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This classic children’s song “The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone, the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone….. Now shake them bones!” takes on a different meaning as we enter the workplace and can begin to suffer from repetitive strain injuries (RSI).
Motions that we repeat such as typing at a computer, lifting heavy boxes, bending, twisting, grasping and reaching, can cause painful RSI. These repetitive movement patterns can gradually damage tendons, ligaments, muscles, and nerves. Common symptoms of RSI include tingling, numbness and feelings of weakness in the hands, arms, legs and stiffness or soreness in our neck and/or back.
Specialists in Eastern medicine and Rolfing use holistic approaches for resolving RSI.
Rolfing Structural Integration was named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf who developed a form of bodywork that reorganizes the connective tissues or fascial membranes that surround and wrap the entire body. Dr. Rolf recognized in the 1950s that the body was not just separate body parts, but rather a system of interconnected tissues.
Dr. Rolf designed a systematic ten-session series of hands-on bodywork to re-balance and align the entire body’s structure in gravity to restore fluid and efficient movement. Iyengar Yoga, a form of yoga with a focus on the structural alignment of the physical body, had a huge influence on her thinking and way of working.
“If you’re sitting at a desk day after day and you hold a particular posture, the fascia hardens from postural holding, from emotional patterns and from injuries that are set into the body,” Valerie Berg, a certified advanced Rolfer of 35 years, tells me. “And when you stand up, maybe you don’t stand up as well anymore.”
“Ida Rolf was emphatic that we are always dealing with how we are in gravity, so that we’re not broken down by it,” Berg says. “She emphasized the importance of understanding how the body is affected by gravity and how to support it, rather than just teaching people to sit up straight or pull their shoulders back.”
“The neck has to do with your thigh, your arms, the way your pelvis sits, the way your feet are and the way you move,” she says. “A Rolfer has a whole-body systematic approach to change all those relationships for better functioning in gravity.”
Your session can be done clothed, in your underwear or bathing suit. A Rolfer will look at you standing, sitting and moving to identify physical patterns and work to change those relationships throughout the entire body.
To help resolve RSI, Dr. Thomas Earnest, a certified advanced Rolfer, says he uses a “three prong” approach that includes Rolfing, acupuncture needling, tissue manipulation, herbs and diet. His unique holistic approach observes the client’s posture, tongue, face assessment and their structure.
“Almost everybody could benefit from Rolfing if they’re having some sort of a RSI pain that is almost always connected to misalignment,” Earnest says. “There’s also a lot of really potent acupuncture points that can get to places sometimes faster than Rolfing.”
“The most common deficiency I see is vitamin B6, and its deficiency mimics probably a good 80 percent of carpal tunnel that occurs in the wrist,” Earnest explains. “It’s not that the nerve is actually the problem. It’s being inflamed because the ligaments and tendons are shortening due to a lack of vitamin B6.” “If you only have one way of doing things, you’re pretty limited,” Dr. Earnest says. “People can mouse with their left hand. It doesn’t always have to be the right hand. For RSI, I also recommend patients do the Yoga Pilates method or the Egoscue Method of physical therapy.”
Dr. Thomas E. Earnest
3751 Manchester Dr. NW
(505) 341-1167
Valerie Berg
3751 Manchester Drive NW
(505) 341-1167