And How To Make You
This article is from Gwyneth Paltrow ‘s website Goop.com. They make the claim that you can make you legs longer and leaner with Structural Integration. This certainly can happen, but it is not the goal of the work. The nature of looking at the body holistically means many changes can occur. The therapist in this article goes on to describe Rolf Structural Integration in detail if you click through the link below. There is also bonus foam roller exercises she offers up, which I am a big fan of.
“A visit to structural integrative specialist Lauren Roxburgh begins with a photo session in front of a gridded wall at her Santa Monica studio. She instructs you to stand in your natural posture—in a sports bra and tights—feet aligned against two marks on the floor. 90 or so minutes later, she sets you up in front of the same grid, and then shows you the infomercial-esque results. If she didn’t have you hop off the bed mid-session to hobble around for a few minutes—feeling how strange it is when one of your legs is longer than the other—you wouldn’t believe what you’re seeing. Which is that Lauren has in fact made you taller—and as a result of the heightened alignment, leaner. Your head hits the grid inches higher.
Lauren is an alignment and body mechanics specialist who focuses on the fascia—i.e., the connective tissue in our bodies that doctors are now considering to be the organ of structure or posture. At its best, the fascia is a thin membrane that covers all of our muscles. At its worst, it bonds together to create knots, pain, tension, and thickness, impeding our body’s ability to exercise its full range of motion, and then enforcing the body’s tendencies to restrict itself and shorten. Through a combination of her hands and a foam roller, Lauren can re-align the body, eliminating thicknesses, bloating, toxins, and imbalances. Her work is profound, in large part because fascia is malleable, and it’s inclined to do what it’s told, which is why she counts many pro athletes—and orthopedic surgeons—amongst her clientele. While a session on her table is inarguably invaluable, Lauren believes that you can get about 80% of the results by doing it yourself with one simple tool. Here, she demonstrates exactly what you need to do to bring your hips into alignment, and eliminate thickness, pain, and tension through the upper thighs, butt, and hips.
Q
So what is it exactly that you do?
A
At the most basic level, I do body work—but it’s much deeper than that, as the way we move our bodies says a lot about our lives. On the surface, I address physical issues, and all the stresses that injuries, stress, tension, and daily life place upon us. But at a deeper level, I’m helping people make the connection between their emotions, their movement, and the way that they feel.
What do I mean by that? I help people see that when they hold stress from overwork, physical and emotional behavior patterns, repetitive strain, and even trauma, it is transmitted to the body. You can see it, whether it’s a compressed diaphragm, hunched and sloping shoulders, or thickness through the upper thighs. When I help clients release those stresses, I can empower them to heal the deeper issues that manifest themselves as physical symptoms.
I’ve studied many modalities, from nutrition to yoga to structural integration and meditation, but perhaps the one thing that makes me different is my focus on fascia. Our bodies store the trauma of our lives in our fascia, which can lead to muscular and structural rigidity. When we release the tension in our fascia and align ourselves with gravity we take a new stance, and not just in our bodies.”
Click here for the rest of the article.
Image used with permission from FreeDigitalPhotos.net by: stockimages