Dear Fellow Rolfers,

A few years ago, I wrote an article to Rolf Lines about my discovery that the superficial fascia was organized in “acustripes”, i.e. the area defined on the edges by the acupuncture meridians. I received some letters from Rolfers who were interested in applying this concept to their Rolfing.

In my own practice, I continue to explore ways to release tensions in the connective tissue in the acu-stripes. I search for even more effective techniques with my hands on applications as well as a deeper understanding of connective tissue organization in the human body.

About a year ago, Jim Oschmann published a monograph about the biophysical basis for the acupuncture meridians. I am writing this article as the first of a new series about some of my applications and insights based on the acupuncture model of connective tissue.

In December, my wife Trine and I had Dr. Jho from Nanking visit us for three days of private instruction in acupuncture. Dr. Jho is not only an acupuncturist, but has training in Western medicine. She is the director of a large acupuncture hospital. For more than a decade, Dr. Jho has taught and has been the administrative director of an acupuncture school in Nanking which teaches acupuncture to foreign students.

Watching her give individual sessions, I was surprised by how deeply she inserted her needles. Dr. Jho has a clearly defined direction for inserting the needles-the needles were not inserted straight down, perpendicularly from the skin surface. Each point has a specific direction for the insertion of the needle. As I thought about where the needles were going, it became clear to me that the acupuncture points had an interesting relationship to body structure, much deeper than the superficial fascia.

The acupuncture needles which she used were not only long, but they were also quite flexible. They were capable of “snaking” through the deeper connective tissue following the path of least resistance. Somehow, my imagination of an acupuncture needle had previously been colored by my experience with Western medical needles which are stiff and sharp and cut their way through whatever tissue lies in their path.

I discovered several years ago that the acu-points, on closer analysis, are palpable openings in the skin. You can feel an acupressure point, if the related connective tissue in the area is tense, but I cannot feel the acu-point if the related tissue is relaxed.

An acupuncture point in tense connective tissue feels like a small ice cream cone, wider at the surface and narrowing as it goes down. It is easy enough to find the proper angle from surface to deep through trial and error, using a light touch. In the wrong direction, you hit a resisting plate of tissue and cannot go deeper, but when you find the proper direction, the tissue opens and you can go deeper without resistance.

Just getting into the acu-point and holding still for 15 to 30 seconds, or twirling your finger back and forth, clockwise and counter-clockwise in the ice cream cone for 15 to 30 seconds is enough to release the tension in the acupoint and the surrounding tissue. As in cranio-sacral therapy, a light touch is preferable to using a Peter Built or Mack Truck (forceful) approach.

Following the directions of the ice cream cone from surface to deep in the proper angle of insertion of the needle, I found that in most cases they penetrate the muscular organization of the body where the margins of the two or more muscles cross each other and/or at the skeletal level, into critical joints of the body.

Ida Rolf left us an understanding of the possibility that muscles can become “glued” together. In my Rolfing class, Michael Salveson used the word “differentiation” to describe the goal of freeing up the muscles which had become glued together (rather than tearing the muscles apart from each other).

My experience is that it is difficult for me to unglue two muscles by ploughing through or pressing hard on to the top surface of one or both of the muscles. However, it is elegant, easy and effective to differentiate muscles from each other by going slowly, deeply with alight touch into an acu-point. By playing with the margins of the muscles where they cross each other with fine movements and sensitive fingers, I can actually get to the proper depth and into the edge of the layer of loose connective tissue which separates the two muscles. I can feel the physical resistance of the tissue, if there is a functional gluing. With clear intention, playfulness and the patience to wait the 15 to 30 seconds, a light touch at the right place is usually enough to loosen the entire sheet of connective tissue between the two adjacent, glued muscles.

Many of the acu-points are crucial for improving the integration of structure in the gravitational field.

<img src=’https://novo.pedroprado.com.br/imgs/1994/425-1.jpg’>

Bladder 11 is an important acu-point for Chinese medicine. Following it in depth, you come down along the edge of the spinal erector muscles towards the joint in the skeleton C7 and T1.

In terms of the thoracic outlet, B 11 is closely related to SI 13. SI 13 is on the inside margin of the levator scapula and moves in depth to the space between C7 and the first rib.

The anterior and medial scalene descend from the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae to the first rib. The posterior scalen connects the transverse processes of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae to the first and second ribs. The different levels of chronic tension in each of the six (three oh each side) scalene muscles is responsible for the positioning of the cervical vertebrae C2 – C7 in relationship to the first two ribs and the first two thoracic vertebrae (T1 – T2). Thus, getting in both between C7 and Ti and between the first and second ribs can do a lot to balance tension and integrate the structure of the thoracic in let.

My wife had broken two vertebrae, one in her neck and one in her thorax, fifteen years ago in an accident at work. She has been asking me for years to give her deep massage at these points. I felt her myofascia release again and again. I released the tension on the periostium. I’ could not understand why she continued to complain of discomfort deep at this acu-point.

As I explored my failure over the years to definitively release the tension at this acu point, I finally realized this point lies deeper than the periostium. B I 1 provides a;’ possibility of freeing the cervical-thoracic joint. There is a transverse connective tissue structure separating the vertebrae of the neck from the thoracic vertebrae.

There is an attempt to release this “diaphragm”, the thoracic inlet in Cranio-sacral Therapy TM by applying a light touch on the collar bone. After exploring the possibilities of working at B 11, I now believe that I can be much more effective freeing ing this diaphragm by including release from Bill. (Work on the clavicles does other things and I do not advocate changing the CST procedure for freeing the thoracic inlet in a cranio-sacral therapy session.)

?The skeletal elements of the thoracic inlet are the 7th cervical vertebrae and the first and second ribs. The scalene muscles connect the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae with the first or the second ribs.? (see image below)

I vividly remember Stacey Mills showing us some back work techniques which she likened to an umbrella. She held the skin and whatever tissue she could get her hands on, at several points just a bit lateral to the spinous process and called for movements of spinal flexion and extension. One of the places she grabbed was around C7 – T1.

I have had lots of Rolfers plough through the area of C7 – T1 with their elbows or knuckles passing on the way down to the important lower back, but in retrospect, they never had the necessary focus or spent enough time to do a good job there.

As the years passed, the area around my spine from C5 to T3 has become the “Achilles Heel” in my own structure; glued and out of line. In spite of many Rolfing sessions I received which certainly helped other important parts of my structure, this area was still “full of gunk”. As a result, the back of my neck was shortening and my head was slowly sinking forward of my shoulders, like the falling Tower of Pisa.

I tried everything I knew or could invent by way of stretching and isometric exercise. These exercises gave me flexibility and incredible range of movement of my head on my neck-the occiput and CI-3. I got Rolfing sessions and a fair amount of cranio-sacral therapy. Nothing got into the heart of the problem between C5 and T3. Nothing got in and gave me the length that my structure needed at the back of the neck and top of my chest.

I remember hearing of the sacro-lumbar joint, the lumbar-dorsal junction, the mid-thoracic hinge, and the atlo-occipital joint in Rolfing classes and 6-day workshops, but I do not remember ever hearing about the cervical thoracic junction or seeing ways to get in to free it. There are two possibilities: I might have been asleep, or it was not mentioned when I was around. At any rate, the structural blockages in my own body after all the Rolfing sessions I have received make me suspect that this cervical-thoracic junction is overlooked by many Rolfers.

<img src=’https://novo.pedroprado.com.br/imgs/1994/425-2.jpg’>

Following B 11 from the surface down to the joint between C7 and T1 and calling for movement has given me a powerful tool for integrating the structure of my clients. Having some body working friends press on B 11 on both sides while I move or working on myself (holding and moving) has considerably loosened my spine between C5 and T3. The back of my neck is lengthening. My body is moving visibly back on line. My movement looks more graceful and my body is feeling years younger.

For tracking movements, I presently ask my clients to roll their heads slowly forward until I feel the pull at the cervical-thoracic joint under my fingers. It comes up first on one side. As soon as I feel that, I ask them to rotate their head towards the side opposite to where I felt the pressure build up. I ask them to stop their rotation when I feel the tension increase under my fingers indicating tension in the rotational movement of the cervo thoracic joint. Then, as they hold the position for 15 to 30 seconds, I monitor with my finger tips, the process of their myofascial tension release.

Another acu-point which is fascinating from the perspective of integrating structures is Gall Bladder 30. Working this point allows me to free the skin from the muscles, as well as to work the margins of the gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, piriformis and the external rotators. These five muscles (or muscle groups) connect the femur to the ilia or the sacrum. The proper relationship of these four muscles to each other is crucial to reaching the primary goal of Rolfing, i.e., to horizontalize the pelvis.

Of course, as you work from surface to deep at G30, you will have to snake your way down through the bending tunnel in order to work the individual muscles. When you get down to the depth of each of these four muscles, you will do best to clearly change the direction of your intention and to slightly adjust the direction of the push from your finger tip.

Freeing the juncture of these four muscles, ungluing these four muscles from each other, and balancing the level of myofascial tension in each of these four muscles is crucial. It is my belief that people fall out of balance and lose their line because they lose the proper muscle tone to maintain the opposing balance between the psoas and the erector muscles. For most people who are off their line, the dynamic interplay between the psoas and the erectors no longer gives them the necessary support to hold their body erect in the gravitational field. In their conscious attempt to stabilize their body, people generally tense in one of these five muscles, i.e., the gluteus maximus, piriformis, external rotators, and gluteus medius, gluteus minimus.

Depending on which of the four muscles they use to compensate, they create a “body type” for that half of their body. By that I mean that when one of these muscles is dominant in chronic tension, it brings about or fits in with a whole pattern of muscle tensions on that side.

For example, if the external rotators are tight at G30, we get a typical ectomorph according to Sheldon’s classification. In the external rotator type, you will generally find a corresponding tightness in the posterior tibialis, quadratus lumborum, latissiums dorsi, posterior scalene, clavicular part of the pectoral major, rectus abdominus, occipitalis, posterior serratus inferior, pterigoid medialus, digastric, mentalis, opponens pol, etc. There will also be a tightness in the fascia in connection with the stomach, spleen, liver, bladder and small intestine.

People often have discomfort, severe pain, or acute structural problems if they get a secondary tension in one of the other three remaining muscles at G30. In other words, they get problems, if in addition to their original structural muscle tension, one of the other muscles, which fits to one of the other body types, is held in chronic tension. They get an overlay of tension that is not appropriate to their emotional or physical trauma, a compensation for structural disintegration other places, or from over-development of some muscles of the body through weight training or repetitious, monotonous use of the body over long periods of time.

When two of the muscles are tight at G30, my objective is to loosen the tension that has been overlaid on to the original body type. This can be done by working on the two muscles individually or by focusing on the loose connective tissue between the two muscles. Also, I reduce as much as possible, the tension in the muscle which fits to the typical pattern.

I hope that this article arouses your curiosity and whets your appetite so thatyou begin to explore the relationship between the ice cream cone shaped acu-points and the deeper muscular and skeletal structures. This model of connective tissue has given me many insights into structure and has generated many effective, specific strategies to help integrate the human structure in the field of gravity.

In my work with acustripes and acu-points, I have made many useful discoveries over the years, but my work is far from complete. There are 360 points, so there is enough for me to explore over the coming years.

Time permitting, I have an intention to write more about some of the points which I feel are of special interest to me in my Rolfing as well as to present some of my thinking about applying acustripes in relationship to Jim Oschmann’s writings, Rolfing and movement.