Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/97768
the pelvic lift One-Handed Insight There is an apocryphal story from the late '50s (meaning I was about 10 and so have no idea of its truth) that Ida Rolf always taught the pelvic lift using the two-handed method, and that Stacey Mills—one of the few women who could stand up to Rolf in those days—came into the yearly summer training saying, "Look, Dr. Rolf, I've been experimenting with doing the pelvic lift one-handed, so that my other hand is free to work or cue elsewhere." Reportedly, Ida was not pleased, and told her forcefully and in detail why Dr. Ida Rolf, founder of structural integration and the first teacher of the pelvic lift. Photo courtesy of Thomas Myers. this approach would never work: it was unequal, didn't give the right message, etc. But by the time they showed up for the next year's training, there was Ida Rolf, doing the pelvic lift one-handed, teaching it that way, and more or less glossing over the idea that it had ever been done any other way. My experience, from three decades later, was that Ida Rolf was tough and opinionated, but also generous and fair in giving credit. But she had to fight her way to getting her message across in the decidedly male-dominated world of the '40s and '50s. That scrapping left its mark on her. —Thomas Myers 100 massage & bodywork january/february 2013 or flexed lumbar curve or a posterior tilt of the pelvis. For this group, perform the technique gently over a towel or other small pillow that maintains a lumbar curve as the lumbars settle behind your hands. The emphasis during the technique becomes differentiation of the lumbars, not dragging the tissue down. Finally, as you get interested in all the possibilities we list below of what you could be doing here, understand that the full weight of the person's pelvis is on your hand. Get your work done and get out before your hand is squeezed bloodless. If my hand starts to go numb I have the client lift up, and I continue when my hand has full feeling again. So, in summary: the client lies supine with her knees up, she lifts the pelvis and lumbars with care, you place your hand or hands under the soft tissue on both sides of the back, she lowers her pelvis one segment at a time onto your hand as you draw the tissue down toward the tailbone, leaving the client in an elongated, relaxed, and yummy feeling of the low back and sacrum on the table. Simple? The Starter List Well, not so simple. The low back is a crossroads for many forces in the body. Of course, the sacrum is a triangular bone where complex pressures come from three sides: the two sacroiliac (SI) joints, where legs meet spine in gravity while standing, and the L5 SI sacrolumbar (SL) junction, where the spine rests on the pelvis. So, this is anything but simple in terms of the biomechanical forces in the area. Here's the bare list of possible objectives, listed in an order that is logical to me, not in order of importance. What's important depends on the individual pattern. After the list, I unpack a few of these with additional comments.