The Gentry Notes on ‘Postural Integrity’
INTRODUCTION One of the features of being a Rolfing® Structural Integration student or practitioner is that you accumulate copies of various versions of the ‘Recipe’ – Ida Rolf’s ten- session basic Rolfing series – from different points in time and from different Rolfing instructors. Modern versions (let’s say mid-1960s onward) are all recognizable versions of […]
Fascia Insights – Brief Research Summary: Anti-inflammatory, Anti-fibrotic, and Pain-reducing Effects of Stretching Fascia
ABSTRACT This issue’s column summaries an influential sequence of publications in which Helene Langevin and her colleagues reported their findings from carefully conducted experiments with laboratory animals – that stretching connective tissues could have anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects, and could even reduce pain sensitivity. This suggests, but does not conclusively prove, that stretching fascia in […]
Rolfing® SI and Sports
Russell Stolzoff: Hi Brad! Thanks for taking the time to have this conversation. Let’s start with the study we did at Western Washington University, where we collaborated with researchers to see the effect of the Rolfing SI, particularly the Ten Series, on soccer players. We were both initially surprised with some of the results, […]
Alchemical Order: The Inherent Logic of the Ten Series
ABSTRACT Rolfing Structural Integration (SI) instructor Ray McCall explains the way sessions of the Ten Series interrelate in a harmonic fashion, giving the series an inherent order on many levels. When we bring this conceptualization into our practices, our work is enriched in many ways. Anne Hoff: Some years ago you mentioned to me the […]
Working with and Teaching the Ten Series
Q: In the Ten Series (the ten- session series or ‘Recipe’), Ida Rolf created both a pedagogy for Rolfing SI and a template for taking SI into clinical practice. Please share your thoughts on the Ten Series as both a practitioner and an instructor. Do you use the Series strictly? Do you adapt it? Are […]
Fascial Tissue Research in Sports Medicine
ABSTRACT The fascial system builds a three-dimensional continuum of soft, collagen-containing, loose and dense fibrous connective tissue that permeates the body and enables all body systems to operate in an integrated manner. Injuries to the fascial system cause a significant loss of performance in recreational exercise as well as high-performance sports, and could have a […]
The Gesture of Traumatic Response
Kristen Kuester The Web and Crossing Patterns As Rolfers we are trained to see the continuous web of myofascia like a knit garment that when pulled at the hem moves at the neck. About thirty years ago I remember a client whose shoe got caught in machinery which tugged at his leg until it […]
Perceptual Tensegrity
ABSTRACT Tensegrity has been used as a concept in structural integration (SI) going back to Ida Rolf, and elaborated further as we have benefitted from the paradigm shift from tensegrity to biotensegrity for living organisms. Bond discusses tensegrity and biotensegrity, then introduces the idea of ‘perceptual tensegrity’ as being present in our orientation to ground […]
A Significant but Unnoticed Stepping Stone in Fascia Research
Sometimes abrupt and other times imperceptible, science moves along an undetermined path towards clarity and perhaps a notion of truth. In March 2017, practically unnoticed even in the larger somatic community, some of the world’s foremost experts in the science of fascia attending the International CONNECT Conference in Ulm, Germany released a consensus statement […]
What Shapes a Life?
Tom Findley – medical doctor, research scientist, and Rolfer – is interviewed by Jason DeFilippis about his biography and his work with structural integration (SI) and fascia research. [Editor’s Note: A prior interview with Findley covered his history as a Rolfer, his work with the Veterans’ Administration, his fascia research, and his founding of the […]