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| Photo: Italo Melo |
More and more people are coming to the realization that
Rolfing is the fountain of youth. Living in harmony with gravity keeps you young. In fact, the most rewarding part of my job is watching my clients appear younger within months, and even reversing the earliest signs of aging that I see in clients who are only in their 20s and 30s.
We've all heard the adage
"use it or lose it," and with Rolfing, that reality is addressed at the most minute levels, producing the most dramatic effects. I'll unpack what's going on:
1. We're always using something. Rolfing helps you do it better.
We don't only use our bodies for a jog or a cross-fit workout. Every hour, all day long, we're using
something: to hold up our heads, to breathe, to stand up from our chairs, to interact with people, to walk. Many of these ignored yet ubiquitous movements are governed by smaller muscles around our spine, ribs cage, and even around our jaw and skull. They are the hundreds of less famous muscles like the multifidus, intercostals, and pterygoid – and
they're all constantly reacting to gravity. Rolfing improves our relationship to gravity, thus increasing the efficiency of how your body uses
all muscles, big and small, giving you smoother movement, better circulation, and a bright and youthful glow.
2. Using all your small muscles has huge effects.
The best example of this is the
tensor fascia lata (TFL), a small muscle on the side of your hip that you'll become keenly aware of through Rolfing, I promise! You may have never heard of this little player, but it exerts a huge influence on the angle of the pelvis to the leg. Therefore, tightness there can cause the most visible postures of aging: the Seated Slump, the Old Man Walk, the Curved Back, the Condor Neck.
Releasing the
tensor fascia lata and freeing up its whole range of motion not only lessens these bad posture habits but also puts the more well-known muscle groups – the gluts, quadricep, hamstrings, pectorals, and abs – into the correct position for better use. You'll stand and walk straighter. Your workouts will be more effective and you'll look nicer for it, too.
3. We need to use our nerves, too.
Frailty is one of the earliest signs of aging and it's also a strong predictor of how we're going to fare in the decade after it first appears. Frailty is a combination of weakness and a lack of coordination; you've observed it in someone you know when you slow down walking with them, you wait for the next light to cross the street instead of hurrying through the last one. But we can stop this decline. Avoiding frailty – in other words, staying supple and adaptive – requires not just muscle strength, but healthy and dense nerves in the muscles and joints.
Rolfing helps your nerves grow in a way that exercise alone does not. Through good posture, we constantly engage more nerves by naturally balancing the weight of our bodies in an
adaptive and fluid manner, as opposed to fighting to hold ourselves up by being stiff and inflexible.
In a nutshell, by optimizing your posture,
Rolfing helps your body use all its parts as Nature intended, whether you're going about your day or following your exercise routine.
Use it all and enjoy.
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Related Post on Aging:
Emotional Complexity, Longevity, and Your Posture
