Wellness

[KittyLouSoutenu]

A massage therapist I know says she leaves the deep tissue work to younger therapists, that it is very hard on her, very similar to rolfing.

I think the best therapists use a combination of modalities, tailored to each client's particular needs.

[sfnative]

On 2/27/2015 KittyLouSoutenu said:

A massage therapist I know says she leaves the deep tissue work to younger therapists, that it is very hard on her, very similar to rolfing.

I think the best therapists use a combination of modalities, tailored to each client's particular needs.

My daughter is a Clinical Massage Therapist (age 37) and does a fair amount of deep tissue work, as she has numerous athletes as patients. I just texted her about Rolfing vice deep tissue in her world and to put it simply, she said that she does not perform Rolfing on her patients, but rather very specific deep tissue work which is confined to small anatomic sites (rather than moderate to large). Hope this makes sense. I probably need a page to explain what she tried to explain in a text.

[sidsmom]

Rolfing is not massage!! No matter how "deep" or how hard you press, Rolfing is not massage. It's manipulating the fascia which encases the muscle. You WILL get tissue manipulation to break up the fascia...I think that's where we lose a lot of people thinking its massage. People are trained specifically for this practice. It's not something a masseur does on the side, if asked.

If one as acute muscle injury (bad enough for PT/rehab), you're not going to do ANY bodywork whether it's Rolfing or feather-lite Swedish massage. If the muscle is swollen, tender, bruised from a drastic injury, no bodywork is used until inflammation is gone. Rolfing does NOT cause inflammation. I surprised a PT clinic would have 'long and intense discussions' about this!! I might not have any initials after my name, but even I can figure that out! RICE.

Rolfing isn't some alien-seeking, voodoo, injury-causing, demonized practice so many upthread are describing! For those of us that understand it & use it...whether actual Rolfing or lite manipulation by a foam roller @ the gym...fascial manipulation has its place in the world of bodywork.

[tsavorite]

On 2/27/2015 sfnative said:

In the 80s, I managed a physical therapy and rehab clinic. Most of our patients had sustained moderate to severe back injuries of notable duration.

Rolfing occasionally came up in conversation between patients and physicial therapists and/or our Clinical Director. Because Rolfing was such an "In" thing in the 80s, our Clinical Director provided an "in-service" for us. Bottom line for our clinic was the following: (1) no Rolfing would be provided on our premisis; (2) Rolfing is inappropriate for patients in an acute phase; (3) due to the sometimes very painful nature of Rolfing, it initiates an inflammatory response which can be good in some, but not good in most others; (4) if asked, we would make no referral or recommendation to a Rolfing provider.

The above was not due to the fact that we were a traditional physical therapy clinic. It was due to our belief that Rolfing could actually cause tissue damage over time (setting up that inflammatory response). We came to this conclusion after long and intense discussions with our board of directors, who were very savvy UCSF trained physicians.

This makes sense to me....if you are in a acute phase of a injury doing massage or rofling would most likely be the wrong thing. I am not in that phase...I have had my issues for yrs now and my most recent problems with hip/thigh pain was back in Oct 2014. I did PT for it. Problems of the acute pain got better with doing nothing actually. But the chronic issues I am talking about never leave.

[tsavorite]

On 2/27/2015 sfnative said:

On 2/27/2015 KittyLouSoutenu said:

A massage therapist I know says she leaves the deep tissue work to younger therapists, that it is very hard on her, very similar to rolfing.

I think the best therapists use a combination of modalities, tailored to each client's particular needs.

My daughter is a Clinical Massage Therapist (age 37) and does a fair amount of deep tissue work, as she has numerous athletes as patients. I just texted her about Rolfing vice deep tissue in her world and to put it simply, she said that she does not perform Rolfing on her patients, but rather very specific deep tissue work which is confined to small anatomic sites (rather than moderate to large). Hope this makes sense. I probably need a page to explain what she tried to explain in a text.

As I understand this your daughter would have to go to the actually training school for rolfing to practice it on clients...being certified. I made sure the PT I am seeing actually has these credentials and is recommened by the rolfing site.

I have seen many different massage therapists in these last 5yrs....done deep tissue work...localized as your describing your daughter does. Deep tissue in my experience does cause sorness/pain on those trigger points and I had it last for days even with some.

So far rolfing has been doing certain areas not the entire body when I go in like a massage usually is. As I posted he worked on my feet/calfs and some back work.

He said the 10 sessions take you thur the entire body...thats all I understand at this point.

I would say this last session was painful...and I have very tender ankles...and some tender spots still on feet. I feel it did cause some inflammation or bruising feeling w/o a acutal bruise. Have no idea if this is correct and should happen or not...never did rolfing before that's why I started this topic here.

[tsavorite]

On 2/27/2015 sidsmom said:

Rolfing is not massage!! No matter how "deep" or how hard you press, Rolfing is not massage. It's manipulating the fascia which encases the muscle. You WILL get tissue manipulation to break up the fascia...I think that's where we lose a lot of people thinking its massage. People are trained specifically for this practice. It's not something a masseur does on the side, if asked.

If one as acute muscle injury (bad enough for PT/rehab), you're not going to do ANY bodywork whether it's Rolfing or feather-lite Swedish massage. If the muscle is swollen, tender, bruised from a drastic injury, no bodywork is used until inflammation is gone. Rolfing does NOT cause inflammation. I surprised a PT clinic would have 'long and intense discussions' about this!! I might not have any initials after my name, but even I can figure that out! RICE.

Rolfing isn't some alien-seeking, voodoo, injury-causing, demonized practice so many upthread are describing! For those of us that understand it & use it...whether actual Rolfing or lite manipulation by a foam roller @ the gym...fascial manipulation has its place in the world of bodywork.

Hi sidsmom! I have been trying to post my experiences so far with rolfing...if you read my other posts does what I am describing sound like your experience?

Today is Saturday and I still have tenderness from rolfing on wednesday.

[Gemspirit]

I've been an RN since 1980. Oh Lord that makes me feel old! Anyway, Rolfing and Massage....even deep tissue are two different procedures. Massage, in its history is much more medically related. People (like me) with true illnesses that effect the musculoskeletal system seem to respond better to deep tissue massage, because it's more directed towards the way the muscles get seized up due to spasm. Whereas Rolfing is a European (in origin) technique that works better for those weekend warriors, athletes, and specific spots. Kind of two sides of the same coin, yet quite different. Hope that helps.

[tsavorite]

On 2/28/2015 Gemspirit said: I've been an RN since 1980. Oh Lord that makes me feel old! Anyway, Rolfing and Massage....even deep tissue are two different procedures. Massage, in its history is much more medically related. People (like me) with true illnesses that effect the musculoskeletal system seem to respond better to deep tissue massage, because it's more directed towards the way the muscles get seized up due to spasm. Whereas Rolfing is a European (in origin) technique that works better for those weekend warriors, athletes, and specific spots. Kind of two sides of the same coin, yet quite different. Hope that helps.

I have zero athletic ability....ever. I have plenty of musculoskeletal pain thats for sure...so why is rolfing only for weekend warriors? or athletes? I will bring this up to my rolfer...he is a big athlete...cycling and other sports. You would have thought this would have been mentioned to me by him. He has a great newspaper article with a photo of him doing rolfing on a very old man...clearly not a athlete at all. Just a man suffering in pain and looking for releif. This article was done back in the late 70's or early 80's....very confusing now.

Oh wanted to mention also he did tell me he did rolfing (a friend recommended it to him) to help him get his cycling time up even more (he'd already won many races) that surprised me! so he wasn't in pain but told me it helped him greatly and he wanted to help others with this technique in pain. So he became a rolfer 1st then couldn't make enough money just doing that so went back to school for PT and opened his own business and does the rolfing services and others also.

[tsavorite]

Had my 3rd session of rolfing today. The focus was on my ITband...hip...ribs on side and back...and under my arm area also. Then my neck.

While it is similair to massage he has me move my arm and do some deep breathing on certian things. This is what I see different.

I can't say I see any improvements at all yet again. I felt relaxed afterward but the same body pain that I always have is not changing and I don't notice that there's any other changes like people post about. On Youtube some claim to have these amazing results only after 2 visits.

Next week will be my 4 one and as far as I understand it the focus is on inner thighs and legs...not sure if there's more. I'll post next with after that one.

Honestly I am not sure I'll do all 10 as I am not seeing anything yet...perhaps I'll go on to 5 sessions and see.

Got my lastest fully spinal x-rays back....have arthritis thur out my neck (already knew that) also my entire thoracic spine....some minor in lumbar. Love that I can get the reports online and read them right away! Osteopenia was noted on my neck/cervical spine...that's new...never had that before. Waiting on call back from doc to see...if further testing will be ordered like MRI on my thoracic spine...had this done on neck before. My worst pain is at the juncture of my thoracic spine ends. They also noted calcifactions too...recommended some other ultrasound for that.

So there's my update....wish the ladies that actually had rolfing done would come back to this topic to talk.

[KittyLouSoutenu]

On 2/27/2015 sidsmom said:

Rolfing is not massage!! No matter how "deep" or how hard you press, Rolfing is not massage. It's manipulating the fascia which encases the muscle. You WILL get tissue manipulation to break up the fascia...I think that's where we lose a lot of people thinking its massage. People are trained specifically for this practice. It's not something a masseur does on the side, if asked.

If one as acute muscle injury (bad enough for PT/rehab), you're not going to do ANY bodywork whether it's Rolfing or feather-lite Swedish massage. If the muscle is swollen, tender, bruised from a drastic injury, no bodywork is used until inflammation is gone. Rolfing does NOT cause inflammation. I surprised a PT clinic would have 'long and intense discussions' about this!! I might not have any initials after my name, but even I can figure that out! RICE.

Rolfing isn't some alien-seeking, voodoo, injury-causing, demonized practice so many upthread are describing! For those of us that understand it & use it...whether actual Rolfing or lite manipulation by a foam roller @ the gym...fascial manipulation has its place in the world of bodywork.

Myofascial Release is a form of massage. I've had that done. Had a massage that incorporated some of it this past week.

So rolfing isn't the only type of bodywork that centers on fascia.