Rolfing

Session #4. I got rolfed again yesterday.

1. I'll start with my usual warning: If you ever want to get rolfed and get an impartial, genuine experience, do not read this (read my first 2 rolfing sessions writeups instead). It's not because it would be scary, but I am talking about my experiences here so if you do keep reading, you will condition yourself to expect something similar and your mind will build a response to before you have a chance to try it yourself. In any case I love rolfing and I do recommend it after my experiences.
   
2. Ashlane made me walk first and did her usual 'hmmm, hm, oh, hmmm, ...' type of a stuff (although not necessarily loud).
3. She worked my feet a little and then went deep into my inner legs. In the past I wondered how could she possible go any deeper (I think that was after the second session). She seems to be pretty good at finding a way.
4. The trick is to relax, as usual. A couple of times I just stopped and focused on enjoying the feeling. It's kind of cool when you can relax because someone is jamming their elbow ('the blade' seems to be the official rolfer's term) into your legs. Notice I said 'because' and I meant it. Good mental exercise.
   
5. I am also beginning to notice a trend here. We work on the torso in one session, legs in the next one, then upper body again, then legs ...
6. She wanted me to walk back and forth in the halftime when she was done with my left leg. It felt really heavy and I was a bit off balance.
7. Then she did the other leg and I regained my balance, although both legs felt pretty heavy.
8. Didn't have any jitters or shakes this time.
9. Although she went deeper than ever before - yet one more time, no bruises.
10. I rode my big bike (motorcycle) this time and I started questioning my choice of vehicles. I thought it's probably not a good idea to be a bit unstable and ride a bike. To my surprise, my legs just wrapped around the bike and I had a very good feeling of being in touch with the bike on my way back. Interesting. If I didn't know any better I'd have said that I have became one with the bike. I could feel the machine responses through my legs. Cool. BTW, if you don't know much about bikeriding, this is the bikers nirvana - you feel it talking to you through your body.
    
11. For the remainder of the day my legs felt burning. Like the burn you get after a good workout.
12. I noticed my kidneys filtered a bunch of crud out of my body. There seems to have been a lot of stuff flushed out of my legs.
13. I went to my yogalates class last night and noticed that my left side is more flexible than the right side. I can stretch further to the left.
14. I also noticed that I could see the definition of my muscles on my left leg. This was really cool - I could clearly see the dividing line between my muscles. Obviously there is some kind of a long triangular muscle there that I have not seen before. Cool.
    
15. During the yoga stretches, sitting on the mat with my feet resting, my knees at 90 degrees, I noticed that my leg muscles (both upper and lower leg) felt like they were suspended in a bag, just hanging down. This was really cool.
16. I woke up in the morning and went to the hottub as I have been doing lately. My legs felt quite tender and tired like after a heavy workout. The idea was to go swimming but then I decided to just stay in the hottub (for almost 1 1/2 hours, I started at about 5:15 am) and screw the swimming. I think it was a good call. Took a day off from exercise today.
    
17. Ashlane did some movement around my hurt ankle and I think it helped it quite a bit, too. I didn't feel any pain at the yoga class while stretching it (it did feel sore on Tuesday).
18. Ashlane corrected my walking and posture. I practiced it today, it makes me and my legs feel better. I started thinking of my legs as starting at my hips and I started to use my hips more while I walk. It feels like I can stretch them better when I walk and it seems like I can utilize all their strength. I promised I will not practice by walking 7 miles to work like this. An easy and slow transition is probably more desirable and longer lasting.
    

So I have to say one more time - thanks, this is really cool, I love going through this. It seems to be really helping my understanding and appreciation of my body. Excellent experience.