by Rob McWilliams | Nov 26, 2014 | Rolfing, Uncategorized
Normative; average; optimal; fantastic!! So so. Boring. Pleasurable. Painful. Ordinary. Bland. Special? Unique? Finely tuned awareness. Blunted sensation. Strong. Weak. Sad. Happy. Angry. Warm. Spacious. Open.
What of the above describes your sense of “normal?” The Germans and French use this word very often as a way to discuss what one can expect in conventional manners, ethical behavior, government, restaurant fare and more. It has to do with social expectations; basic requirements fulfilled. For Americans, it relates more to psychology and non-abberant personal attitudes and behaviors, and in recent times is generally under question, as in “what is a normal, any more?” For Dr. Ida P. Rolf, the word, as it relates to human structure and function, took on a different sense, more related to the sense of the normative and optimal. So, reading the paragraph above, where many of us might lean towards “average”, “so, so”, “boring”, “bland,” “blunted sensation,” (and perhaps even angry, sad or weak), she taught a whole new vision of normal that could include optimal, and perhaps even fantastic, strong, spacious and open. And why not also “finely tuned awareness?” That is part of our given equipment. An animal in nature has definitely trained its senses and responses through use, not just instinct alone (hence “finely tuned”).
So, in this sense, most of us rarely meet the criteria of “normal” as envisioned by Dr. Rolf, rather staying stuck in an ‘average’ state of mild to moderate dysfunction (and much worse than that and we’re a basket case). But when we work together, client and practitioner can sense the increase in the natural grace, ease and support that is our birthright as human beings.
by Rob McWilliams | Nov 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
Sometimes I just have to take my own advice! Believe it or not, this does not always happen.
I’ve been nursing a very sore area right in front of my right heel, even self-treating it with dermaneuromodulation techniques (fantastic pain relief to treat inflamed and tethered nerves through gentle traction on the skin). The pain keeps coming back. So I ignored it and jumped some more. Or warmed it with a heating pad. Or rested it. No go.
Lately I have been doing more jumping in my self training, and went to ballet class last night which really flared this up. Suddenly I had the ‘Doh!” moment”: this feels more like a tendinitis/tendinosis issue, so why not try treating it as such the same way I would a client’s tennis elbow or achilles tendinitis: slow and targeted exercise that works through deceleration with loading, aka ‘loading while stretching’ or eccentric contraction.
I prefer 2-1, working into the concentric phase of a movement with two feet or two hands, then decelerating through the eccentric contraction with one foot or hand. Two feet to rise over the stair step on straight legs, one foot to descend slowly and smoothly. A jerky descent tells me I have lost coordination through that movement and need to work on it a bit. If it is really bad, I do one to one, as in, use the unaffected side, then decelerate through the sore one. That method got e through the worst of my tennis elbow times, when I could barely use my right arm.
So..I will need to baby this foot a little bit, jump wise, but am confidant that this targeted exercise plus my own peripheral nerve self treatment plus an upcoming visit to an Advanced Rolfer™ in Fort Collins next week to help me sort out why I am shortening so much on my right side further up the chain of fascia, joint action, sacro/pelvic mobility, organ restriction, cranial bone restriction or whatever. But I can do this self-care part, and am excited!!
by Rob McWilliams | Oct 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
In a recent class with Osteopath Ron Murray, we were taught that the initial rhythms an embryo is exposed to are the beating of its own tiny heart going pitter pat very fast, contrasted to the mother’s relatively much slower heart beat. The embryological movements are of an enveloping of the arms around the developing heart, back supported, lengthening and anchoring in the uterine wall, coupled the reaching down of the legs to the mother beat in the umbilical cord. It occured to me how many times we use this movement. In Chi Gong for instance soft legs reach down into mother earth as we create a circle in front of our torso, cycling energy from/to all of the internal organs, the spine lengthened in two directions, the breath omnidirectional. In ballet, there is constant reference to the “gate” of first position of the arms, not just for use in pirouettes, but for every “preparation” movement at the barre or centre. It’s a gathering of energy, whether it’s a settling, as in the preparations, or a prelude to an explosion into space, as in jetes tournants or tours jetes.The idea, as best I understand it, is that every movement we accomplish in life has an antecedent in the womb. We wouldn’t be able to do them otherwise. The expansion of embryological arm or leg buds out to fully developed limbs presage every bending, twisting, spiraling, lengthening, compressing, pulling movements that we explore later. I just find that so cool!
by Rob McWilliams | Oct 19, 2014 | Dance, Rolfing
Check this out:
ballet can move from a grounded sense
For me, as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and Rolfer™, what’s key here is the strength and ease of movement out from the center of the pelvis of both dancers. Because of their individual commitments to that, too, they are able to flow into a common weight center, of find a common fulcrum of movement out in space, away from their individual weight centers, seamlessly. Sometimes, I watch local dancers doing a Pas De Valse traveling step in ballet class, and I know they don’t get that fully. Dancers, please watch how the movement seems to expand out into space from the hips and low spine. That’s what Modern Dance used to be all about, in my early training at least; study works including but not limited to companies of Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Murray Louis ( yes! we moved through space exquisitely), Lar Lubovitsch, Jennifer Muller and you’ll see what I mean. Could you imagine wedding that power with the clarity of balletic lines? We did! I see that a lot in good contemporary ballet. William Forsythe’s dancers were excellent at that too, and I think there are other great examples floating around on the web from the contemporary ballet world. Sometimes Post-Modern Dance and Dance Theatre got too static for me, in it’s search for intellectual and aesthetic probity and socio-polical relevance.
by Rob McWilliams | Oct 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’m working on an article in my mind and several times daily practice: relieving sore feet by allowing movement through them. One common kind of foot pain emanates from the instep on the inside edge of the foot, close to the heel. In anatomical terms, the flexor hallucis longus, brevis and tibialis posterior tendons there get inflamed and sore. So, the inflamed tendons and associated nerves are directly causing pain; what’s causing the tendons to be at issue? Now since this was about my own foot, I had a really strong incentive to figure it out, or at least figure out how to make it better.
In essence, while I did need to figure ways to relieve the tendons strain directly (non-weight bearing ankle rotations that allow eversion of the ankle and toe flaring) and then get my feet/ankle to better feel into the rotations and full range of motion available; standing and rocking and rolling the feet/ankles, first both going the same direction, then in opposition) ultimately the best resolution has been through movement that shows me how to allow motion through the bones of the feet; figure 8s at the ankle, then knee and then hip, working first to pull far enough into the 8 motion so that my feet naturally roll off the floor in response, then teaching them to stay with the floor in response to the same level of swaying. The bones have to glide naturally to maintain contact between the bottom of the foot and the floor in response to the body movement. This gives the foot the chance to recover it’s natural articulation and responsiveness. The result: fabulous! Immediately I want to move and walk forward, and those tendons are at ease!
