Structural Integraton THE JOURNAL OF THE ROLF INSTITUTE® MARCH 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION: LETTERS 2 THE JOURNAL OF THE ROLF INSTITUTE® COLUMNS March 2009 Vol. 37, No. 1 Ask the Faculty 3 In My Practice 6 PUBLISHER The Rolf Institute of ® Structural Integration® ROLFING HISTORY 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103 Dr. Rolf Remembered 11 Boulder, CO 80301 USA Karen Lackritz (303) 449-5903 (303) 449-5978 Fax First-Generation Gleanings 13 Compiled by Deanna Melnychuk (800) 530-8875 Byron Gentry, D.C.: My Dad, My Friend, My Mentor 15 EDITORIAL BOARD Dan Gentry and Robert McWilliams Sara Bayer Eva Bucher Ida Rolf’s Astrology Chart 19 Craig Ellis Anne F. Hoff and Diane Clarke Szaja Gott lieb The Passing of Ida Rolf 22 Anne F. Hoff , Editor-in-Chief Murray Korngold, Ph.D. Linda Loggins Heidi Massa Rob McWilliams PERSPECTIVES Deanna Melchynuk John Schewe Muscle Repositioning 24 Susan Seecof, Managing Editor Fernando Bertolucci Dave Sheldon Dueling Divas 35 LAYOUT AND Raymond J. Bishop, Jr., Ph.D. GRAPHIC DESIGN Susan Winter REVIEWS Articles in Structural Integration: The Classic Tales and Timeless Wisdom 39 Journal of The Rolf Institute® represent the Books By and About Ida P. Rolf views and opinions of the authors and Reviewed by Dave Sheldon do not necessarily represent the offi cial Ideokiniesis 40 positions or teachings of the Rolf Institute Reviewed by Claudius Nestvogel of Structural Integration. The Rolf Institute reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to accept or reject any article for publication in Structural Integration: The MEMORIALS Journal of The Rolf Institute. Gregory Hampel 42 Structural Integration: The Journal of The Rolf Raymond J. Bishop, Jr., Ph.D. 43 Institute® (USPS 0005-122, ISSN 1538-3784) is published quarterly by the Rolf Institute, 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103, Boulder, INSTITUTE NEWS CO 80301. Periodicals Postage Paid at Boulder, Colorado. POSTMASTER: Send Graduates 46 address changes to Structural Integration: 2009 Schedule 47 The Journal of The Rolf Institute®, 5055 Chaparral Ct., Ste. 103, Boulder, CO 80301. Contacts 48 Copyright ©2009 Rolf Institute. All rights reserved. Duplication in whole or in part in any form is prohibited without writt en permission from the publisher. Rolfi ng® is a service mark of the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration. Cover Photo: Ronald A. Thompson LETTERS My Dear Colleagues; I recently had the pleasure of taking Don Hazen’s workshop, “The Neurology of Posture.” This was a very useful and informative look at the role of the nerve tissues in relation to the common postural stressors that show up in a Rolfi ng® practice. The introduction to the feel of the nerves, the location, and the application of technique was a profound opening for me. The material in this course was a unique approach to nerve work. All my Rolfi ng training, and teaching, has been about avoiding the nerves, and working around and between these structures. In Don’s class we took the exact opposite approach, locating and working directly with them in a coherent and systematic manner. Since the class, I have had my anatomy books open and have been studying and tracking the nerves, with respect to the region I am working in, and fi nding very quick symptom relief for many of the common strains and pains that the clients routinely bring to the practice. This has been a very important reframing of the role of the nerves, beyond the transmission of impulses. I want to commend Don for the work he has developed in this area, and to recommend this to any Rolfer as an important deepening of our understanding of structure and function. Jan Henry Sultan, Advanced Rolfi ng Instructor 2 Structural Integration / March 2009 www.rolf.org COLUMNS a person), disconnecting the person from the environment and others, while our functional perspective relates the person to the environment. What is interesting for me is that, like in Ask the Faculty so many other situations, we don’t need to have one or the other. We can have “this ® and that”—let’s say “all.” We can work Core Strength from a Rolfi ng Perspective structurally to “get the core,” and be guided by the functional goals of the “Recipe” to develop a dynamic stability/movement In the fi tness world the concept of “core strength” is often mentioned as adaptability, and then go for muscle Q a benefi t of certain exercise regimens. Please compare and contrast the build-up. But this muscle build-up for concept of core strength/stability from a Rolfi ng perspective and from a more core strength/stability that the mainstream mainstream fi tness perspective. values should take into consideration the concept of the person relating to the directions of “down/up and other/things,” meaning that a person would have to “Every day (and each moment) we must learn—as of now, from a Rolf movement A Core As An Event in Time rebuild the world; we must rebuild ground practitioner—how to re-build perception A Rolfi ng practitioner must be comfortable and space.” before each movement using machine or with phenomena that are always shift ing, As structuralists we say that we want the fl oor exercises. As Dr. Rolf said (referring to always moving. This is what makes things system to move with “economy of function the teaching and learning of Rolfi ng): “Your tough. Those few people who can build a and grace.” What that means from the security comes only from relationships.” body up are the few who have sensitivity functional perspective is that we want the to a sense of security in insecurity. We’ve Monica Caspari system to be able to have what we call really given “The Wisdom of Insecurity” Rolfi ng Instructor, “dynamic stability” so that it can then a physical component. When you come Rolf Movement Instructor move with fl uidity through space, quickly right down to it, that wisdom of insecurity adapting to whatever stimulus evoked the explains what Rolfing practitioners movement. I like to think of the big cats: Rolfing and the Fitness are talking about—it’s the body’s need for A they are very stable and strong, and yet World: Complementary quick adaptation. have lots of fl uidity. Strength in the core Approaches to Core Strength Let us start fi rst by defi ning what is the does not mean rigidity in the core. If I think As winter is upon us and the weather “core.” From a structuralist point of view, of “core strength” as building muscles in encourages me back to the gym, I once core is oft en defi ned as the “visceral space” the sleeve around the visceral space, then I again get a glimpse into mainstream fi tness. that goes from the pelvic fl oor to the roof of end up cutt ing the “melody” of the person, Mind you, I am in Boulder and mainstream the mouth/nasal cavities. In this sense it is the fl ow in her movements. We end up may be diff erent in your neck of the woods. a “place,” a geographical something (that gett ing rigidity around the core and less Anyhow, if you follow the trends in exercise as structuralists we want to “organize” adaptability. And this is what I see the and fitness, you’ve probably heard the through our unique kind of touch). Yet mainstream fi tness perspective producing, phrase “core strength.” Core strength from a functional point of view, core is an maybe because it values the form of the in this context refers to the muscles of “event,” something that happens in time— sleeve muscles so much. your abdomen and back and their ability if and when we get the right coordination to support your spine and keep your The mainstream emphasis is not on gett ing between the muscles that stabilize the body stable and balanced. Targeting the dynamic stability but on building up the system, then the muscles that give it ”strength” of these muscles has been linked sleeve muscles. Paradoxically, it focuses strength, and then the muscles that give in the exercise world to managing back pain on the sleeve to “get the core,” while our it speed. It is a gestalt: either you have it or and supporting functional movement. focus is in the way the person relates to the you do not have it. It depends on a certain environment—that is, to the substratum Images of a weight-lifting belt, corset, way of relating to the substratum and to (gravity, or “down”), to space (“up”), and or a wrap around the center and to the space through the senses. We call the use of to other and things. In this sense we can spine are common and allude to the the senses “perception.” Coordination and say that our focus in building core strength/ protection and stability these structures perception are the two sides of the same stability is in changing the way a person off er. These programs typically target the coin. We can’t separate one from the other. uses her senses in order to get the “right” external obliques, internal obliques, rectus When you aff ect one you aff ect the other. order of events—i.e., the right order of abdominis, transversus abdominis, erector But because our patt erns of coordination muscle firing: first the local stabilizers spinae and sometimes the deep multifi dus. are deeply imprinted in our systems, all we (the most deep muscles), and only then While there are exercises to target the can do to build core strength/stability is to the more superfi cial (sleeve) muscles.