Has anyone tried Rolfing? My wife is thinking about having it done. Rolfing is supposed to correct bad posture. The brochure says that any trauma you sustain to your back, whether major or minor, can cause the connective tissue to stick to itself and harden. Then the surrounding area then compensates. This causes back pain, bad posture, headaches, etc. Does anyone know more about it? Is it effective? What has been your experience. I would like to know if it works before she starts treatment. Thanks.
Isn’t it sort of like ART-lite? Read the interview with Dr. Leahy back in issue 63 of T-mag.
It sounds to me like it resembles A.R.T. That is why I’m asking about it. Does it work? Has anyone tried it, or know someone who has? I’m looking for people’s experience with it.
I am a Licensed Massage Therapist and would lkke to take a stab at your question. Rolfing is a very intense deep tissue massage technique, invented by Ida Rolf (hence the name). Over a period of time, it can have a great effect on a person’s posture and overall body balance. Some folks have a little trouble with it at first, as it can be very intense and a single session will net mucc. However over a period of time the technique can loosen the deep structural muscles and allow them to readapt to a new chosen posture. It is a very deep level of work, but take time to get the exterior muscle layers used to and allow for the deep work. A person would only tear and bruise muscle tissue, if you try to get at the deep structural muscles all at once.
Hope this helps,
Rob
Thanks Rob. The woman (Rolfer) said that it usually takes about 10 treatments to correct the problems and individual might have. She said that you would do one treatment a month. I’m assuming that is to give the body time to heal from the treatment and make the subsequent treatments effective. Can you give me any information as to Rolfings effectiveness?
Rolfing in the hands of a trained provider can be effective. However, I feel it is not as specific as ART. It all depends on what your problem is. I’m a trained ART provider, and have found some people have problems in multiple areas. In a case like this, some rolfing might prove helpful at the start. I just love having to work on a person with a gazillion adhesions. Most of these types have some longterm problems.
However, I don’t feel it’s as specific as ART. It all depends on what’s going on with the patient. I’d personally prefer ART. This is from a guy who’s tried it all.
Rolfing is about horizontally aligning the joints. The ear travels through the shoulder, the shoulder through the hip, the hip through the knee and the knee just slightly in front of the ankle. Rolfing is performed over ten sessions then the person is requested to discontinue treatment for up to a year in some cases. The posture is re-evaluated at this point as the body has had the time to adapt to the changes from the work.
I like the philosophy of Rolfing, the body must be treated as a whole in order for balance in all musculature to take place. Keep in mind that the Rolfer is working with the outer Myofascial system and will follow a series of treatments. Therefore it is likley that the neck may only be treated once in the series.
If your wife is obese I would not consider Rolfing. It is very difficult to work the obese effectively and since the goal is balance all that extra weight does not contribute to the goal.
I would have a thorough assessment from someone well trained in joint Range of Motion and then present those restrictions to a Well trained Muscle Therapist or Active Release Provider. The ART helps in re-educating the muscle to work normally during treatment too.
Invest time is a stretching program too.
I am an ART provider as well as certified in Structural
Integration(or Rolfing),the best results that I’ve seen clients
achieve are a combination of soft tissue work(ART,S.I.,etc.)
in conjunction with Paul Cheks corrective exercise.As
irondoc says it really depends on the particular situation.
S.I.is typically a ten session series but you can pretty well
figure out by about three sessions how its working out for
you.As with ART the skill level of practitioners is
varied.When I need work my first choice is ART.