Benefits of Rolfing
Before and After

Before	After

Rolfing achieves remarkable results by manipulation of the myofascial system, the body’s soft connective tissue network that surrounds and penetrates the muscles and other body structures. This fascial web interconnects and communicates to sustain the whole body. The fascia of the body is the “wrapping” for muscle groups, individual muscles and even muscle fibres. Being a collagen, fascia can change consistency, just like gelatin, from a solid “gel” state to a liquid “sol” state under the influence of heat, pressure or friction, which is exactly what Rolfing applies. Imbalances in the body, especially old injuries, create fascial thickenings that can remain and intensify over many years. These fascial thickenings “set” the body in a pattern of uneconomical movement and habitual imbalance.

When a body is out of equilibrium, or following an injury, the fascia shortens and thickens. This causes compensating reverberations or torsion and tension throughout the body.

It is like a spider’s web in which a fly gets caught causing a tightening of the web in that area.

Everything gets pulled towards the snag, especially as the fly moves around. Fortunately fascia is susceptible to change and reorganization. Through appropriate pressure applied by the Rolfer’s hands fascia softens and elongates.

Although intelligent exercise such as yoga or Pilates can to some extent create better alignment, exercise regimes can also create new body imbalances, for example overtight pectorals or abdominals or stretched ligaments. The Rolfing Ten Series approach, however, uses friction and pressure at strategic points in the body to unthicken fascia and achieve improved alignment in a remarkably short time. The pebbles in the fascial river are removed, enabling energy and movement to flow more freely and resulting in the improved postural alignment characteristic of the end of the Ten Series.

The Nervous System also plays an important part in getting the alignment improvements of Rolfing. As we move through life we develop sensory engrams, set movement patterns that use preferred “grooves” of neuromuscular connections. Initially we choose our movement patterns but, as they become familiar, they fall outside the zone of consciousness and we move with comparatively little awareness. An example of this is the contrast between the learner driver meticulously concentrating on every gear change and signal, and the seasoned driver cruising on the motorway while talking on the mobile phone. The Rolfing Ten Series moves sequentially through each area of the body, providing a “window of awareness” that enables the nervous system to reassess movement patterns and feel and choose alternative and more efficient ways of moving. This new-found economy of movement frees up a significant amount of energy previously held in overworked muscles

The body segments are released from habitual patterns of tension so that the body finds a new level of ease, integration and economical function. The Rolfer co-operates with the client and works with rhythms of respiration and other body responses to explore ways to use this new-found freedom.

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