Coming to Rolfing: Tony

Before going to India to study Ashtanga yoga, my teacher in Ireland gave me just one piece of advice, which was to take it easy for the first week. I kept his advice in mind as I started to practice but ended up getting carried away with the energy in the shala, and I hurt my lower back while back bending. When practicing Ashtanga yoga, between each main pose you flow through a small sequence to the next main pose. Within each flow sequence there is a backbend called upward dog. You do this about 50 times in a session. Each of these upward dogs was terribly painful and other backbends were totally out of the question.

Some of the other yoga students recommended that I go to a chiropractor who had an office close to the shala. She helped get me to a stage where my yoga practice was helping my back recover instead of hindering it. She also said something interesting. She said my bad posture was putting strain on my back and that it was the root of my back problems. Then she mentioned that I should look into Rolfing. There was a Rolfer® in India that I had become friendly with, but he was booked up, so I couldn’t get any sessions with him.

As soon as I got back to Ireland I found a Rolfer that lived close to me. The changes to my body were profound. I found that I was able to stand naturally straight with no effort. In fact after the 5th or 6th session, I enjoyed the sensation of getting up out of a chair and standing up so much that for about a week I would do it just for fun. People, including my parents, asked me if I had gotten taller. It’s a weird experience having your parents ask if you are taller at my age. Others commented that I was remaining calm in difficult situations where before I may have let the stress take over. My knock knees straightened up significantly and the recurring knee pain that I had had disappeared.