Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979) was a pioneer. After receiving her doctorate in
biochemistry in 1920, she worked at the Rockefeller Institute and then embarked
on an intellectual journey which resulted in her life's work, Structural
Integration, or as is commonly referred to RolfingŪ.
Issac Newton discovered gravity in the 17th century, but few had
thought about the effects of gravity on the body until Dr. Rolf's inquiry in
the 20th. Dr. Rolf began
with two major insights. First, a misaligned body could not be functioning
efficiently in the gravitational field. Secondly, alignment was not so much a
result of the position of bones as much as the result of the pushes and pulls
of the soft tissue throughout the body, which, under stresses, can sometimes
result in imbalances and compensations.
The key, according to Dr. Rolf, was connective tissue, particularly fascia
tissue, a seemingly endless web of collagen fiber that connects everything,
muscle, tendon, ligament, and even organs in the body. Because of fascia's
special chemical properties, able to take on a solid or a gel like character,
the body was a plastic medium able, almost miraculously able to change shape
and form. (For a lecture on fascia and its relationship to stretching,
please view this video) During the 40's and 50's, Dr. Rolf developed techniques and methodologies to
express these ideas. Her crowning achievement is a 10 session series, intended
to fully realign a human body so that it is more efficient in gravity. Under
her guidance a cadre of practitioners were taught her techniques and the Rolf
Institute based in Boulder, Colorado was formed.
Dr. Rolf's work was seminal in that it spawned not only several schools to
teach her work, but a flurry of disciples who published their own work and created
a field of inquiry often referred to as Somatics.
