" because professional athletes' bodies are like fine-tuned sports cars, anatomy developed to a specific, driven purpose. One was a linebacker, and he was built like a tank. I knew enough about football to know that his job was to jump on the other guys. I worked around this gigantic muscular form for an hour, not getting much response but grunts. I was gratified later when one of the spa attendants told me, "I asked him how his massage was, and all he said was "Damn!" I figured that meant I'd made an impact. (I had a reputation for being able to go really deep.)

The other gentleman was a wide receiver (apparently that year's Heisman trophy winner). The body type couldn't have been more different. Again, fantastic muscular development, absolutely sculpted, but this guy was lithe like a ballet dancer. Not knowing about football, I had to ask him what a wide receiver did that he was not built with bulk, and he helped me to understand that his job was to run fast, not get jumped on, and catch the ball and run more. So bulk would not have been in his favor, but man he needed those glutes and leg muscles.

That's about the extent of my understanding of football and my experience working with pro players, but here's a video of a Rolfer™, Wayne Henningsgaard from Minnesota, who has made working with NFL players a niche element in his practice. It's old, but has some nice interview time wth Wayne and video of him working on some Vikings.

 

As Editor-in-Chief of Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute®, I knew Wayne's reputation in this area, and a few years ago I invited him and his wife Sandy (also a Rolfer) to write about their Rolfing work with NFL players for our publication. That article can be viewed here. It's quite an interesting read, about how they work with athletes in training, the time demands of working during the season, and a charming story about Sandy coming home one day to find three Vikings playing football in her backyard with a passel of eight-year-old boys (it must have made their day!).

The upshot is that Rolfing sessions can help any athlete with faster recovery from injuries that occur during training and play, and can prolong a career that depends on optimal functioning of the body. Likewise, for those who are not athletes but have careers that are physically demanding in other ways – like construction, supermarket stocking, massage therapy, long-distance trucking – Rolfing sessions could be a way to help you stay in your game.

 

 

 

 

 

Great Article on Fascia and Sports Injuries

What is behind sports injuries that won't quickly heal? Running Times Magazine published a great article on the rolf of fascia, and you can read it online here, including information on how Rolfing® Structural Integration can help with fascial injuries and problems.

The article starts with a great explanation of what fascia is, summed up in this quote from Rolfer™ Tom Myers: "While every anatomy [book] lists around 600 separate muscles, it is more accurate to say that there is one muscle poured into six hundred pockets of the fascial webbing." What this means is that any injury or stress to an individual muscle will affect the fascial webbing as a whole. Think of a snag in a knit fabric; it will be most gnarly in the area of the snag itself, but it will create a pull through the fabric that can distort the whole. Resolving the problem means fixing not only the area of the "snag" but also it's compensating patterns in other areas of the fascial net / body. 

The article goes on to explain that new research shows that fascia is not just wrapping, but tissue that can "contract, feel, and impact the way you move" - meaning that it can be negatively impacted by lack of activity, chronic stress, poor posture, injuries, and repetitive movements. While this is new news to mainstream healthcare and media, Rolfers have known this for years, and in my Seattle Rolfing® practice I see many athletes with fascial issues that can be helped, as well as many non-athletes whose fascia has become tight or imbalanced from other activities - like hunching over a computer for hours a day, carrying young children around, auto accidents, and the like.

The article mentions Rolfing in a section on fascial care. The things you can do on your own to maintain healthy, flexible, resilient fascia include staying hydrated, streching, and not pushing through injuries. Outside help includes movement education and seeing a "fascial specialist." I think it's fair to say that Rolfers were the first fascial specialists, as Ida Rolf was one of the first people to 1) credit fascia with its proper role in the body and to 2) develop work to lengthen, sculpt, and balance the fascia. Many other practitioners will be trained to work with a local injury, but not necessarily know how to work with the pattern as it extends through your whole body. (I wrote about that here in a blog post about how Rolfers work with fascia differently than massage therapists, but the same thinking applies also to Rolfing versus physical therapy.)

If you are interested to learn more about fascia and how Rolfing could help you, feel free to call me if you are in the Seattle area for a phone or office consult, or visit the Rolf Institute® website for a list of Certified Rolfers and Certified Advanced Rolfers in your area. Like some other Rolfers, I also practice visceral work, craniosacral work, and nerve work. While these use a lighter end of the touch spectrum, they are also fascial-based modalities as fascial strain patterns are behind visceral strain, cranial strain, and tethered nerves. 

All in all, Running Times Magazine has published a great article, well worth reading to understand more about your body and fascia in particular.

Therapies to Improve Neck Range of Motion

I very often see clients who complain of reduced range of motion (ROM) in the neck (cervical spine). Oftentimes, reduced neck ROM means neck pain as well, or headaches. I find that I can generally bring back good ROM using a combination of Rolfing® Structural Integration and craniosacral work. Sometimes visceral work is needed, or manual therapy for the nerves. Finding a body therapist trained in all of these modalities is your best bet, as they can address the problem whatever its source is.

What Causes Neck ROM Problems?

There are three key motions for the spine: forward- and backward-bending, side-bending, and rotation. Any of these can be reduced by

• an auto accident (especially whiplash), 
• sleeping in an uncomfortable position, 
• a bad fall, 
• habitually having your head turned one way (eg., your computer monitor is to your right), 
• holding the phone to your ear with a shoulder, 
• a forward-head posture, or 
• tight muscles. 

 

Think for a moment about a whiplash. Say you are rear-ended while stopped at a traffic signal and your head is turned right because you are saying something to your friend in the passenger seat. Not only are the muscles at the front and back of the neck stressed, because your head is turned, a side-to-side imbalance can also set in, making it more difficult to turn your head one way. 

What Kind of Treatment Helps?

Chiropractic work is excellent in these cases, as there is sometimes a vertebrae "out," but the issue may not fully resolve without soft-tissue work like Rolfing sessions, as it's an imbalance in the muscle/fascial tension on the vertebrae that holds them out of place. (This is why people often need less chiropractic care after they do Rolfing sessions: the newly balanced soft tissue allows the vertebrae to hold adjustments better.) 

More severe restrictions can involve the dural tube (the "stocking" of fascia that surrounds the spinal cord), which responds to craniosacral work. Sometimes the ligaments that suspend the pleura of the lungs are also involved, as they attach directly to the 7th cervical vertebra; in this case, I do visceral work as well.

I also encourage clients to consider acupuncture as it can be of great assistance. For ongoing maintenance, a yoga practice is excellent.

How Many Sessions Are Needed?

In minor cases, one session will usually fix a "kinked" neck. With a major injury, repeated sessions are often needed, but you should get some immediate relief from the first session and see incremental progress with each session. In Washington and many other states, auto insurance policies will pay for your care after an auto accident, as will worker's compensation in work injuries. I will bill these insurances directly, and so will many other Rolfers™.

With good treatment, you can recover neck ROM in most cases where the problem is musculoskeletal. Your neck will not be a flexible as the chicken in this video below (there's something unique to chicken anatomy), but it might feel this loose! 

 

Rolfing® Benefits Explained in my Radio Interview

 

I participated in a radio interview on alternative health in September, talking about Rolfing® Structural Integration specifically. It was a segment of a program called Voices of Diversity on KBCS 91.3 FM in Bellevue, WA. The host of the show, Sonya Green, was great and she had done her homework and asked intelligent questions that led to a good discussion about the benefits of Rolfing work for injuries (auto injuries, sports injuries), postural improvement, and emotional change and transformation. 

Go here if you'd like to listen to the archived recording of this show, then scroll down the page until you find the listing for the September 15, 2010 show on Alternative Medicine. The first guest is naturopath Nesreen Medina, and I'm the 2nd guest, from about 15 minutes in until the break at 30 min. [There's an audio problem with my first response (bad mike), then the rest is quite listenable.] Then from the 37 min mark til the end of the hour there's a discussion with Nesreen and me that covers more about Rolfing work and about complementary medicine.

 

Inflamed Nerves – A Missing Piece in Resolving Pain

In most bodywork trainings – whether Rolfing® Structural Integration or massage – you are taught to stay away from nerves as they are "compression sites." In recent years, however, we've gained an important new understanding of:

1) how nerves can become inflamed and then "tethered" on soft tissue,
2) how inflamed or tethered nerves can be the source of alot of people's pain, and
3) how to work gently with the fascia of the nerve sheaths to ease the inflamation and release tethering.

What is an inflamed nerve?  This simple metaphor (from Rolfer™ Mark Hutton) explains it beautifully: A happy nerve can roll and glide like a piece of dental floss as you stretch and move; an inflamed or tethered nerve is more like a pipe-cleaner that has a rough surface and will snag on tissue as you move, causing pain.

What causes inflamed nerves?  Nerves seem to become inflamed as a result of trauma (auto accidents, falls, blows, dislocations...) and repetitive motion (think carpal tunnel) especially, but I think staying too long in any one posture without counter-balancing stretching can have an impact (e.g., sitting at a desk 8-9 hours a day without moving around). 

How do you work with inflamed nerves?  The original manual therapy techniques for working with inflamed and tethered nerves came from French osteopath Jean-Pierre Barral, and from Australian PTs. In our Rolfing community, the work has been developed further by Don Hazen – who has some great articles on his website – and by Jon Martine, who first introduced me to this work a couple of years ago. (Hazen believes that inflamed nerves are behind most postural issues too, not just pain issues.) The basic technique is to first identify the inflamed nerve – to sensitive touch, if will feel like a guitar string surrounded by tight or ropey muscle. Then one gently feels for where it is tethered, and works both in to the tension (like you would in undoing a tight knot, the essence of "indirect" technique), as well as gently stretching the nerve sheath out of the tension. This work can be done very gently like craniosacral work, or it can have more fascial work and stretch added making it closer to Rolfing. I find that how I work depends on each client's body and how the tissue responds. 

In my Seattle Rolfing practice, I've seen how there are almost always inflamed nerves where the client says s/he has pain. This gentle nerve work, as well as more traditional Rolfing fascial work in the surrounding tissue, has been the missing link for many of my clients with chronic or acute pain. Luckily for our clients, the Rolfing community in general has shown great interest in learning manual therapy for the nerves, and because of this we published five articles on the topic in the June 2010 issue of Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute (I'm the Editor-in-Chief, so I helped influence that!). Some of these articles are available at The Ida P. Rolf Library of Structural Integration – do a search for the content "inflamed nerve." 

 

Rolfing® After Auto Accidents

Here's a nice Rolfing® article that discusses the use of Rolfing for pain relief after an auto accident. The article features my colleague Emily Gordon in Maryland, and talks about how three sessions of Rolfing are giving one of her clients relief from the constant pain he has been in since an auto accident some six years ago. I have also found this to be true with the many clients coming in to see me for Rolfing on auto and workers' compensation claims in the dozen-plus years I've been in practice  (first in Hawaii, now in Seattle). In most of the cases I've worked with, clients find that Rolfing® is what really gets them out of the woods, bringing relief that was not found through just chiropractic care, physical therapy, or massage – although these can be valuable components of a full treatment plan, as well as acupuncture.

When a client comes to my Rolfing practice after an auto accident, there are several things to consider. If the accident was recent, and the person is in significant pain, we have to see whether he responds best to direct Rolfing, or to indirect techniques that are very gentle. If the accident was particularly traumatic or shocking, or if the neck is highly guarded because of a whiplash, we may start with craniosacral work to drain some of the shock from the system. 

I also want to know how the person was hit, and how he was positioned at the time, as that - plus a visual analysis - tells me how the force vectors that entered the body may have impacted the myofascial, cranial, and organ systems. For example, if you were rear-ended while you were the driver, stopped at a traffic signal, with your seatbelt on and your right foot jammed on the brake, and your head turned to the right to say something to the person in the passenger seat, I know immediately that there may be a chain of compression up the right leg affecting the foot/ankle/knee/hip, and a whiplash effect with a right rotation in the musculature of the neck and torso as your body was propelled forward into and around the seatbelt. 

If a client has had many sessions of other treatment, including myofascial massage, it may be an indication that the cranial or visceral (organ) component of the accident was not addressed and will be the missing link. For example, whiplash can put strain around the suspensory ligaments of the pleura; in this case, even great myofascial work to the neck muscles will not bring a permanent fix until those ligaments are under less strain.

I'm passionate about helping people get out of suffering and back to their normal lives after auto and work accidents, and think that Rolfing® – combined with craniosacral and visceral work as needed – is the best form of manual therapy to deal with this intricate problem-solving. The silver lining to an auto accident is that insurance will usually fully cover the treatments if prescribed by a medical doctor or chiropractor. While some Rolfers™ will not bill your auto insurer or workers' compensation program directly, I have found that these agencies are usually easy to work with, and I am happy to do that so my clients have one less burden to deal with while they are recovering.