Rolfing

The term "Rolfing" now refers to a method of bodywork and education originally called "Structural Integration." It is the product of fifty years of study and practice by Ida P. Rolf, Ph.D., and since her death in 1979, the many people she trained to carry on her work.

Fundamentally, Rolfing consists of some simple ideas about human structure:

(1) Most human beings are significantly out of alignment with gravity.

(2) We function better when we are lined up with the gravitational field of the earth.

(3) The human body is so plastic that its alignment can be brought into harmony with gravity at practically anytime of life.

Fascia

Dr. Rolf earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 1916. Somewhere in her scientific research she made a fundamental discovery about the body: the same network of connective tissue which contains and links the muscle system of the body when it's healthy can be used to reshape it when it has been pulled out of order. Each muscle and muscle fiber is enveloped in a connective tissue called fascia.

Toward the end of each muscle, this fascia thickens into straps we call tendons, which work to bind muscle to bone. In fact, this strange stuff we term 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 when looking at an orange, one emphasizes the rind rather than the meat. The enwrapping fascia supports the muscles and holds muscle and bone combinations in place.

Fascia has one troublesome property: it can support whatever patterns of movement and posture the body adopts. The fascia can aid normal balanced posture, or, when muscles are overloaded by the constant strain of off-balanced movement, these connective tissues may take over some of the load by shortening and giving up their elasticity; becoming more like scar tissue.

In this way the body actually changes shape to reflect how it's being used. Fortunately, the fascia can be restored to health by returning muscles and bones to their proper alignments and inducing proper movement. This is primarily due to the colloidal nature of fascia.

Gravity

Dr. Rolf's discovery of the importance of fascia was based on another insight. She recognized that gravity is the basic shaper of the body. We have to balance out bodies, somehow, against the pull of gravity.

From birth to death, gravity is always working on us. Because it is, deviations in the muscle-bone system are never merely local. 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 - 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, he or she tightens the muscles around that knee. Since the body must work against the tug of gravity, the entire muscle and fascial system gradually shifts to compensate for the original injury. Movement through the pelvis is influenced, as are the pattern of breathing and the set of the head. Because the muscles alone cannot carry the additional tension, the fasciae shorten to support the new movement, and, in time, the shape and function of the whole body alters with them.

The goal of the Rolfer and Aston-Patterner is to bring the body closer to its centerline of gravity so that fewer muscles are required for basic sitting and standing. "Posture" is no longer an immobile holding action, but a floating balance and ease. Optimal alignment varies from person to person, depending on their histories and true limitations. Although the basic Rolfing series is a ten-session progression that follows certain guidelines, it is adapted to the needs of the particular person.

Aston-Patterning

In the late 1960's, Dr. Rolf asked Judith Aston, who had a Masters in Fine Arts in dance and fine arts, and who was also a Rolfer, to develop a movement education program for the Rolf Institute. After graduating from UCLA, Judith had created a movement education program for dancers, athletes and actors. She understood and was teaching the physics of human movement and how to use this understanding to reduce strain and improve performance.

Recognizing her background, Dr. Rolf asked Judith to develop a movement program that would sustain and enhance the changes achieved in the Rolfing bodywork. These contributions to Rolfing were known as Rolf Aston Structural Patterning and were an integral part of the Rolfing training program.

Judith observed the body in relation to specific activities and to its immediate environment. She observed the way the body negotiates with the forces of gravity in relation to performing different tasks, and discovered ways of modifying body-use patterns that contribute to compression, pain and dysfunction.

Although the Rolfing model has since shifted somewhat, Judith developed a more three-dimensional, less linear, more dynamic paradigm of human structure. This paradigm honors a body's true asymmetries and nature's spiraling movement, which is the result of the constant interplay of gravity and ground reaction force. In 1977, Judith founded her own school. She trains approximately fifteen people every two years to be Aston-Patterning practitioners.

Aston-Patterning is an integrated system of movement education, bodywork, environmental evaluation (ergonomics) and fitness training applied to a client's unique patterns and needs. Some of the basic concepts of Aston-Patterning are:

(1) That all movement is a three-dimensional, ascending or descending asymmetrical spiral, due to the body's asymmetries and the play of gravity and ground reaction force.

(2) When we are moving from a starting place of our most optimal (neutral) alignment, our body maintains its appropriate dimensions and joint integrity. Movement is more efficient and easy. Optimal alignment is not static; there is a range of neutral that the body moves through when interacting with the gravity field. We are always moving even if only on a micro level.

(3) For any given activity, there is an optimal base of support from the legs while standing, and the pelvis while sitting. The width, depth and length of this base of support vary according to the task. This insures an adequate foundation for the body segments above, preventing strain or injury.

(4) Movement can behave like a wave that moves through the whole body; visibly traveling from one's base of support through all the joints, so that the whole body participates in every movement and no one body segment has to overwork. This is called cooperative movement and when this is happening movement becomes like a massage.

Rolfing and Aston-Patterning can influence personal development and emotional growth as these kinds of patterns are also reflected in our bodies. A more optimally aligned, well-moving body can make gravity its friend rather than a force to be constantly struggling against.

Photo of Ida Rolf courtesy of Ronald A. Thompson