Home - Fixing Backs, Pain, Stress and Tightness with Structural Integration How to Get Sessions Trainings-Classes Consultations-Phone Support Olympic Athlete Testimonials - World Record Holders Other Olympians Athletic Coaches & Trainers Recreational 10K Runners, Marathoners, Others About Master Postural Integrator Lou Gross See Bottom of this Page & Within the Article for More Article Links
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THE MANY BENEFITS WE CAN RECEIVE FROM STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION BODYWORK AND, HOW I DO IT - Part 1 of 2 - The Benefits See INSIDE ARTICLE for a number of On-site Article Links, too AN OVERALL BODY APPROACH * Increases Performance. * Removes Pain, Tightness & Stress. * Reduces chance of Injury. * Improves benefits from other therapies. Jump to Part 2 - Treatment See Bottom of this Page & Within the Article for More Article Links Want to Read later? Download PDF Version
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are provided The muscle fibers are lying in bundles, inside and surrounded by those fascial wrappings. So how long they can be, and how much of them we can use with our nerve instructions, is dependent on how long that fascial putty shape is. We feel this bunching up of the fascial connective tissue as "muscle" tightness, lack of flexibility, and eventually, pain. This is especially true of back pains. The great majority of back and other problems I have seen in the past 20 years of professional experience have been caused by this chronic, accumulating tightness in the fascia of our whole bodies. Back Fix Bodywork Book Info - & links to other Back Info on site Fixing Accumulated Systemic Shortness - Interlocking the whole Body Improving Athletic & Everyday Physical Performance Foods for Structure - what can make Bodywork & Stretching more effective Fixing Fibromyalgia - a brief analysis & associated site article links Creating a Higher Level of Body & Mind Performance with Str Integration Testimonials - A Summary of Benefits w/links to more testimonials This special kind of "connective tissue,
or fascia manipulation" is done all over the
body. And it lengthens and loosens lots of muscular tightness very quickly, much
more than massage. This is not hype nor is it meant to demean another
therapy. This treatment is not meant to substitute for the
physiological benefits of massage. Those strokes are designed to move blood and
lymph through the muscles and promote better circulation and tissue healing.
But they aren't designed to change the length of the big, soft connective
tissue element so significantly. Difference Between & Benefits to Massage – details One great benefit of this treatment is that it makes the body much better
structurally, and physiologically as well. It makes this long term, overall
improvement at the same time it is removing the
accumulated tightness that has been causing pains. Structural Integration
Bodywork also improves a lot of back pain more effectively than
chiropractic because the "cause" of that kind of back pain was tightness.
It was pulling from the legs, pelvis, abdomen, chest and arms. Besides spreading out the fascia, we separate one glued, or
"glommed on" muscle’s fascial wrapping from another. That
gluing kept all the muscles in an area, like the thigh, bunched up in a big
"chunk." So they each couldn’t move back and forth independently from the
others. In Structural Integration, we are actually changing the shape of the body by restoring the proper lengths of the muscles so they work the best with the length of our bones. The body is anatomically re-organized back to where it’s supposed to be, because we have erased much of that built-up tightness we’ve accumulated in the soft connective tissue since childhood. This is a better, more ideal "organization." So it really does enable our bodies to move, and feel, much closer to our designed, optimum level of performance. Posture gets better; people stand up straighter, "automatically,"
without having to make that effort. In fact, most people’s usual effort
to hold themselves up has to be made by tensing their back muscles and
accentuating the natural curves of their lower back and neck vertebrae.
They do this to adjust to the downward pull of gravity when their leg and
abdominal muscles are short. When we apply the hands on manipulations, instead of being a local treatment that focuses only on the site of tension or pain, this "Structural Integration" method works throughout the whole structure. This approach is more effective in removing many problems due to tightness, because the original tension in the front, and the compensating tension in the back, actually cause muscles all over the body to stay tight. So even the common neck, back and shoulder pains and the tendency to have disk, joint or muscle-tendon injuries, are all part of a "system wide" pattern of staying tight. Structural Integration is even scientifically designed to correct our "systemic" accumulated shortness. It was figured out. And there are three major points that explain what it does. First, it removes tightness in all the muscles by re-lengthening the fascia significantly. Second, it re-lengthens the overall muscle "system," so interconnected pulling or gluing from one muscle to another is also removed. This releases tensions from one area that are holding other areas tight. And third, our "recipe" of hands-on strokes is done in an anatomically correct order that follows the body’s "interlocking system" of bones and muscles. In this approach, we get a much more thorough re-lengthening than if we tried to do it in a haphazard manner or tried to just do the areas that felt tightest. When we release these "interlocking pulls," or "knots," the muscles we then work on don’t have to fight against that other tightness. So they actually release farther when we lengthen their fascia, and they stay released much longer. These
three features
take into account how the body is actually put together.
That is why long-term back pain,
neck pain and shoulder tightness really do get better, and the benefits often last a long time,
especially if the person does maintenance stretching. At the risk of
belaboring the point, athletes say we actually re-lengthen accumulated tightness that even
a lot of stretching
does not. So it's a way to increase athletic performance. Foods for Structure - what can make Bodywork & Stretching more effective This technique has helped breathing, for athletes, seniors, and smokers, too. People breath deeper and easier because it lengthens the muscles of the chest, back, neck, and abdomen, all of which move while breathing. It also lengthens the arms, which can keep the chest, upper back, shoulders and neck tight, and it lengthens the legs and pelvis, which can keep the abdomen, lower back and even the internal chest muscles tight. Even Olympic runners noticed their breathing was "fuller," and more parts of their bodies moved when they breathed. The treatment can help internal physiological conditions because it loosens the tension in the area, increases blood and lymph circulation and removes pressure on the organs. So physical therapy can do more, because there’s more of us it can reach and we respond better in our circulation as well as muscle movement. This kind of manipulation softens the hardness that builds up in the fascia
when it's tight, and that improves its fluidity and our muscle tone.
Instead of being too tight or too flaccid, the various muscle groups all have a
more even, "just right" tone. Economy of Effort increases. Movements work more fluidly, with less effort at having to control them because we’ve improved both the structure and physiology. Endurance increases and even accomplished athletes say their recovery time decreases and is more comfortable, often dramatically. Many people have more energy at the end of the day. At the same time that we’re creating length and better body operation,
Structural Integration Bodywork also removes emotional charge and
emotional trauma that we’ve
accumulated in our tissues, often for years. The combination of Tightness
Removal and Emotional Tension Removal restores an aliveness and youthfulness
even to seniors in their 80’s and 90’s and from experience, we know it
also creates more of a confidence, maturity and centeredness for teenagers and
children. Psychological Benefits - details All of this physical improvement removes weeks, months, years and even decades of stress, and Stressful Behaviors are often greatly reduced by the improved condition of both the structure and physiology, along with improved energy flows and better emotional condition. In fact, many people notice an improvement in their mental and interpersonal abilities as well. Stress TestimonialsPart 2 – "Structural Alignment" Treatment
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