The Curve -Top Table
Rolfing usually requires the use of a horizontal, padded surface that is somewhat wider than the usual massage table. Various positions (prone, supine, side-lying) enable the practitioner to gain anatomical access to the client. Each position has relative advantages, depending on the client’s structure and history. For example, the out come of Rolfing’s third session, […]
The Core’s Role as Causal in Structural Distortion
After attending the 1990 international conference in Boulder, what I have been suspecting for a few years was confirmed: namely, we are not succeeding in accomplishing one of Dr. Rolf’s primary tenant of Rolfing which holds that Rolfing should de-crease the compression of the lumbar spine, or at least arrest its compression as the individual […]
Tubes Rule OK
In the last issue of ROLF LINES, we looked at how our microstructure is comprised of three networks of interwoven cylinders. This time we shall keep the concepts of “three” and of “tubes”, but consider now our macrostructure. It is easy to see how the tubes got to #1 with a bullet as the preferred […]
Bodynamics and Rolfing
BH: How were you introduced to Bodynamics? RS: I happened to see a liver tilt- the Bodynamics training which mentioned some of their essential concepts psychomotoric development, resignation and ranges of tonicities from hyper to hypo that really grabbed me. BH: What’s the f raining like? RS: There are three levels of training: A one […]
The Biomechanics of the Thoracolumbar Fascia
Introduction In biomechanical terms, the cardinal process involved in lifting is the balancing of moments. Gravity acting on the trunk and any weight to be lifted exerts a forward bending moment on the trunk. To raise the trunk, and thereby the weight, this moment must be balanced and overcome by a backward bending moment, and […]
Re-Forming the Feet
Rolfing for me is a search for new models of reality. Such concepts are “true” if they work and when they allow me to approach the body in anew way which gives results in terms of the objectives of the basic Ten Sessions. They can be a supplement to what I have learned or, perhaps, […]
The Pelvic Floor
In preparing for this paper, I was disturbed by the manner in which traditional works of anatomy and physiology divide the body into different systems which are then studied and explored separately. In India I have seen temples which have grown up over the course of centuries. Originally built to protect and contain an innermost […]
How Does the Body Maintain Its Shape? – Part III
This is the third and final article in a series that answers a questions posed by Rolfers about the scientific basis of Rolfing. This question arose in 1983 correspondence between Steve Bankes and Siana Goodwin. Siana is helping us find productive ways of approaching the scientific literature. She asks, “Can we start our literature search […]
Rolfing by the Rules
In striving to gain another level of1 conceptual clarity around our understanding of the Rolfing “recipe”, I remembered a distinction used in philosophical ethics and realized it applies to our work. The distinction is between two kinds of rules: constitutive rules and rules of strategy. Consider any game such as checkers, five-card stud, and the […]
Which Way Is UP?
An understanding of the upright posture in man a requires knowing how man senses the vertical and then how he controls his body to avoid falling over. There are some useful concepts and reason-able explanations that scientists have developed to explain this ability. This essay will first consider the contributions from a number of sensory […]