Structure

There Was a Crooked Man

“There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
and they all lived together in a little crooked house.”

Imagine an old, dilapidated house. A house that, over the years, has settled into a sagging, twisted wreck of its former self. There are leaks in the plumbing, and water does not flow. The toilets are stopped up and foul. Electrical issues are multiple and dangerous – short circuits and blown fuses, lights that do not work, and a stove that just cannot get hot. The windows do not open and the doors do not shut. The harsh wind and cold blow through cracks, the ceiling leaks, rats run rampant through the attic, and tiles fall off the roof. Life has been hard on this old house.

Now picture an old, dilapidated human being. Blood moves poorly through tortuous, twisted vessels, decreasing the flow of oxygen, nutrition, and waste removal throughout the body. The chest, all caved in and tight, makes every breath a chore and climbing stairs a journey. Joints are compressed and twisted – they can no longer move appropriately and are disintegrating under the abnormal stresses of a contorted structure. Arthritis has set in, and the least exercise is painful. All of life hurts.

The back, knees, and neck go awry with the slightest stress. The digestive tract, hanging on for dear life in the distended belly of this unfit and unaligned habitus, either reacts with explosive diarrhea or the inability to evacuate without much cajoling and the use of daily laxatives. This body can no longer take in what is needed or get rid of that which it does not need. The nervous system is in shambles – impulses move more slowly, reflexes are impeded and diminished, the senses numbed, and thinking jumbled as the mind is bombarded with alarms from a body that knows things are JUST NOT RIGHT.

Connective Tissue: The Organ of Structure

Structure, and how it responds to the stressors of life, is the function of connective tissue – a class of materials found throughout the body that IS the organ of structure. Every imbalance, every distortion, and every compression in the body is defined by connective tissue. You change the connective tissue – you change the structure of the body.

Most of us recognize connective tissue as tendons and ligaments. We have seen it in our steak as gristle, the white fibrous tissue that wraps around chicken meat and skin, and that tough, chewy skin around our sausage. However, connective tissue has many other forms and functions:

• Muscle and Tendon: Connective tissue fibers and layers exist within and around each muscle cell and fiber. These fibers entwine to form tendons, which then weave into the very fabric of the bone surface itself.
• Bones and Ligaments: Although seemingly solid, bones are actually comprised of a soft connective tissue matrix within which minerals are deposited – providing both strength and flexibility.
• Protection for Organs: Each organ and organ system of the body is surrounded and protected by connective tissue. Meninges around the brain, pericardium around the heart, periosteum wrapping the bone. Every organ cell is surrounded and embraced by connective tissue.
• Nervous System: Connective tissue surrounds, supports, and pervades each nerve cell – and thus our entire nervous system.
• Every Cell: Connective tissue molecules within every cell provide the framework for all structures and functions of that cell. These molecules extend beyond the cell membrane, allowing each cell to communicate with its surroundings – and extend into the nucleus, allowing the external world to communicate with the core of our nature and, in a sense, directly with the DNA itself.
• Everywhere: Connective tissue is ubiquitous. It connects the molecular to the macroscopic, forming a single continuum – a living matrix within which we live, in suffering or joy.

Connective tissue is plastic, meaning it can be modeled and molded, formed and reformed. Its shape can be either temporarily or PERMANENTLY changed by heat, pressure, and compressive or tensile forces.

The way our body contracts and expands in response to life’s stressors shapes our connective tissue, defining our overall structure. Present throughout the body, connective tissue carries the history of our lives from conception to the present moment.

Three Ways Life Changes Our Structure

In each of these, the extent, quality, and permanence of the change depend upon the perception of the event (negative or positive), its intensity, and its duration.

1. Physical Trauma

The most apparent way that life permanently changes structure. Anyone who has been to an emergency room is familiar with the impressive ways we create situations that result in severe distortions of the connective tissue matrix: gunshot wounds, car accidents, household fires, and bar fights, to name a few. Lower on the scale: major surgeries, pregnancy, home improvement accidents, and of course one of our species’ favorites – sports injuries.

There are also forms of physical trauma that, although less dramatic, may be equal or even greater in their permanent effect on structure: furniture that molds and twists us into unnatural shapes, shoes that make natural walking impossible, poor habits of movement and posture, and even long hair from which we unconsciously try to escape by jutting our heads forward – day after day. Repetitive exercises done incorrectly hurt us over time, and even unilateral sports, done to excess, cause permanent imbalances.

If you stub your toe and hobble for five minutes, there is a good chance the rest of your structure will remain relatively the same. But if you break your leg in two places and wear a cast for three months, the entire matrix of connective tissue – from head to toe – must accommodate a new posture, a new way of walking, a new way of standing. Even after your leg has healed, your body’s structure and its relationship to gravity will have been permanently altered: one hip higher than the other, your head slightly off to one side, and never feeling quite as solid and steady on that leg. Over those three months, your body permanently rearranged the entire connective tissue matrix to stay balanced in gravity. Regardless of whether your leg has completely healed, the rest of the body remembers and acts, to some extent, as if it is still broken.

Pregnancy is another instance where memories are stored in the fascial structure. For several months, the body carries an additional twenty to thirty-five pounds in the abdomen. Is it possible that after giving birth, the body will return to its previous state? The structure that accommodated this weight gain had to adapt to keep its balance in gravity. Even after birth, that structure will not quickly return. How often do we hear, “I just cannot seem to lose the weight around my waist.” The structure of the post-pregnancy body demands that extra weight be present. The woman who hears, “I cannot believe you had three children,” is the rare exception, not the rule.

Footwear can permanently disrupt a balanced structure. High heels – no need to say more (although they can look great). Slippers and flip-flops are more deceiving but still devastating to a natural walk. It is impossible to walk naturally when your toes are grasping that middle thong for dear life so the slipper will not fall off with every step. The worst offenders might be the so-called “Health” shoes. What the heck is a “negative heel” or “rocker bottom sole?” If the blessed Lord (evolution) needed us to have rocker bottom feet or heels that point downwards, I am sure it would have been worked into the original design.

2. Non-Physical Trauma

Emotional or mental events – intense and of short duration, or more subtle over long periods – can change our structure as much as any direct physical force.

Any event of consequence in our life is accompanied by either a negative or positive perception – and it does not matter whether the source is external or internal. A negative perception results in contraction: a sudden loud noise – we jump; being yelled at by our boss or parent – we cower.

Your own internal dialogue does the same damage. The relentless inner critic, the anxious rehearsal of catastrophe, the shame you carry from decades ago – your body cannot distinguish between being berated by your boss and being berated by yourself. The contraction is identical.

A positive perception results in expansion: gentle music plays – we relax; we feel loved – we open.

If a being is placed in a continuous or repetitive hostile environment – external or internal – over time, that contractive response becomes crystallized in the connective tissue.

We have all seen the lonely human, their shoulders wrapped around their delicate heart. Over the years, the entire myofascial structure of their chest has solidified into a thick band of tough connective tissue. They try so hard to stand up straight, but the long history of a child unloved is locked in their posture. Then there is the converse – the super straight, rigid human who at some point decided to deny their miserable beginnings and “pull themselves up by the bootstraps.” Now they present with the inability to move, to feel – rigid in structure, unable to love or trust.

3. Compensation – The Most Damaging

From our humble beginnings as single-celled entities (apologies to our young earth creationists), we homo sapiens have struggled to find balance within the field of gravity. Human beings are the closest any species has come to verticality and balance within this relentless force. There is an evolutionary driving force – both physical and spiritual – to stand erect: our feet firmly planted in the earth, our hearts facing forward to embrace all sentient life, and our heads, clear and balanced, extending towards and receiving the blessings of THE ONE TRUE GOD.

With a physical trauma such as the broken leg, it is not so much the breaking and healing of the leg that distorts the structure but the evolutionary imperative to maintain verticality that causes the rest of the body to change. Our head needs to stay erect. If one leg is short, or one ankle turned out, then the hips, spine, shoulder girdle, and neck will ALL readjust to find a new position to accommodate that need to feel “straight.”

Open heart surgery can mean the difference between life and death. However, the trauma to the sternum, ribs, and soft tissue of the chest is significant. Most survivors lose lung capacity and cannot breathe as they could before. Their chest caves forward, bringing the head with it – similar to our depressed being’s structure. This posture of depression quickly permeates the psyche. “I never felt depressed before the surgery.” Mind and body – it is not a one-way street.

The head of our depressed person juts forward as their concave chest pulls down on the neck, face, and head. The lower back arches back, striving to return the head into vertical alignment. The hamstrings tighten like steel wires to keep the whole assembly from tipping over. Worse yet, this being LOOKS depressed. The world avoids them – who wants to be with someone who looks so depressed? This sets up an ever-deepening spiral of rejection and the conviction that they are indeed unloved.

Life happens; we make mistakes, the mind learns (or not) and then conveniently forgets. Unfortunately, the body NEVER forgets. Walk the mall, hit the beach, or hang out in a sidewalk cafe – whether New York, Paris, Moscow, or Makawao. Watch how the history of people’s lives permeates their being – how they stand, walk, interact, and flow within the world. It is a testimony to the inherent goodness of the human soul that we have survived this long as a species (although lately, it does appear to be a bit tenuous). So much of our life force is wasted on compensating for our past that few of us have much to give to others. It is only through letting go of this past, on all levels, that each of us as individuals – and subsequently we as a species – may transcend our history and start to treat each other as equal and unique aspects of creation.

Connective tissue is found throughout the body. It is plastic – its shape can be changed permanently.

Life changes connective tissue through physical trauma and non-physical trauma. The quality, intensity, and duration of the event define the effect.

The localized change is then distributed throughout the connective tissue matrix as the body, in its battle against the relentless force of gravity, strives for verticality. These complex compensations result in pain and dysfunction in locations far removed from the original insult. As we age, our body compresses. The distortions of our childhood and young adult life, along with all their compensations, become amplified – pain and dysfunction become the norm of our later years.

Eventually, we all lose the battle; the destined order of life and death continues until we reach the ultimate surrender to gravity – permanent horizontality.

Removing History: Structural Integration

A human body’s structure is profoundly altered by the life it has lived – its history and its burden. From conception to the moment of death, our structure reacts and adapts to the traumas of human life, each compounding upon the past, evoking compensation upon compensation. The entire structure, with all of its imbalances, is exposed to the relentless and inescapable force of gravity: an inherently compressive force that accentuates and amplifies each imbalance.

This history of trauma, compensation, and gravity results in a being that is hindered on all levels: physically encumbered with rigidity, compressive discomfort, and reduced efficiency of all bodily functions; an emotional mindset defined and locked in by childhood and teenage trauma; and a spirituality based on belief and fear rather than experience and light.

Imagine what you would feel like without this burden of the past. Imagine what decisions you would be making based upon the multitude of gifts and inherent compassion you were born with – rather than upon the multitude of traumas and compensations that brought you to this moment.

Removing history from our structure and focusing on how to maintain and continue to refine that structure, we may begin to live the extraordinary life – a life lived in the present, not driven into the future by the past.

What Actually Works

Interventions that permanently remove history from physical structure while maintaining or increasing organization require at least the following:

1. They address the entire body, not just parts – both initial trauma AND the compensations that followed.
2. They create balance through the release and elongation of connective tissue that has shortened, and the strengthening of tissues that have been weakened or overstretched.
3. Assessment and interventions are based upon an analysis of the complete human structure as EACH part of the body relates to every other part AND the field of gravity.

Structural Integration (Rolfing) and its congruent offshoots are complete systems of hands-on fascial interventions that fulfill all of the above requirements.

Ida P. Rolf developed Structural Integration. It is a series of ten sessions of fascial release and organization. By lengthening and balancing the connective tissue matrix in an organized fashion, the entire body’s relationship to gravity is improved. With the removal of distorted structural patterns, the evolutionary imperative towards verticality is supported: previously compressed tissues have more space, rigidity moves towards grace and fluidity, breathing is deeper, and energy is increased.

The primary difference between Structural Integration and most other myofascial or manipulative interventions is that Rolfing permanently changes the relationship of the entire structure within the field of gravity. Once this relationship is altered, the body CANNOT return to its original state. In most myofascial interventions, a specific area – the lower back or neck – is addressed, and short-term relief may be achieved. However, the remainder of the body, which was not altered, demands that whatever expansive change had been made be returned to its initial condition.

The River: A river flows along the riverbed, a pathway etched in stone and defined by eons of history. Using mechanical methods, we can force the water to flow outside of the riverbed. But once we remove that force, inevitably the water returns to the original path – a path defined by gravity and history. The human body is the same. Years of living life in the same way has created its own “fascial riverbed.” Most physical and myofascial interventions only mechanically move the river, soon to return to its baseline. Structural Integration changes the riverbed – the entire body’s relationship to gravity. After the ten series of Rolfing, even if the body tries to return to the old pattern, there is no old pattern to return to.

With the permanent change in structure achieved through the ten sessions, the body relates to gravity differently. Forces on every aspect of the body are different. Intracellular tensions upon the collagen matrix cause individual cells to shift in relationship to each other. Changes in positions of muscle, tendon, and ligament cause shortening and lengthening as needed. Actual skeletal reformation occurs as bones, under different gravitational and mechanical forces, become more or less dense to accommodate the new stresses. Ida Rolf would say that after the first ten sessions, there are eleventh and twelfth sessions that occur over the next six to twelve months without any further manipulation – as the new alignment moves towards a higher level of organization within the field of gravity, every aspect of the body responds over time.

Maintenance

“You do not pull a trailer with a Ferrari.” – Richard Podolny, M.D.

Although it would be nice if we could go to practitioners of Structural Integration and say, “Take away my lifetime of suffering,” this is not the case. Although Structural Integration evokes true and lasting improvements, the real work of freeing the body of the past requires a significant commitment to change: changes in beliefs about what is “healthy,” what we need versus what we want, changes in attitude and priorities, and changes in our awareness of ourselves and the world around us.

Once you choose to move towards illuminating your body, transcending your history, and becoming a more complete human being, life may become more complicated.

Things we have done in the past – mindless automated physical, emotional, and mental habits – will no longer conform to the greater awareness a more balanced structure brings to life. The abuses we previously accepted from loved ones, work, family, and perhaps most tragically, ourselves, will no longer be tolerable. Our bodies will no longer tolerate the disrespect. Relationships on all levels will need to change: be refined, redefined, improved – or abandoned.

The Body Never Lies

Imagine you are riding in an elevator: people get in, and people get out. Your body KNOWS safe. It will react. If your body feels a need to move to the other side of the elevator – do not overthink it. Move. If your body says DANGER, take a different elevator – get out. How many tragedies could be avoided by just doing what the body already knows?

Each of us has had moments of being in the body and not the mind. Some call it “the zone:” at one with that perfect wave, skiing over moguls as light as a cloud, singing from your heart, loving without boundaries. Imagine what life would be like if you were always in the zone. What would your body eat? How would it move? What work would it do? Who would it be with? How would you feel?

The more you live IN your body, the greater your chance of making decisions that will keep you healthy, happy, and in the zone.

Guiding Principles for Sustainable Structure and Movement

• Expansion good. Contraction bad.

  Do not put yourself in situations where you find yourself contracting – whether physical, emotional, or mental. If your body is not happy being there, GET OUT.

  In physical exercise, regardless of whether lifting weights, doing cardio, aerobics, or playing sports – remember that every muscle you shorten will need to be lengthened.

• Tone good. Bulk bad.
• Length good. Short bad.

• Balance good. Imbalance bad.

  Unilateral exercise bad; bilateral better. Exercises and sports that do not work the body in balance will inevitably distort your entire structure. In your youth, sports like tennis were quite enjoyable. However, that same buildup of one-sided muscle and bone that was useful to succeed at the sport will, in later years, result in imbalances reflected in severe pain, years of suffering, and eventual shortening of life.

• Do what your body likes. Stop doing things it does not.

  If things hurt while you are doing them, stop doing them. This is not complicated.

  As you learn to listen to your body more and your head less, you will find you are less inclined to spend thirty minutes pounding your joints running and more likely to engage in yoga or tai chi. Listen to your body – it will tell you exactly how much, how long, and what type of movements it likes. All the advice from trainers, books, and specialists of all kinds cannot compare with the inherent wisdom of your own body.

• Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

  Even as recently as two hundred years ago, life expectancy was short. It did not matter if folks abused their bodies – when one lived only to twenty-five or thirty, the repercussions of early trauma were far less relevant.

  Currently, older people easily live into their seventies or eighties. Children being born now may live far longer. With the recognition that every trauma you take on in life will have a lasting and compounding effect on your well-being, the earlier you learn to listen to your own body, the greater your chances of enjoying a genuinely long and healthy life.