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What is Rolfing?

The way you move, affects your posture and your overall form. Injury, illness and poor habits impact your body alignment. When the body is out of alignment, it affects your movement and your body compensates in unnatural ways to accommodate the misalignment.

 

Rolfing was founded by Ida Rolf, a pioneer in soft tissue manipulation. A Rolfing practitioner works with the fascia or connective tissue that connects your muscles and bones and gives your body shape.  Through applying slow, deep pressure and stretching of the fascia tissue, the bunched tissue is released, allowing your joints and bones to return to their original and intended positions. When the body is properly aligned, it can move the way it was meant to with increased flexibility, improved posture, and reduced levels of energy exerted to perform many normal functions.

Who Can Benefit from Rolfing? 

Anyone who has suffered injury or trauma to the body, has regular or chronic pain, or athletes who constantly push their bodies to achieve their goals. Research suggests that through Rolfing therapy, the muscles are more efficient, the body experiences less chronic stress, and the over body structure changes. Research indicates that Rolfing is effective in treating the following:

  • Fibromyalgia

  • Chronic Back Pain

  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

  • Plantar Fasciitis

  • Neurological Functioning

  • Athletic Performance

Rolfing ® Structural Integration: Balancing the Body
Research Articles
  1. Structural Integration as an Adjunct to Outpatient Rehabilitation for Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Randomized Pilot Clinical Trial. Jacobson, et.al. PDF

  2. The Architecture of the Connective Tissue in the Musculoskeletal System—An Often Overlooked Functional Parameter as to Proprioception in the Locomotor Apparatus. Jaap van der Wal, MD, PhD. PDF

Ida Rolf
Founder Rolfing for Structural Integration
Rolfing in Baltimore, MD
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