Quite simply......Structural Integration is an 'alternative' manual body work therapy to establish vertical alignment and horizontal balance in the human body.
Structural Integration (SI), also known as 'Rolfing', was pioneered by Dr Ida Rolf (hence the name) back in the 1950's. The main focus and purpose of 'Rolfing' is to re-align the entire body by manipulating and releasing restrictions in the soft tissue network (Fascia) that envelopes all our bones, muscles and internal organs.
You may have heard of other techniques like The Bowen and The Alexander Technique/s, which are similar body work therapies and methodologies that focus on proper alignment and posture. I'm sure they are great too.....any system that respects posture is going to be good for you and your body. But my focus and interest right now is around the work of Ida Rolf and the continued progression of her work by Thomas Myers with his 'Anatomy Trains', who himself studied under Dr Rolf.
So in one of my previous posts, I talked quite a lot about fascia and it's significance within our bodies. And it is this fascia (myofascia) that an SI practitioner will be working with when they go to work on your body. Not the muscles, certainly not the bones or joints, but the ALL important myofascia!
By releasing tensions in the fibres of this continuous fascial web/network, it will unlock the restrictions existing in the body (we all have them!) that have been pulling the bones out of their natural alignment, which then forces compensatory patterns in our muscles, which then leads to overuse and fairly predictable injury patterns.
The other really important and defining factor about SI to note, is that it is an entirely holistic approach to body work, from the toes to the head! Nothing is overlooked, the entire body will be assessed for dysfunction and treated as a whole unit, just like our bodies are designed to operate.....as one!
I am nearly two months into my journey of 'fixing myself', using The Power of Posture. It has been an amazing couple of months for me and there have been some incredible discoveries and progress in such a short time, but my plans have now changed slightly. I am learning new and fascinating things, literally on a daily basis and I have to evolve and progress with the discoveries I am making.
When I started out on this journey, my intention had always been to 'fix myself' by introducing a promgramme of specific and focused 'self myofascial release' (again, a topic I have discussed previously in this blog), along with some corrective exercises, mostly standing work, wall retractions for example, breathing exercises and some proper planking for good core activation. The basic idea being to unlock the restrictions in the connective tissue/fascia via self myofascial release, and then re-engage and activate the dormant muscles groups, like my glutes and TVA (core) for example, through the corrective exercises.
This was working really well for me, with some significant and noticeable benefits (as previously discussed), but honestly, doing it all by yourself is........well, to be honest.......really hard!! I don't mean from a motivational point of view, just from a practical stand point. The releasing part was/is easy for me and I connected with that aspect immediately and love it, even the 'sensations', it's really very powerful. But the all important corrective exercise part was the really challenging piece for me, this is what makes the changes stick and what will re-programme the correct neuro-muscular associations again to achieve naturally efficient posture and movement.
What I realised was, I really needed an objective and well informed third party to observe my body position for these corrective exercises, to make the very important yet very subtle corrections needed to get the full benefit from the exercises. It didn't take me long to realise that I needed some help!
My first port of call was Yoga. Standing poses, breathing exercises and plank! These three things really embody Yoga practice in my mind, so I thought it would be perfect to incorporate into my corrective programme. But....as amazing as Yoga is and I love to and will continue practice it, it was almost spoiling Yoga for me in a way. It kind of ruined the flow because I was thinking too much about the postural corrections. So, I knew I needed something else.......
My next plan, was to go and see someone at Functional Patterns (FP) London. Now I've not talked much about FP, but actually, I should more and will, because these guys are onto something amazing and are actually THE initial motivation for my postural correction! They (he - Naudi Aguilar) basically offers a more movement and exercise based approach to the ideas and principles of Structural Integration, including self myofasical release, but their primary focus is ALWAYS on posture and movement efficiency above anything else! So anyway, in the end, cost was prohibitive here....with London overheads etc, I was looking at 200 quid + including travel expenses etc for an initial consult. Whilst I am very happy to invest in my education, general health and well being, I have to be realistic here too and as I'm talking about efficiency a lot right now, that was certainly not going to be an efficient use of my hard earned cash!!
So I was a bit disappointed as I would have loved to go see these guys, but had to bin that idea!! Anyway........
There must be someone nearby who really understands what I am trying to do with myself (my body) and can help me achieve my goals........? Those goals simply being good posture and movement efficiency. A bit of looking about on the good ole' Google and I soon found.......
http://www.structuralbalance.co.uk/
Owned and operated by Angela Donovan, certified KMI practitioner and registered on the Board of Certified Structural Integrator (BCSI). Now this was someone fairly local for me (Leamington Spa) who can really help me and understand me, with very reasonable pricing, certainly when compared to other body work therapies I have had in the past.
KMI = Kinesis Myofascial Integration. Which is Thomas Myers' progression from the established practice of 'Rolfing' and encompasses the wonderful work and research into the myofasical meridians of his Anatomy Trains model. The principles are very much still the same, they work entirely with the fascia/soft tissue, but the practice has just been slightly refined based on new research and understanding of myofascia from dissections in the lab. Not to mention all his years of practical experience working on real people.
So I went for my first assessment session this week, having already exchanged a few e-mails and shared my blog with Angela...........
I'll keep the details short for now as I have gone on more than enough..... but I will be going back for more sessions. The full KMI process is 12 sessions in total, this is what it will take for her to unlock and unravel my body. I will be documenting this entire experience of this KMI process through my blog.
If you want to find out how I got on with the assessment and session 1, you will have to catch my next blog post..........'KMI Session #1 - (Assessment and The Superficial Front Line)'
But until then.......thanks for reading! :)
#ThePowerofPosture
#StructuralIntegration
#KMI
Structural Integration (SI), also known as 'Rolfing', was pioneered by Dr Ida Rolf (hence the name) back in the 1950's. The main focus and purpose of 'Rolfing' is to re-align the entire body by manipulating and releasing restrictions in the soft tissue network (Fascia) that envelopes all our bones, muscles and internal organs.
You may have heard of other techniques like The Bowen and The Alexander Technique/s, which are similar body work therapies and methodologies that focus on proper alignment and posture. I'm sure they are great too.....any system that respects posture is going to be good for you and your body. But my focus and interest right now is around the work of Ida Rolf and the continued progression of her work by Thomas Myers with his 'Anatomy Trains', who himself studied under Dr Rolf.
So in one of my previous posts, I talked quite a lot about fascia and it's significance within our bodies. And it is this fascia (myofascia) that an SI practitioner will be working with when they go to work on your body. Not the muscles, certainly not the bones or joints, but the ALL important myofascia!
By releasing tensions in the fibres of this continuous fascial web/network, it will unlock the restrictions existing in the body (we all have them!) that have been pulling the bones out of their natural alignment, which then forces compensatory patterns in our muscles, which then leads to overuse and fairly predictable injury patterns.
The other really important and defining factor about SI to note, is that it is an entirely holistic approach to body work, from the toes to the head! Nothing is overlooked, the entire body will be assessed for dysfunction and treated as a whole unit, just like our bodies are designed to operate.....as one!
I am nearly two months into my journey of 'fixing myself', using The Power of Posture. It has been an amazing couple of months for me and there have been some incredible discoveries and progress in such a short time, but my plans have now changed slightly. I am learning new and fascinating things, literally on a daily basis and I have to evolve and progress with the discoveries I am making.
When I started out on this journey, my intention had always been to 'fix myself' by introducing a promgramme of specific and focused 'self myofascial release' (again, a topic I have discussed previously in this blog), along with some corrective exercises, mostly standing work, wall retractions for example, breathing exercises and some proper planking for good core activation. The basic idea being to unlock the restrictions in the connective tissue/fascia via self myofascial release, and then re-engage and activate the dormant muscles groups, like my glutes and TVA (core) for example, through the corrective exercises.
This was working really well for me, with some significant and noticeable benefits (as previously discussed), but honestly, doing it all by yourself is........well, to be honest.......really hard!! I don't mean from a motivational point of view, just from a practical stand point. The releasing part was/is easy for me and I connected with that aspect immediately and love it, even the 'sensations', it's really very powerful. But the all important corrective exercise part was the really challenging piece for me, this is what makes the changes stick and what will re-programme the correct neuro-muscular associations again to achieve naturally efficient posture and movement.
What I realised was, I really needed an objective and well informed third party to observe my body position for these corrective exercises, to make the very important yet very subtle corrections needed to get the full benefit from the exercises. It didn't take me long to realise that I needed some help!
My first port of call was Yoga. Standing poses, breathing exercises and plank! These three things really embody Yoga practice in my mind, so I thought it would be perfect to incorporate into my corrective programme. But....as amazing as Yoga is and I love to and will continue practice it, it was almost spoiling Yoga for me in a way. It kind of ruined the flow because I was thinking too much about the postural corrections. So, I knew I needed something else.......
My next plan, was to go and see someone at Functional Patterns (FP) London. Now I've not talked much about FP, but actually, I should more and will, because these guys are onto something amazing and are actually THE initial motivation for my postural correction! They (he - Naudi Aguilar) basically offers a more movement and exercise based approach to the ideas and principles of Structural Integration, including self myofasical release, but their primary focus is ALWAYS on posture and movement efficiency above anything else! So anyway, in the end, cost was prohibitive here....with London overheads etc, I was looking at 200 quid + including travel expenses etc for an initial consult. Whilst I am very happy to invest in my education, general health and well being, I have to be realistic here too and as I'm talking about efficiency a lot right now, that was certainly not going to be an efficient use of my hard earned cash!!
So I was a bit disappointed as I would have loved to go see these guys, but had to bin that idea!! Anyway........
There must be someone nearby who really understands what I am trying to do with myself (my body) and can help me achieve my goals........? Those goals simply being good posture and movement efficiency. A bit of looking about on the good ole' Google and I soon found.......
http://www.structuralbalance.co.uk/
Owned and operated by Angela Donovan, certified KMI practitioner and registered on the Board of Certified Structural Integrator (BCSI). Now this was someone fairly local for me (Leamington Spa) who can really help me and understand me, with very reasonable pricing, certainly when compared to other body work therapies I have had in the past.
KMI = Kinesis Myofascial Integration. Which is Thomas Myers' progression from the established practice of 'Rolfing' and encompasses the wonderful work and research into the myofasical meridians of his Anatomy Trains model. The principles are very much still the same, they work entirely with the fascia/soft tissue, but the practice has just been slightly refined based on new research and understanding of myofascia from dissections in the lab. Not to mention all his years of practical experience working on real people.
So I went for my first assessment session this week, having already exchanged a few e-mails and shared my blog with Angela...........
I'll keep the details short for now as I have gone on more than enough..... but I will be going back for more sessions. The full KMI process is 12 sessions in total, this is what it will take for her to unlock and unravel my body. I will be documenting this entire experience of this KMI process through my blog.
If you want to find out how I got on with the assessment and session 1, you will have to catch my next blog post..........'KMI Session #1 - (Assessment and The Superficial Front Line)'
But until then.......thanks for reading! :)
#ThePowerofPosture
#StructuralIntegration
#KMI
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