Sore feet, hair loss and backne—not exactly the relaxing stuff of spa
roundups. But these treatments fix what ails you and help you chill out.
Lower-back pain
LOWER-BACK PAIN “Having wasted time and money trying to treat a herniated
disc in my lower back, I committed myself. I would get Rolfed®.”
I’ll admit, I was afraid. The extent of my knowledge about Rolfing®
came from a friend who’d had his nose worked on as a child. He told
me that it’s some sort of deep massage (yay!) and that it’s exceedingly
painful (er…). But having wasted tons of time and money trying to treat
the consistent unease that stems from a herniated disc in my lower back (as
well as several other injuries, due to a lifetime of running and playing soccer),
I committed myself. I would get Rolfed®.
Since most specialists work privately (as opposed to being on staff at a treatment
center), finding one was relatively easy—at rolf.org, plugging in a
zip code yields a list of area Rolfers®.
I decided to call Sam Adams (60 minutes for $140, 90 minutes for $160; adamsrolfingnyc.com)
because I love beer—and because he has a thorough website, which explains
a great deal about the technique.
Developed by Dr. Ida Rolf some 50 years ago, Rolfing®
is somewhat like massage, but the practitioner manipulates the fascia (tissue
that surrounds the muscle) in order to realign and balance the body. If you
manipulate the fascia into a position where it can properly support the muscle,
it relieves tension and pressure, thus alleviating the pain.
I showed up to Sam’s “office” (a.k.a. his beautiful, calming
apartment) and was met by the extremely well-postured man, who ushered me
into his Rolfing®
room and began a lesson in fundamentals. (His treatment consists of a ten-session
cycle, but Sam and I met only three times, during which he combined elements
of several sessions so that I could get a sense of the entire course.)
“I don’t care who you choose to pray to,” he says, “but
here, we all pay homage to the goddess of gravity.” Meaning, you have
to accept the fact that at some point, the force will push your shoulders
over, your paunch out and your knees toward the floor.
He also tells me that everything in your body is interconnected. If your back
hurts, it might be because you walk with your head down, which pulls on your
neck, shoulders and lower back. So you have to concentrate on holding yourself
as though you have hooks attached to the top of your head and your chest that
are always pulling up.
Sam started on my shoulders and back in what felt like a fairly straightforward
massage, except that instead of working the muscle as a massage therapist
would, it felt more like he was putting brief but intense pressure on the
edges of the muscle. Throughout the treatment he would ask me to move my right
or left leg (depending on which side he was working on) back and forth—a
technique, he explained, that helped the fascia move into place without him
having to use too much pressure, which can be painful.
After about 20 minutes, Sam worked on my legs, concentrating on the areas
between the muscles and moving them back and forth so as to get deeper into
the tissue. He also stretched me. At one point, I sat up on my knees while
he stood behind me and pulled my arms back to open up my chest.
After rotating onto my left side so that Sam could work on balancing out my
right for about 20 minutes, he rolled me onto my back and asked me to extend
my arms. “You see that?” he asked. Yes—yes, I did. My right
arm was blatantly longer than my left, and felt amazingly loose and flexible.
I left the hour-and-a-half session feeling light and energetic and as if I
was walking taller. I didn’t immediately notice much of a difference
in the pain levels, but in the time since I’ve finished my third treatment,
the pressure on my lower-back area has eased up and the gnawing ache that
accompanied it is about 75 percent of what it had been. The best part: The
actual treatment wasn’t as painful as I’d imagined it to be, and
actually had more of a tender feeling, similar to someone massaging your ribs
(go ahead, try it). I’m the last person to believe in miracle treatments,
but I’ll take three 90-minute sessions of massage over years of physical
therapy any day. In fact, I’m sure I’ll get Rolfed again. —Katharine
Rust
Time Out New York / Issue 646 : February 13,
2008 - February 19, 2008
