My first experience with rolfing

[clevermanka]

Rolfing is pretty intense. And awesome. Risa is awesome, too. She spent a long time explaining the process and the theory of the 10-series and reassured me that I shouldn't try to breathe through any discomfort. Forcing one's muscles to relax during treatment isn't beneficial. It's better to just ask for less pressure and let your body adjust to the level it's comfortable with. But that didn't make it any less intense. At one point she was pressing on my hip joint while I was lying on my side and I swear my bones felt like they were made of plastic. I could feel my whole pelvis shifting around! Pretty cool. Risa said I have a noticeable imbalance between right and left, which isn't surprising. Kiva my wonderful acupuncturist works on balance stuff at least every other session. Apparently I'm a very imbalanced person in all manner of ways.

At yesterday's session we worked on: hips, ribs, shoulders, upper chest, neck, back, and breathing. Lots and lots of breathing. Here are things I noticed after treatment:

I stand with more of my weight in my heels rather than forward on my toes, and my weight is more evenly distributed across the foot, rather than mainly on the inside of my foot.

My shoulder pain isn't gone, but it's lessened. The related neck stiffness is nearly gone, and I have a significantly larger range of motion turning my head side to side. What shoulder discomfort I do have is located mostly in the shoulder blade area, rather than running from the bottom of my skull down to my elbow.

I can breathe into the middle of my chest comfortably, instead of limiting my breathing to just my low belly. More oxygen = always a good thing.

During the acupuncture session immediately following the rolfing, Kiva mentioned how straight my center ab line was. "It's like a ruler!" She also mentioned that my belly looked really flat, which has nothing to do with rolfing, but I had to throw that in there because it was so fantastic to hear.

Afterward at yoga, I got into headstand pose easier than I ever have done. My shoulders were totally stable and I was able to relax into it a bit--a first! I held it for a long time and was able to play around with pulling my heels away from the wall a couple times. Coming down, I felt a definite twinge across the tops of my shoulders and had to hold Child Pose for longer than usual.

Shoulder stand was strong and straight. Gopi walked by and said "Beautiful" to me. Thumbs up!

I was energized when I got home from yoga. I made a baked chicken (well, tried anyway) and wound up staying up until almost midnight. I would've been very happy to go to bed earlier, but because I couldn't (near-total chicken fail), I was able to function despite the late hour. Usually I turn into a zombie by 10:00 or 10:30pm.

My hips and shoulders are popping like crazy. Not painful, just loud and often.

I scheduled my next several appointments for Thursday evenings. She was even able to get me in for my second treatment this Thursday, so I should be well on my way to musculoskeletal improvement by the time KCRF starts. Isn't that swell!

Comments

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

I first heard about Rolfing several years ago when former major league pitcher Craig Swan got certified as a Rolfing practitioner - this was probably in the mid-late 1980s, I think.