SI in Practice
SI in Practice
Typically, SI protocols are 10 or 12 sessions, each with a “specific targeted goal,” says Elizabeth Scupham, LMT, a practitioner at Anatomy Trains in Dunwoody, Georgia. “The series is designed to take the person through their entire connective tissue network systematically, hour by hour.” Alternately, a session may be built around one targeted area. After the first round of sessions, people may continue to come in for “tuneups.”6
Rolf believed that gravity was a significant factor in how we hold ourselves. “Her observation was that we live our entire existence in gravity,” says Jacobson. He adds, “She talked about grace in movement—that the joints should be free to move in a balanced way, flexors should flex and extensors should extend.” SI practitioners will frequently position clients in different postures to understand where tense and painful areas are located. Daniel Tsukayama, LMT, says his sessions begin with a “viewing” of the client’s body, both standing and in motion. He says he is “particularly interested in the position of the client’s pelvis and how other structures above or below the pelvis respond to its alignment.”출장
“A common pattern you see is due to our flexion-based lifestyle (sitting often)—the quadriceps, hip flexors, adductors and abdominals aren’t able to eccentrically load, restricting overall function,” says Ann Teachworth. “In that case, a client’s pain will often occur in the neck and upper back.” However, Lynn Teachworth points out, “If you loosen those posterior muscles that hurt (rhomboids, trapezius, levator scapulae) without getting into the hip flexors, quadriceps, abdominals, pectoralis and anterior neck muscles, you will make a client feel better for a few hours, but you’re actually driving them further into dysfunction.”
SI views the body as a system and, as such, seemingly local pain may originate from more global issues. Ann Teachworth uses lower back pain as another example. “What are the relationships in the body that are causing structures in the lower back to manage forces or movements that are beyond their capacity?” she asks. Many people sit at computers all day and lack thoracic extension or mobility; the lumbar spine may be forced to compensate by absorbing or transferring more force than it should because of lack of motion elsewhere. “If relationships aren’t properly balanced, an area [of the body] is just not going to function optimally.”
