A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 99
Watch Til Luchau's technique videos and read his past
articles in Massage & Bodywork's digital edition, available at
www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com, www.abmp.com,
and on Advanced-Trainings.com's Facebook page.
"Ankle/Quadriceps
Technique"
uses tactile and verbal cues to help highlight
the client's felt experience of over-coupling.
Often, his method involved comparing two
or more movements, so that the freer, less
stuck-together, and less-efforted option
became clear.
3
Though Rolf was famously private about
her sources, she did name Feldenkrais as a
notable infl uence on her work.
4
Friends in
their later years (Image 1), their approaches
weren't as opposed as they might appear.
In a letter to Rolf on her 78th birthday,
Feldenkrais wrote:
Structural integration and functional
integration have more in common than the
word that connects them. Indeed, and in the
case of humans, structure and function are
meaningless, one without the other; so that when
you integrate structure as nobody else can, you
improve functioning.
5
In honor of these two pioneers'
complementary approaches, I'll describe
a technique—Ankle/Quadriceps
Decoupling—that I learned in my early
structural integration training, though
you can see that it is primarily a functional
reeducation technique. Even though the
quadriceps are not necessary for ankle
dorsifl exion, most people automatically
contract their thigh when bringing the
foot up with a straight leg. As with the Jaw/
Cervical Technique ("Uncoupling the Neck
and Jaw," Massage & Bodywork, May/June
2017, page 97), you can adapt it to other
parts of the body, and use its principles to
minimize what Feldenkrais called "parasitic
tensions": the unnecessary participation of
other structures in any desired movement.
6
Your clients will feel lighter and freer, and
move easier as a result.
Notes
1. Though there is growing agreement that hands-
on work produces less actual tissue change
than was thought in Ida Rolf's time, there is no
consensus yet about whether tissue change plays
some role or no role in bodywork's benefi ts, with
reasonable evidence on both sides of the debate.
2. Ida P. Rolf, The Integration of Human Structures
(New York: Harper & Row, 1997): 94.
3. S. Hillier and A. Worley, "The Effectiveness of the
Feldenkrais Method: A Systematic Review of the
Evidence," Evidence-Based Complementary and
Alternative Medicine 2015, no. 1 (May 2015): 1–12,
https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/752160.
4. A. Baniel, "Ida Rolf and Moshe Feldenkrais,"
accessed August 2018, www.feldenkraismethod.
com/his-life/ida-rolf-moshe-feldenkrais.
5. The Feldenkrais Guild, "For Athletes," accessed July
2018, www.feldenkrais.com/athletes.
6. The Feldenkrais Guild, "For Athletes."
Til Luchau is a Certifi ed Advanced Rolfer,
the author of Advanced Myofascial Techniques
(Handspring Publishing, 2015–2016) and a member
of the Advanced-Trainings.com faculty, which
offers distance learning and in-person seminars
throughout the United States and abroad. He
welcomes questions or comments via
info@advanced-trainings.com and Advanced-
Trainings.com's Facebook page.
THE SOMATIC EDGE
