From my time as a Rolfer to my many years doing deep tissue massage, one of the most common issues that brings people in to see me is back pain. It seems to be an ongoing issue in so many people, I am nearly surprised when someone new comes in who is not plagued by it. I have had my fare share of back issues over the years myself, especially after a weightlifting injury followed by hitchhiking around Europe with a heavy backpack for 7 months, like most people I learned to live with it. I learned certain stretches that helped some, though the pain moved to different parts of my back and I needed different stretches for pain in different areas. I blamed it on a herniated disk, but what was really going on?
I started exploring massage down the road and eventually trained to do it professionally. When people come in for a massage, whether it is Swedish massage or deep tissue, both the massage therapist and the client usually expect to start face down, and have work begin on their back, in fact a typical massage will usually focus on the back for about 70% of the session, and clients will often come in an ask that you spend the whole session on the back. Not only is this usually very relaxing, it is giving priority to an issue that persists in so many people, their back pain and discomfort. That being said, this is not how Rolfing typically works, because massage is not Rolfing, and in respect to back pain I will quote the founder "where you think it is, it ain't".
It may seem condescending to tell someone who comes to you for back pain that the problem is not in your back, but you are paying a Rolfer to use their skill to help you achieve optimal posture, movement, and embodiment, not to simply rub you where it hurts. The spine and the back is dependent on having proper support to be healthy and that support needs to occur up the front of the spine, not as much in the back. We think of the spine as primarily being a structure of the back, because we can usually see the spinous processes of most vertebrae sticking out in the back, but this is a very small part of the vertebra, the actually body of vertebra is much bigger and deeper, and the larger part of the mass that puts weight on the spine is in the front of the spine, not the back. Typically, more often than not, when there is a bulging disk, it is actually in in the front of the spine, where the larger part of the vertebral mass is, but we often feel this in the back, not the front.
So, what is the solution to back pain? There is probably not simply one solution, but the first order of business should be to get support up the front of the spine. What does this mean? Someone with poor posture is very likely to hunch forward, neck, shoulders, chest, with the spine in flexion. This puts ongoing strain on the back. If we get an individual stacked better in gravity, so that when they sit or stand their shoulders are supported over their hips and their head and neck over their shoulders, this will relieve the unnecessary strain on the back. You might think you can start holding yourself this way, but you are wrong. To do so would require more unnecessary strain and cause other problems. Good posture, sitting and standing, must come easily without strain, and the Rolfer must make this possible by working through restrictions that cause unnecessary strain leading to bad posture, and much of this will be found on the front of the body, not the back.
To gain support up the front of the spin is known as prevertebral support, this is where the larger part of our weight is and this is what pulls us down into flexion, along with habits and along with defense mechanisms, animals go into flexion to protect their vital organs so there is an emotional and psychological component to it, but Rolfers work with what they can touch, which is the body, and many times that can help to undo habits and unneeded defense mechanisms too. I very rarely have back pain these days, which I thought I would have persistently for the rest of my life, but I have better posture and use of my body now, even better when I was heavily evolved with power lifting and martial arts. The body has it's own intelligence, it just needs some help to adjust and find it's own balance, and Rolfing can play a key role in that.
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