This time he opened up my chest more, which made it a lot easier to breathe deeply into my upper chest... I can breathe very deeply into my abdomen, but my upper chest was somewhat constricted, and this helped quite a bit...
But most of the session was spent working on my pelvic area, thighs, and legs again. It helped my foot arch, which had settled down a bit since before, and I also learned that I shouldn't just relax my feet totally while walking -- I guess to remedy flat-footedness one needs to consciously "engage" the feet initially, until good habits are formed. The correct structure can be found by standing and lifting the toes -- this raises the arch and lets you know where your weight should sit on the foot...
I noticed in the pictures that a significant lopsidedness in my posture had been corrected already too, which was cool.
Unfortunately, I went and did some more rigorous bagua training a couple of days later, and my shoulder popped into a bad position at one point, completely unexpectedly... When my arm got hit with a shock at one point, my shoulder moved the wrong way and stiffened all my muscles up again. I think it's back to normal now, but I'll just take it a bit easier next time. ;)
Which touches on a question I had...once you get "straightened out," how long does the effect last? Do you have to keep going back every few months, or are you supposed to do exercises that keep you in position once your position has been corrected?
Good question. :)
They say that it's basically a permanent adjustment as far as the fascia goes. Some people have a series of 3 sessions or so after a number of years (maybe 5-8 years), but it's not said to be necessary...
I'm not sure what I think about this yet. I felt a lot more of an arch in my foot after the first time he worked on it than I do now, but it could be that my bad habits are hard to overcome. They also have something called Rolfing Movement Therapy which is supposed to be a sort of training to teach you how to move and hold yourself properly, developing good habits and overcoming your old bad ones...
I think it's probably the case that you'll see impromement everywhere after the series, but could force yourself back into bad positions if you don't learn better habits. In most areas this is probably not a problem, because your bad habits come from muscular and fascial constrictions which are removed after the rolfing.
In my case though, I am undeniably bowlegged, so it may be that I just have to compensate for that, since rolfing certainly doesn't change the curvature of your bones... ;)
Posted by: Trevor Hill at March 24, 2003 08:51 PM
Posted by: M at March 24, 2003 08:39 PM