Sound complicated? Hundreds of American manufacturing employees would beg to differ. This article is the first of a two-part look at Certified Advanced Roller Richard Rossiter’s connective tissue techniques and their use in organizational and therapeutic settings. This segment introduces you to the basics of Rossiter’s work and shares highlights from ten phone interviews of current Rossiter System trainers and users. In the next issue, we’ll take a more in-depth look at the tools themselves, exploring specific back pain techniques taught at the first four-day Rossiter workshop developed for Rolfers, held in Athens, Georgia, May 6-9, 2002.
BACKGROUND
Richard Rossiter has spent the last fifteen years developing and teaching connective tissue techniques that target repetitive motion pain, without harming the caregiver. Using his series of two-person stretches, companies and individuals learn to handle their own repetitive motion injuries, significantly reducing the need for outside intervention and medical procedures. Nissan, Goodyear, Campbell’s Soup, Sauder Woodworking, and Bunn-O-Matic, among others, have used his partner-stretches to reduce worker’s compensation costs, cut medical claims, and maintain employee function.
Through quarterly training visits, a website cataloguing video and descriptions of 120 techniques, and personal responses via email and phone, Richard Rossiter teaches on-site trainers to handle the physical challenges factory and office workers face every day. Amidst the extreme demands of the manufacturing environment, the Rossiter System consistently relieves carpal tunnel syndrome, elbow and wrist pain, knee palm foot pain, tension headaches, neck and shoulder pain, and chronic low back pain.
EMPIRICAL RESULTS
Usually within a year of introducing the Rossiter System, organizations significantly decrease the number of workers’ compensation claims, lost workdays, and overall compensation expense. The following statistics are the result of companies’ independent data collection and analyses.
Hollytex Carpet Mills, Inc. shows a typical trend (Figure 1). Before installing the program, the 500-employee company had over $550,000 claims dollars in workers’ compensation costs. After implementing the program, costs declined approximately 60% per year until leveling off at about $65,000. Prime Tanning Company, a leather tanner in St. Joseph, Missouri, recently used the Rossiter System to reduce its number of workers’ compensation cases by 70% (from 47 to 14) and total annual workers’ compensation expense by 96% (from $115,180 to $4,699) in two years.
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BHA Group, Inc., supplier of dust collection and related equipment, decreased the number of claims at a facility by 57% (21 to 9) with a net savings of approximately $198,665. Managers reported, “The primary reason for the reduction in the cost or severity between 2000 and 2001 claims can be directed toward the symptom reduction techniques provided through the Rossiter program. Costs of medical/ claim care for 2000 prior to Rossiter implementation are roughly 10-13 times those for 2001.”
United Technologies Automotive (Wauseon, Ohio facility) workers’ compensation costs, before the 1993 Rossiter implementation, were over $80,000. Costs dropped to $283 in the first year, and to $68 for the following year.
UNDERLYING THEORY
If there are two underlying principles in the World of Rossiter, they are probably these: 1) Pain is information; and 2) All repetitive stress injuries are directly linked to a loss of space in the body.
Most people who experience problems like carpal tunnel syndrome or constant shoulder pain say they quit moving that part of the body because it hurts so much. It tingles at night. It aches. Every movement produces soreness or tightness. Why? The body has lost the space or range of motion necessary for healthy, pain-free tissue.
A repetitive stress injury means an area’s connective tissue continues to shrink and shorten, perpetuating the cycle of reduced nourishment and restricted movement of the tissue. When connective tissue in one area is negatively affected, connective tissue elsewhere suffers by virtue of its connection. Thus, when people compensate for pain, it makes the entire pain situation even more complex because so many body parts, movements, and habits are involved. The Rossiter System is designed to lengthen connective tissue so pain goes away and free movement returns.”
Everything else relies upon the prerequisite of appropriate space,” says Rossiter. “When there isn’t enough space to move and function properly, tissue communicates this via stiffness, numbness, swelling, or pain. These symptoms remain until the body’s space requirements are satisfied.”
METHOD
The two-person stretching techniques are designed to loosen entire areas of connective tissue, restore mobility and circulation, and free movement. Very often, pain relief is immediate. A key to their effectiveness may lie in the gross approach of these tools. The stretches, performed as series called workouts, demand whole-body activity; extensive, repeated movement; and are refined based on client observation.
Rossiter teaches students to lengthen connective tissue with their feet, while clients lie, clothed, on a mat. In addition to providing body-friendly body mechanics, this unconventional approach provides practitioners with greater options for working challenging structures.
Successful workouts require significant body weight. The goal is to apply and accept weight slowly to handle as much as possible.
The techniques require two people:
-The PIC, or Person In Charge, is the person who needs relief from pain. This person is the boss-the only one who has the information needed to relieve pain. To change the connective tissue and remove pain, the PIC must work hard and consciously go after pain with the stretches.
-The Coach is a trainer/ facilitator who understands how to stretch connective tissue to relieve pain. Typically, the Coach stands and uses his or her foot to apply weight to various areas of the PIC’s body while the PIC performs a series of stretches. The Coach supplies a steady, reassuring stream of tips, instructions, advice and encouragement.
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DOES IT WORK?
Rossiter enthusiasts speak from direct personal experience. Helga Martinez is a fulltime Rossiter Trainer at the Racor Division of Parker-Hannifan, a filter manufacturer in Modesto, California. She suffered with hip pain for thirteen years after the birth of her daughter. “Doctors told me I pushed my daughter out wrong, and that the bone of one hip was pushed out sideways. They told me the only way they could fix it was surgery. So I always had a lot of pressure on my left side.” During a training, she told Richard Rossiter about the problem. “He said, ‘Okay, lie down,’ and pushed into the hip on the other side, it’s called a Hip Slide, and it was gone,” she says. “It never came back.”
Bill Clark, a project engineer and Rossiter Trainer at the Pneutronics Division of Parker Hannifin, New Hampshire, is a lifelong runner and competitive cross-country skier. “Last fall, I overdid a bunch of things one weekend and couldn’t come into work Monday because I was so stiff and sore,” he says. “I came in on Tuesday and we were supposed to coach Rossiter workouts but I couldn’t do a thing. I could hardly walk.” Clark decided to try a lower back workout for himself.”
I laid on the floor and another trainer used her foot to put weight on the outside of each of my thighs. I did some stretches and movements that were pretty damn painful… I yelled and screamed and hollered as I did it,” Clark says. “When I got down I was all bent over, all cock-eyed, when I got up, I was standing straight. I had, maybe, one percent of the pain that I had before I went down. This is after ten minutes of some simple stretches!”
Clark, who did a stint in medical school and who has explored alternative medical modalities for years to keep him up and running (literally), was amazed by the immediate results from the workout. He says, “I went from, ‘I don’t know when I’ll be able to run and bike and walk normally again,’ to going for a walk at lunchtime and running either that night or the next day. All I could think was, ‘I don’t believe this.'”
Rossiter stretches appear to be extremely effective for carpal tunnel syndrome. According to Dwayne Hess, maintenance clerk and Rossiter Trainer at Chicago Rawhide in Hobart, Oklahoma, “I haven’t heard of anything that we didn t help on carpal tunnel. It always gives relief for that.” Jerri Bowman, set-up mechanic and Rossitei Trainer at the same plant, says there were “quite a few people getting carpal tunnel” before the Rossiter System was implemented, including her mother. “She had the surgery” Bowman says. “This was right before they brought Rossiter in. But, if I had known that they were bringing Rossiter in, and how much it really works, I would havesaid, “Mom, don’t do that.”
SHORT- VERSUS LONG-TERM PAIN RELIEF
Occasionally, pain relief is immediate and permanent. It never comes back. More often, PICs experience a significant change in the problem area during the session. PIG may report less pain or tension; sometimes pain moves to another place. Richard Rossiter sees this as part of the process. Sometimes PICs are surprised that the pain disappears after a session, but returns later on.
Trainer Tracy Ferguson, of Chicago Rawhide, explains that PICs “can’t expect instant results after one workout. It took months or years to get into that shape and they expect to come once or twice to Rossiter and be better. So you have to try to get it across to people that this is not a quick fix. You might get instant relief, but [one session] might not fix it.”
To tackle stubborn injuries, PICs often need to do workouts on a regular basis for ar extended period of time until they are pain. free. “Some people came in twice a week for two to six months or so,” explain., Dwayne Hess, “Now they only come it whenever they need to-once every six of eight months, or once a year. Just whenever they start feeling bad.”
ARE ROSSITER TECHNIQUES JUST A BAND-AID®?
Sylvia Gil is one of those workers who was surprised that she didn’t stay fixed. “I started getting a lot of pain in my shoulder and my hands, so I thought, ‘What the heck,’ and went,” she says. “I got results, but what I learned later was that you have to keep going.”
As an assembler at Racor, Gil picks up elements and puts them in bags-about 5,000 times a day, on average, and up to 8,000 times per day when things get busy. “I noticed that if I go about once a week, I don’t get any more pain,” she says. Gil uses weekly workouts to stay pain free and has convinced several of her fellow workers to do the same. About half of the people on her line work with a Rossiter trainer weekly.
If PICs have to keep coming back for the same problem, is the system really effective? Efren Perez, Racor mechanical engineer, has used Rossiter stretches to overcome two separate injuries. After developing tingling in the last two fingers of his left hand a few years ago, Perez worked with trainers to identify a series of therapeutic stretches. “To get well, it took me about three months,’ he says. “It was a long process. I was going every two weeks.” Once the tingling disappeared, Perez ended his workouts.
Eight months ago, Perez returned to the company’s Rossiter program to combat pain in his right wrist. Right-handed and performing the majority of his work at a computer station, Perez feels that, unlike the previous injury, this condition is computer-related. With continued use of the system, users often experience longer and longer periods without pain. “It took about four months to start having painless days,” Perez says, adding, “Just like any other repetitive injury, it wasn’t until it got really bad that I decided to do something about it. Eight months ago, it was pretty bad.”
In addition to weekly Rossiter sessions, Perez also changed his workstation and exchanged his mouse for a tablet and penboth at work and at home. “The thing that I would tell somebody who is in a situation like mine is, Rossiter will help fix or stretch or strengthen what’s been damaged, but if a person keeps doing the same thing after they leave, don’t expect Rossiter to fix it all. It does great-in combination.”
REPETITIVE MOTION ENVIRONMENTS
When asked how he’s doing now, Efren Perez replies, “Great!” Although the left hand no longer bothers him, he still uses Rossiter workouts to keep pain in the right wrist at bay. The difference seems to be the repetitive nature of the latter injury. From this perspective, manufacturing is a biased testing environment for these techniques. Computer users, assembly line workers, and press operators apply repetitive stress to connective tissue for entire shifts. In this atmosphere, people can only change movement behavior so much. Rather than asking the question, “Why do people have to continue getting Rossiter workouts,” a more appropriate question might be, “Why don’t people have to get them more often?”
OVERCOMING PRECONCEPTIONS”
I was really skeptical,” says Helga Martinez. “When I first saw it I thought, “How can you feel better by somebody putting weight on you?”
Like their creator, Rossiter techniques are unconventional, to say the least. Bringing these bodywork tools to laypersons and creating an environment where they can be explored means overcoming a lot of preconceptions. Asked about her first reaction, Jerri Bowman laughs and says, “I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’ When they first started talking about it, people said, ‘They step on you; and I said, ‘What?’ They said, ‘They step on you.’ The first rumors that went around the plant were, ‘Yeah! They go leaping off the chairs!”‘
Once assured that chair diving is out, users must adjust to the idea of connecting with feet and taking weight. Chris Janz, general operator and Rossiter Trainer at Chicago Rawhide, explains, “At first, I didn’t take as much weight as I should have. The idea of somebody stepping on me bothered me but then I began to feel the difference. After that, it hasn’t bothered me.”
Furthermore, some techniques are simply counterintuitive. Lower back and hip pain is generally treated by stretching connective tissue of the opposite thigh. “It just doesn’t sound right,” says Helga Martinez. “We always step on the opposite leg. It just doesn’t make sense until you have a workout and figure out why.”
Martinez sums it up: “I love this work because it helps. People walk out and they’re happier. The other day I worked with a lady who didn’t want to come in but, when she finally did, she worked hard. She found me the next day and said, ‘I don’t know what you did but I want to give you a hug. I haven’t had the pain. I actually slept through the night; I hadn’t slept well in a couple of months.’ Even though you might not want to believe it, if you work with it, it’s going to work. There are quite a few people who are very skeptical at first, and later want to bring family members. I can’t work on them. I could make a business on my own here if I wanted to.”
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PLEASURE OR PAIN?
Rossiter techniques are not for the faint of heart-but do they hurt? It all seems to depend on the technique, the tissue, and whom you ask. Work on the quadriceps is generally more painful than, say, work on the forearm. Work on shortened fascia tends to be more sensitive than areas of length. Furthermore, people’s perceptions of pain come into play. Responses range from Tracy Ferguson’s, “No, I didn’t feel there was any pain during a workout,” to Sylvia Gil’s, “Those that don’t like it think it’s too painful. And sometimes you bruise-well they hated that.”
Some users seem to feel that workout discomfort is far outweighed by outcomes. Jerri Bowman describes standing up after her first workout: “I could not believe how it felt. I felt relaxed; I felt stretched out. I felt like I could just go out there and run twenty hours on the press. It was a whole new feeling… How amazing that you can go in, you’re a little sore, you’re a little tired, and the minute they’re done with you, you’re up and ready to conquer the world!”
Others look for discomfort to know the stretches are working. When his wrist acts up, Efren Perez usually gets a workout on Friday. Over the next day or two, he’ll feel soreness in his forearm and biceps. “By Monday or Tuesday, I’m okay,” he says. “When I have a few bad days and start to hurt, after the workout, I notice a difference. It’s like that’s what starts getting it better… It seems to be the key for me.”
SORENESS? BRUISING?
Feeling sore for a day or two afterward is not uncommon. When asked, “Are you sore after workouts?”, Chris Janz says, “Your first workout-yes, you are. It’s like when you lift weights. If you lift weights, you’re going to be sore. But if you come back the next day and lift again, you’re not going to be sore any more.” PICs who initially find a workout extremely painful and allow minimal weight are often astonished at the reduced discomfort and increased weight they can handle after practicing a few times. Coaches often feel a major difference in the tissue as well.
But what about bruising? That can’t be good, right? There’s no way around it these tools are intense and occasionally people bruise. Like the delayed soreness, the likelihood of bruising seems to decrease with workout frequency. “No, I hardly ever bruise,” ” says Sylvia Gil. “I did in the beginning because it was so tight. Now that I go once a week I don’t bruise anymore.” In addition to tissue changes, the PIC’s ability to relax as weight is being added seems to reduce bruising.
EASY ON THE PRACTITIONER
Rossiter developed his techniques with the practitioner’s well-being in mind, as much as the client’s. As such, he’s taken hands and tables out of the equation and replaced them with feet and floor. “I’m always hearing Rolfers talking about shoulder and arm injuries,” Rossiter says, “This approach removes these concerns entirely.”
Unlike most industrial trainers that share duties and coach workouts for two or three hours, once or twice a week, Helga Martinez is a full-time trainer. By going in twice a day, Martinez has covered all three shifts at Racor for two years. When asked if coaching Rossiter workouts 40 or more hours a week takes a toll on her body, she responds, “If you watch what you’re doing, you don’t have to worry about it. You get tired, sure. Last week, I was training with Richard all day and worked with fifteen people. So, that day, I was tired. But other than that, it’s fine.””
It’s so much easier to use your legs than your hands,” Martinez adds. “My hands never hurt because I don’t use my hands. You stand on your feet all day anyway, so you might as well use them to do something,”
In addition to first, doing no harm, the work may actually be beneficial for practitioners. “You’re getting a workout because you stretch your legs every time. You do the arm stretches because you show others how to do them,” Martinez says. “You’re exercising while you’re working, so you stay in shape.”
Michael Fairless concurs. “Whenever you lay your foot down, you always pull your toes up. If you don’t, you’ll be getting a Calf Crunch [a Rossiter stretch] because you’ll be getting muscle cramps in your calves,” he says. “But if you use the proper techniques that Richard teaches, you’re stretching out all the time. As long as you do your stuff right, you could do it eight hours a day, every day, and it wouldn’t bother you.”
FREEDOM TO CUSTOMIZE
Although Rossiter stretches are designed in series, users have a lot of room for customization. A basic tenet of the Rossiter System is that PICs are responsible for getting themselves out of pain and maintaining wellness. As such, the PIC chooses when to use the stretches, either as a maintenance program or as needed.”
If you’re doing repetitive motions, you can bet that, eventually, connective tissue and muscles are going to tighten up and you’re gong to start hurting again,” says Michael Fairless. “Sometimes, we suggest people come in once a week or so just to be preventive so it doesn’t start hurting again.” He adds that long-time users are more likely to do workouts for health maintenance.
More commonly, people discontinue workouts when the pain goes away, returning only for an occasional tune-up. One Chicago Rawhide employee was scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery but got to Rossiter first. “Maybe once a year, if it starts bothering him, he’ll sign up and have a workout,””says Tracy Ferguson. “Rossiter prevented him from having carpal tunnel surgery.”
Often, users plan workouts based on the work they’re doing. “If I have a lot of line changeovers and installations, I’ll do two that week to work on two different areas like my wrists, because of having to push and pull, and my back, for all the levering, pushing, and pulling says Jerri Bowman. “Sometimes, I might not get one for two weeks. It depends on the job on the floor.”
In addition to customizing when they go, users have a say in what goes on in the sessions. Every PIC starts out using level one stretches. After working at this level for four or five sessions, they can move to the next, more advanced, level-all the way to level ten. “First, we try all the stretches. If we don’t like one, we can substitute something else,” says Sylvia Gil.
It’s not just preference but prior results that determines workout strategy. There are stretches at each level for working the same major areas, but foot positions and stretching movements change slightly to work the tissue in a different way. But higher levels are not always what a PIC needs. “Just because you know higher levels doesn’t mean lower levels wouldn’t be better for a symptom,” ” Michael Fairless says. “The level you use depends on where they’re hurting. Once you’ve learned levels one through three, you can personalize. There might be one exercise on level one that does better than the rest of them, so you can request it. We can replace a technique from a different level and give you a different workout.”
STANDARDIZATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY
With multiple coaches rotating duties; numerous employees with a wide range of conditions; ten levels of workouts, each composed of four to six techniques; and customization thrown into the mix how does a trainer keep track of what works and what doesn’t? How do PICs determine the work that best suits them? How does the company decide whether to keep the Rossiter Program or toss it on the heap with all the other exciting wellness initiatives that never went anywhere?
Part of the answer is in the name-the Rossiter System. Developed and presented as a system, each of Rossiter’s 120 connective tissue techniques is named, has written instructions, and video showing its use. This information is catalogued on one website (www.rossiter.com) so users can reference it easily. In addition to extensive training resources, trainers use the website to record information about every workout. The software starts timing the workout when the trainer logs on. Trainers record PIC input before and after the workout, as well as their own observations concerning the workout. “The next trainer can see if [the PIC] needs to be reminded to keep their eyes open, if they have to be reminded to stretch, or if they don’t put forth an effort,” says Geraldine Pyatt. This approach helps multiple trainers provide more consistent workouts. When the coach logs out, session length is recorded. Standardized techniques and continuous data collection makes it possible for companies to review Rossiter Program effectiveness at any time.
TRAINING WITH ROSSITER
Richard Rossiter visits most facilities quarterly to provide ongoing training, answer questions, and make sure the program is running smoothly. Responses to interview questions about Richard were overwhelmingly positive-a surprise for Rolf Forum devotees who read his no-holds-barred posts. Perhaps it’s the same energy and outrageous behavior that make his trainings so enjoyable.”
I love Richard. He’s so cool to work with because he’s down to earth,” Helga Martinez says. “He doesn’t just tell you to do something but always explains why. His teaching is very hands-on. You can talk to him anytime. We go back and forth on the emails. Anytime I have a question, he responds right away. The communication is always there.”
Jerri Bowman adds, “Learning from Richard? Oh, we have a blast! He makes it. so much fun and he’s so informative. He puts so much passion into it, he makes it easy to learn.”
CLOSING
I am extremely grateful to everyone who took time to speak with me about their experience with the Rossiter System. I find it ironic that, until recently, these powerful manipulation tools have only been available to employees of manufacturers under contract, or, at a very basic level, to readers of the book Overcoming Repetitive Motion Injuries the Rossiter Way.
For Rolfers, perhaps it’s a case of finding diamonds in our own backyard. In the next issue, I look forward to sharing information and impressions from the first four-day Rossiter workshop for Rolfers. I leave you with one more quote from Efren Perez:”
Five years ago, when it was first brought there, it was one of those new ideas that didn’t really feel like it was doing anything more than sitting down and stretching. There was nothing wrong with me, and when they interviewed me afterwards and asked me if it helped, I didn’t say that it helped. But, since then, with these two problems that I’ve had, I’ve had such good results that there’s no doubt that it is very beneficial. I don’t believe it’s going to cure everything. It has its limitations, but I don’t think a doctor could have done what’s happened to my wrists.”
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