"I walk funny. I just walk... funny. I went to the doctor and he gave me muscle relaxers."
This was actually spoken in my office.
And again, recently:
"Some of my friends make fun of me and ask, 'Why do you walk so stiff?' I can't help it, that's just the way I walk!"
Well, you've come to the right place. My job is to fix those funny walks. But to understand this whole situation better, let's take a closer look at those special gaits.
Question #1: Why do I walk funny?
It's muscle tension. A "good" walk is smooth and coordinated. The person is graceful, relaxed, yet ready for sudden changes. All the joints in your body -- from the little bones in your feet up to the base of your skull -- should adapt to each step in a continuous slinky motion. That motion you see is the body doing two things: absorbing the shock of walking while spring-loading the next step.
But with too much tension in your body, this slinky motion gets interrupted. Instead of dissipating the shock of your heel strike into natural curvy motions, the body is stiff and jolts up and down. And instead of each step being naturally propelled forward by the arch of your foot, you start lifting your legs for each step. The torso lurches side to side, throwing the legs forward to walk. It's not attractive.
Question #2: Yeah, but why do I have these tensions?
You're an individual person. Everyone processes stress differently.
Ideally, our bodies and minds process life experiences completely -- like changing jobs, getting a divorce, having a car accident, moving house -- and we weave them into our identities. That's called integration. But if an experience is too large to digest, the body "chokes" on it and stores all the tension in the body, throwing you off balance. The diaphragm, shoulders, neck, lower back suffer... the hunched back of stress might sound familiar to you.
Finally, society influences our posture and gait. We learn to move based on the people we see during our childhoods. How do the people around us walk? Is freedom of the body accepted or shamed in your culture? Are people allowed to be physically expressive? How much actual space did you have growing up?
Question #3: How are you going to fix my funny walk?
My job is to fix your walk -- and improve your posture, range of motion, and overall physiological function -- by strategically releasing muscle groups and joints in a way that your body can understand.
It feels like a deep-tissue massage, but it's much more. It's re-educating your neuromuscular system. Similar to unfolding a box, Rolfing unfolds your bad posture step by step, allowing the your muscles and nervous system to build new connections so that better posture, and a more graceful walk, can emerge.
Question #4: How come I can't fix my funny walk by myself?
You can probably achieve a lot on your own by stretching, exercising, doing yoga, or training yourself using a mirror. But there's a limit to how much you can think about your walk during the day.
The goal of Rolfing is to allow your natural good posture and gait come through without the effort because natural, healthy posture is a state of relaxation and release, not more mental work on top of your already tense body.
How you walk is the result of emotional experience, pasts, beliefs, and culture. In other words, it's always a result of our relationship to something, be it our families, societies, or even gravity.
Likewise, posture and gait can only be healed in relationship to something on the outside, something dynamic that the nervous system adapts to constructively. When your muscles, tendons, and joints have to respond to deep touch from the outside, they re-calibrate what is considered "balanced." This work requires giving time, space, and careful attention, which regular massage -- and muscle relaxers -- don't do.
Here are pictures of a client of mine. His walk improved as much as his posture after 10 sessions.
_____________________
Please drop me a note if you have any more questions about Rolfing! My office is in downtown San Francisco near Montgomery BART Station. www.standard-gravity.com
