The first three Rolfing sessions center on organizing the superficial regions of the body (see “The Sleeve Sessions“). Session 1 takes the upper body (see “Session 1: Organizing the Breath“), Session 2 the lower (see “Session 2: Organizing the Feet“), and Session 3, the subject here, the integration of upper and lower — removing the red pins of the Sleeve one at a time, organizing the body as it goes.
Sessions 1 and 2 worked with attention on the vertical, upper body and lower. This time attention goes to the sides of the body, bringing the body to an awareness in which the vertical gains a spread in the front-back dimension as well. Three-dimensional awareness admits of many treatments; the history of Western painting shows how varied the thinking has been, as covered previously on this blog (see “The History of Painting and the Body“).
Session 3 attends to three regions: the shoulders and arms, the spine, and the thighs.
Both shoulder and arm lie along the side of the body and carry an important role in organizing its front-back balance. Recalling the forward and backward movement of the arms swinging in gait may make this clearer.
Shoulder means the scapula. The scapula connects upward through a muscle in the neck (the levator scapulae) and to the back through a muscle of the back (the rhomboids). Connected by muscle, the scapula secures the mobility of the shoulder while reducing its stability by the same measure, which leaves it readily affected by gravity. Rolfing releases the tension of the shoulder, easing stiffness there, increasing mobility, and organizing the body so that the arms swing firmly and with force.
Yoga has a posture called chaturanga dandasana, the four-limbed staff pose. It suits feeling the region around the scapula strongly, the serratus anterior in particular, and it is hard to take without an understanding of how the scapula is used. Session 3 might well be thought of as working this region so that the posture becomes easier to take.
The spine forms curves through the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae and the sacrum, and those curves are sometimes collapsed by fascial tension. Organizing them leads toward the easing of low-back pain.
Finally, the work reaches the region of the thighs, releasing the tension in the muscles and fascial systems that restrict movement between the pelvis and the lower limb — the iliotibial band, the interosseous membrane of the lower leg, and others.
Working these three regions gives the body a three-dimensional awareness and widens its range of motion. It also lays the ground for the awareness of the Core that Session 4 onward requires.
- Stated more explicitly, the goals of Session 3 are:
- Organize the front-back balance by heightening the awareness of the lateral line.
- Organize the curves of the spinal column — cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral.
- Organize the region around the pelvis and the scapulae.
Body reading observes: how does the body as a whole feel gravity, forward or back? How does the walk appear? How does the upper body feel gravity, forward or back? What is the tilt of the pelvis? What is the sound of the gait? How is the region around the shoulders? What are the curves of the spine? And the breath?
The body reading came out with four main points:
- Muscle soreness around the right scapula, at the rotator cuff. Seen from the side, the shoulder sits toward the back.
- Thoracic breathing not felt front and back — the chest and the spine connected, not working separately — with some muscular tension below the sternum.
- Muscle soreness in the left oblique and transverse abdominis, felt from the yoga practice, so yoga is the cause.
- A sense of the feet in dialogue with the ground, connected to the spine.
Lying on the table with the shoulder down, turning to the left and to the right, the work proceeded in sequence: releasing the fascia around the pelvis, between the pelvis and the quadratus lumborum, at the iliotibial band, the interosseous membrane of the lower leg, the knee, and around the scapula — the rhomboids, the serratus anterior, the infraspinatus, the supraspinatus, the deltoid, and others — then softening the fascia around the sit bones, and finally, in standing, releasing tension in the fascia around the spine with the relation between spine and foot in awareness.
The changes felt after Session 3:
- The shoulders shifted forward, and effort left them.
- The sternum and the spine moved separately, and thoracic breathing registered front and back.
- A state as though one large rod ran through the upper body and two large rods through the lower, with no unnecessary effort in the muscles.
- In walking, the sit bones lifted, giving a sense of movement originating at the hip joints.
- The head light, and the gait feeling light with it.
All of these are changes toward apprehending the body three-dimensionally, and they lent a spaciousness to movement. That the walk could grow this light after only three sessions is more comfortable than seemed possible. There is a sense of the interior of the body having widened as well. From Session 4, the work proceeds toward the Core. The changes in the body are something to look forward to.