rolfing

Very much so, but you have to find a sensible rolfer. Salazar went through the ten appt process, I believe. Can be expensive at 100 bucks a shot, and they usually want you to complete ten sessions. I found a guy here in Chattanooga who had worked on Craig Virgin. He let me just come a couple of times to save money. I ran taller, breathed better, and literally stood taller.

for those of us not in the know, what the hell is rolfing?

I did rolfing about a year ago. I too was able to get away from the full body and got the practioner to work just on my lower body. Asking price is $100/session, but I negotiated a $75/session price. Just be prepared for much pain. It is not a Swedish massage by any stretch of the imagination. It was helpful and did help me overcome a nagging calf injury.

Rolfing is a form of bodywork that incorporates deep-tissue touch in order to break down scar tissue. This stuff is called fascia. Visualize dental floss threads wrapped around tight muscles--you get more as you get older and hammer out the thousands of miles and their presence binds muscles and joints. Rolfing work breaks these fascia (hence the pain) and reopens the muscles back up and allows them to elongate, contract and generally perform more efficiently.

I don't necessarily think it makes people a whole lot faster, but you do feel better and are able to train with more reckless abandon. Rolfing got a bad rap in the 1960s because it was tested on the same batch of US Army guineapigs who were forced to drop LSD. So when they were in the middle of a bad trip, they were then Rolfed and of course this had deeply disturbing effects. That study was upheld as the gold standard to measure Rolfing by for over two decades. Rolfing can release some old, pent-up emotions though, but generally you might feel blue for a half-day or contrarily, quite giddy, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

I would suggest contacting a local Rolfing school in order to find a Rolfer whom they recommend. I know of a very, very good Rolfer who was in Boulder and is now in Boston (she also moves around a bit, was in India and Scotland last year). She's mentioning coming back to Boulder or Santa Barbara at some point. If interested, e-mail me for her contact info. My second suggestion (not to pile it on) is to get chiropractic work done prior to being Rolfed, and maybe a session or two afterward. That way, everything is in alignment and you can have a better template for the Rolfer to work with.

Price is not cheap though and they do recommend a ten-series so as to incorporate all of the work. Doing just some sessions is sort of like half-cooking your bread I suppose.

Thanks for the education one keg...I thougth it may be some type of cross training from a Saturday Morning infomercial.

Peace

Great info One Keg.

The rolfer I have contacted is offering 1 1/2 hours for $90. She says you should know if it is helping you after only 2-3 sessions.

Wasn't rolfing mentioned in Running with the Buffaloes? I think that's where I heard of it.

One of my main running ailments is ITB tendonitis. It is somewhat painful at times and if rolfing would help with that, that would be a big selling point for me. Do you think rolfing can help with ITB tendonitis?