Long Term Benefits

Through its emphasis on openness, balance, and ease of being, Structural Integration, also known as Rolfing, can support an individual's needs for the development and maintenance of long-term health and well being. As the body harmonizes itself with the physical and operational laws of nature, it functions more effectively and efficiently in fulfilling the needs of its own demands, and in its response to the stresses of the environment it occupies.

Some individuals may perceive their losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in their back, others as an unflattering contour of their body, others as constant fatigue, yet others as an unrelentingly threatening environment.

Those over 40 may call it old age. And yet, all these signals may be pointing to a single problem, so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored: They are off balance. They are at war with gravity. - Ida P. Rolf

Examples of the long-term benefits Structural Integration (Rolfing) can help one to obtain and maintain in order to have a healthy functioning body are as follows:

Improved Immune Function

Environmental and physical stresses such as hot and cold weather, mental fatigue, emotional traumas, and the demands of contemporary life (indoors, outdoors, sedentary, or active) are more effectively addressed by the immune system when it has a healthy balanced structural body to support it.

Improved Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Function

With less physical resistance restraining and pushing against their tissue and biological structures, the heart and lungs can function more effectively and with more durability. Cardiovascular function can be improved with the structural and spatial opening of the chest, shoulders, back, spine, neck, and abdomen. The pulmonary function of the lungs can be enhanced by opening the soft tissue structures associated with the ribs and by freeing the restrictions on the diaphragm. This allows breathing (approximately 20,000 breaths a day) to flow smoother, easier, and with more capacity.

Improved Digestive Function

With no bones holding us up or apart from the pelvis to the breast bone, the human body through time collapses forward into the stomach area. By opening and balancing the pelvis, spine, abdominal, and thoracic areas, the body's digestive tract has more space and fewer restrictions to inhibit its operation. Our work can also be performed on the tissue surrounding the internal organs' visceral structures to release scar tissue or tissue tightness to further enhance the organ's function, mobility, and motility.

Improved Nervous System Function

Since Structural Integration (Rolfing) promotes the traits of groundedness, relaxation, and ease of being within the body, the body's nervous system responds positively to these more relaxed states. The autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary actions, becomes more nested in its parasympathetic or relaxed branch. This then, reflects back into one's emotional and mental states as "more of a sense of ease" in one's body.

The central and autonomic nervous systems can have their functions compromised by the myofascial system in that nerves become trapped within the body's tissue structure. This causes the nerves to become irritated and their functioning impeded. By keeping the body's structure open, flexible, and relaxed, these problems can be avoided and a healthy nervous system function can be maintained.