Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/97768
D uring my apprenticeship with Dr. Ida Rolf—way back in the antediluvian mid-1970s, before computers, cell phones, or email, when Mission Impossible was a (good) TV show—she would end nearly every session with a fascial release procedure called the "pelvic lift." In the pelvic lift, the client, supine with her knees up, rolls her pelvis up from the tailbone until the lumbars are off the table. The therapist slides a hand, palm up, under the lumbars, stretching and easing tissue along the posterior of the lumbars and sacrum as the client brings the pelvis slowly, segment by segment, back down to rest onto the practitioner's hand. Rolling the pelvis up and settling back down vertebra by vertebra is a time-tested exercise given many names by many different professions; you will find variations of this in dance fundamentals, Pilates, personal training, yoga, and all over the various disciplines within somatics. The pelvic lift is a hands-on variation of this common exercise. During the maneuver, Dr. Rolf's hand was under the client with the full weight of the client's pelvis bearing down on her hand. You couldn't see much, and Ida was a fabulous practitioner but not much of an explainer. What was she doing under there? We wanted to ask, of course—here was something she did with everybody and told us to do the same, so surely it must be of paramount importance—but we were too respectful to disturb her with questions when she was working. (Besides, asking the wrong question at the wrong time could produce an unfortunate blistering and belittling response from our mentor. "Watch and listen" were our watchwords.) She was often clearly working in the tissue along the low back and sacrum, but it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on. www.abmp.com. See what benefits await you. 97