Dr. Andrew Weil has posted four great reasons to try Rolfing.

Do you suffer from chronic stress, pain or bad posture? You may want to consider Rolfing. Named after Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Rolfing is often referred to as “structural integration.” It is not simply massage, it is a system of deep manipulation of the connective tissues that aims to restructure the fascia (the sheath of tissue that surrounds a muscle) and relieve physical misalignment.

He goes on to list these benefits: “You may become more in touch with your body, experience less pain and stress, improve your posture, even release repressed emotions and diminish habitual muscle tension. People who have experienced Rolfing often find an improvement in their professional and daily activities.”

A piece on Rolfing from NPR.

Slouching over a computer and schlepping around kids can tighten and shorten your muscles, and with them, the fascia cinches down, like one of those vacuum-sealed beef jerky bags. Rolfers, like Brynelson, believe stretching out the fascia — getting it to be more soft and pliable — can improve posture and strength, and over time, reduce aches and pain.

When a client is being worked on the Structural Integrator is engaged in an active manipulation of the various layers of fascia, attempting to create fluidity and space between the layers from superficial to deep and to release the imbalanced pulls that shear the tissue up or down, left or right.  The job is done when we feel like we are pushing against a thousand silk handkerchiefs sliding under our hands.

Continue reading Rolfing Back In Vogue, But With Shaky Evidence

Another article in the UK based Independent.  If only there were competent PR people representing our field to clear up the nonsensical words written about our field:

“Could Rolfing be one Madonna endorsement away from becoming the next Pilates?” asked The New York Times in an article in October.

I’ve never heard that we were controversial until now but apparently Rolfing is boiled down to be the black sheep sibling of chiropractic:

While some studies claiming the efficacy of acupuncture have been published in recent years, Rolfing still remains a bit of a mystery, alongside its sister-in-controversy, chiropractic therapy. Chiropractic, another treatment popularized in the US, involves spinal manipulation to cure or aid a number of health ailments.

It is official – good journalism is dead.

A mention on Rolfing from the Coloradoan.

Rolfing’s premise is that trauma to the body and the everyday effects of gravity cause connective tissues to shift out of place, resulting in aches and pains. Practitioners stretch and apply pressure to the connective tissue to restore alignment in the body.

Continue reading Deep-massage technique Rolfing makes a return