What is Rolfing and The Benefits For You?
What is Rolfing and can it benefit your body? Take a close look in a full length mirror. Examine yourself from the front and side, then take a little time to think about your posture and body alignment. Does your body appear straight and strong, or a little bent and hunched down?
Rolfing is a technique create by Ida Rolf to realign the body in order to optimize your movement within the gravitational field. Her basic idea is we all have an ideal posture and form of movement within gravity, which when disrupted leads to physical problems including backaches, headaches, physical stress, and general muscle pain.
The method Ida developed to correct these body issues has become known as Rolfing, and the practitioners are called Rolfers. Before you can understand what a Rolfer does during a session, you need to understand a little more about your body structure. Within your body is a connective tissue, or wrapping, which encase and connects muscles, organs, and skeletal tissue. It is called Fascia. The fascia is responsible for keeping everything in the proper place, and for correcting imbalance. The problem becomes when you have minor injuries, sustained bad posture, or just through the push and pull of gravity, your fascia can become displaced, thickened, or adhered in parts of your body.
When the fascia becomes out of balance, the body quickly follows. Your posture suffers, muscles move tightly, and you will feel more aches and pains. What is Rolfing’s job in fixing these problems?
A Rolfer works with their clients, usually in a series of ten sessions, through intensive assisted stretches, and deep penetrating massage techniques to loosen and separate the fascia. When the fascia begin to move smoothly against itself once again your posture improves, range of motion is restored, and you will begin to see a reduction in your daily aches and pains.
In the earlier years of Rolfing patients were often sore for a couple days after each session. Today Rolfers have refined their techniques and methods and the after treatment soreness is either not present, or greatly reduced. The effectiveness of the treatment remains, but the harshness of the treatment is no longer present.
You may be wondering why you will need ten sessions of Rolfing to see the best benefits. The Rolfer will work with varying parts of your body in different sessions, is part of the answer. The second factor has to do with the fascia itself. If you only have one or two sessions, the fascia will not maintain the new changes, and will quickly revert to the previous state. By using a series of sessions you lock down longer term benefits.
What is Rolfing going to do for you? It is going to give you a much better posture. Your body will feel like it is moving smoothly and effortlessly, instead of battling resistance. Instead of going to bed with aching muscles, and waking up stiff and sore, you will feel great all day long. Rolfing may not be for everyone, but for many people the benefits are very enjoyable.
