Rolf Rhythms

[:en]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some “the Rolf yoga.”

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call “the little dance” which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:de]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:fr]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:es]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:ja]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:it]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:pb]Early on, Rolfing® Movement was taught primarily through a sequence of quiet, centering movements-including core breath, pelvic rock, psoas movements, arm and leg rotations-called by some "the Rolf yoga."

In 1980, Megan James 1 and I and some of the other Movement Teachers were concerned that there were people who were simply not attracted to such a quiet meditative sequence. We wanted a practice that would appeal to more active people as well. So Rolf Rhythms was born.

Megan and I had a load of fun creating it. Lots of laughter. The fun element has always been a part of it for me, remembering the laughter, creativity, and sharing we had. Later, other teachers, primarily Gael Ohlgren and Jane Harrington, brought in variations and additions. We presented the whole thing at the Annual Meeting in the annex of the old Rolf Institute at 301 Pearl Street I think it was 1980. The room was full of Rolfers, puffing and grunting, laughing and complaining.

For a number of years several of us Movement Teachers gave Rolf Rhythms classes for our clients, each creating our own version. Then it just died out. I haven’t taught a class for a long time and don’t know of other teachers doing it. Receiving this invitation to write about Rolf Rhythms has inspired me to offer it again. I always enjoyed it and also found it was very effective in passing on the basic principles of Rolfing.

Rolf Rhythms embodies some of the principles of exercise that we considered important: first, that it be something clients enjoy and want to do, not just something someone else, or their own inner tyrant, told them they had to do; second, that the form of exercise use the whole body in a balanced way; third, that the exercise be such as would increase, not override, awareness.

The sequence begins with a general free-form warm-up, using the voice along with the movement. We do stretching with yawning and groaning, shaking out each part of the body with shaking sounds, then going around and shaking different parts of our bodies at each other. Lots of laughter and interaction. We then move into a series of swinging movements, which are both relaxing and challenging in terms of coordination and balance. We do arm swings with knee bounces, and a variety of arm and body swings. Then leg and arm swings coordinated, with hopping on the supporting leg added. All of these in both sagittal and coronal planes.

We end the standing sequence with springing movements, beginning slowly with attention to balance of toe, ankle, and knee hinges, moving into rapid jumping, sometimes around the room to meet and bounce with each other, then back to controlled hinge movement.

The sitting and lying sequences focus on stretches, trunk and hip movements that educate the psoas, more swings, and wiggles to free up the pelvis and spine. We end up back on our feet, doing what we call "the little dance" which again focuses on coordinated hinge movement of the lower girdle.

Some quieter pieces of the Rolfing Movement sequence, such as core breathing, pelvic rock, arm and leg rotations, are included, but set in such a lively matrix that they are experienced as cool downs rather than one continuous body meditation. Psoas education and balance around the line are inherent in all that we do.

I would love to see this form revived, and will be available (I’m moving back to Boulder this summer) to help with that if anyone wants to play.

1 Megan James was one of the group of structural patterners, as we were then called, to develop the Rolfing Movement program in the late ’70s. She was passionate, inventive, outrageous and utterly devoted to Rolfing. She had her own truly unique point of view which regularly rattled my perspective and stopped me dead in my tracks, both challenging me and delighting me. She and I taught the first Rolf Movement training together in 1979. She died of AIDS in 1987. It was a great loss to us all.[:]Rolf Rhythms