Your CGR rolfing session will be tailored with modalities to address your unique needs.

 

ROLFING

At the heart of Ida Rolf's teaching, is the idea that the majority of pain, injury and disease is the result of poor alignment in the body. It's a systemic whole body approach to facilitating freer movement and comfort in the body.

When the connective tissue is aligned, the body moves with optimal neuromuscular efficiency. Good posture ensures that the muscles of the body are aligned at the proper length–tension relationships necessary for effective absorption and distribution of forces throughout the body, alleviating excess stress on joints. In other words, proper posture keeps muscles at their ideal lengths so that joint motion happens the way it should. Proper posture is essential for efficient movement.

  • Compensation patterns are the main reason for misalignments in the body. They happen for many different reasons. Injuries, lifestyles patterns, and emotions are the most common causes of misalignments throughout the body.

    After an injury our bodies often adapt by creating new patterns to compensate for weakness. These patterns work for us while an injury is healing, but afterwards our bodies often hang onto the pattern that we developed.

    There are many different lifestyle patterns that cause misalignments in the body. A parent holding a young child, an athlete with a repetitive motion like swinging a golf club or a bat, or someone working at a desk for many hours per day.

 

MYOFACIAL DECOMPRESSION

Myofascial Decompression (MFD) is a novel approach to manual therapy and exercise that combines negative pressure technology with evidence-based movement science principles in orthopedics and sports medicine. We focus on incorporating cupping therapy to achieve efficiency of movement with fascial mobility and neuromuscular re-education.

  • Myofascial Decompression (MFD) evolved out of addressing sports and orthopedic injuries that did not respond to traditional joint mobilizations, soft tissue interventions, or therapeutic exercise.

    These techniques help maximize outcomes by increasing the quality of movement through fascial flexibility and neuromuscular re-education.

    What are the differences between Myofascial Decompression Techniques and cupping?

    MFD is based on assessing and correcting movement inefficiencies. Backgrounds in biomechanics, kinesiology, and functional anatomy are essential to identify and treat ROM restrictions and muscular imbalance. Interventions include neuromuscular re-education, Assisted Active Range of Motion and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, making the patient an active participant in their treatment.

    Traditional cupping does not include active movement, and often is targeting energetic imbalances from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective. MFD is a novel approach to musculoskeletal treatment, utilizing negative pressure tools and western medicine based movement paradigms and algorithms. These applications are very effective for orthopedics, sports medicine, contractures, post-op recovery, overcoming dominance strategies, postural syndromes, hand therapy, neuro re-education, and scar mobilization.

    How does MFD differ from other soft tissue mobilization tools out there in the market?

    The myofascial decompression approach is the only one of its kind that works in the lifting of adhesions with movement instead of compressing on tissues. If collagen is cross bonded, and fibrosis around tissues leads to decreased blood flow or metabolic exchange, it makes much more physiologic sense to pull on these structures instead of pressing down on them to allow flow improved exchange and mobility.

 

OSTEOPATHIC TECHNIQUES

By using osteopathic techniques we are able to identify specific skeletal restrictions in the pelvis, spine and rib cage. We then use muscle energy as well as the body's natural reflexes to manipulate the spine, which results in releasing the restriction, reducing pain and eliminating compensation patterns. It’s a more gentle approach to chiropractic care as we do not use fast motions for loud adjustments. Our approach focuses on loosening up the muscles, ligaments, and tendons that are pulling the bones out of place, allowing them to slide back into place with ease.

 

SCRAPING / IASTM

Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM)  is a skilled myofascial intervention used for soft-tissue treatment. It is applied using instruments that are made of stainless steel with beveled edges and contours that can conform to different body anatomical locations and allows for deeper penetration. It is used for the detection and treatment of soft tissue disorders through manipulation of the skin, fascia, muscles, and tendons by various direct compressive stroke techniques.

  • The technique itself is said to have evolved from Gua sha which is a method used in Chinese medicine. Gua sha uses instruments with smoothed edges to scrape the skin till red blemishes occur. However, Gua sha has different rationale, goals and application method and is usually targeting energetic imbalances, whereas IASTM is working to improve structure and function (posture and movement).

 

FUNCTIONAL FITNESS

Functional fitness leverages an understanding of anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics to address and fix movement compensations and imbalances to improve the overall quality of movement during workouts and in everyday life.

  • We use Functional Fitness to help assess and determine the root cause of imbalances and faulty movement patterns that lead to issues with posture, balance, and total body coordination.

    Once the issue or issues are identified, we can then develop an exercise routine that addresses the problem through foam rolling, stretching, and total body exercises. This will allow patients to move better, which will open up a variety of new exercises they will be able to do. It will also give them the ability to take part in different activities and sports that they enjoy and may not have been able to do otherwise.

 

NEUROMUSCULAR RE-EDUCATION

Your nerves and muscles work together to produce movements. Nerves send signals between your muscles and your brain about when, where, how fast to move and how much force to use in movement. Pain, inflammation and swelling due to injury, disease, prolonged immobilization or surgery can lead to loss of neuromuscular control, poor posture, poor biomechanics and abnormal movement patterns.

  • Neuromuscular re-education involves retraining the brain, spinal cord and muscles in voluntary and reflex motor activities. In layman terms, it means training or retraining your muscles, brain, and the nerves used for them to communicate with each other in order to improve movement, strength, balance and function.

    We use a variety of manual techniques, repetitive movement, posturing, stimulation and therapeutic exercises in order to redevelop normal movement, balance, coordination, kinesthetic sense, posture, and proprioception.