My husband is getting rolfed. It’s a form of deep-tissue body work (I hesitate to say massage) that releases tightness and adhesions in fascia. Fascia is the tissue that forms envelopes around muscles and attaches them to the skeletal structure. It’s a form of alternative medicine, but after seeing the results of a couple of sessions for my husband, we are huge believers. I’m not here to blog about that today, because that’s his story, not mine. Suffice to say that those before and after pictures you see on rolfing web sites–those are for real.
I like to chat with the rolfer while he’s working on my husband, and we ask questions. One thing that has come up is that this rolfer finds it difficult to work on most vegetarians. He describes the feel of their tissues as “ropey” and it doesn’t respond as well to manipulation. He believes it’s because most are not careful enough with their nutrition, but he does not have a particular theory about what they are missing because he’s not a nutritionist, he says.
He also said he “really hates” working on anorexics. Their tissues are a mess.
It’s a good illustration of how people can look healthy on the outside, but when you take a look inside, things are not that great. He said he once worked on a celebrity. Obviously he couldn’t tell us who it was, but he said that although she looked good on the outside, as celebrities often do, her tissues were in bad shape.
It interests me because, as I’ve said before, the drumbeat public health message of our culture is lose weight lose weight lose weight, by any means necessary. And yet little is said about the organ and tissue damage that can result if the body doesn’t get the right nutrients in the right amounts.
I hope to be able to report more about the rolfing experience from my own perspective, as I’m starting the ten-series Saturday. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m looking forward to getting rid of some persistent aches and pains, getting my oh-so-messed-up feet straightened out, and maybe breaking through some roadblocks in yoga. (Even after three years of yoga, I am not really making progress with my forward bends.)