Just teasing Flash.
I know you were just teasing, Stud. But in all seriousness, when I say this guy is good, I mean GOOD. The fact that he’s treated a lot of athletes, especially when he lived in L.A., makes him very good at diagnosing where the holding patterns are coming from, since he’s familiar with the typical use patterns in athletes.
Last night was the final treatment. Five hours, for a total of 29 hours of work; more than I was originally expecting, but like I stated earlier, my body was screwed up more than I thought.
He really got deep into the psoas (“the Rolfer’s muscle”) and now I know what a loose psoas is supposed to feel like. When I do the lunge stretch, not only is the hip free but I can lean pretty far back and away from the stretch side and feel the freedom up through the torso and chest, even into the shoulders. That’s what you should be feeling when you stretch the psoas. How many of you can do that? (I’m not bragging, simply helping you realize you’re probably much more restricted than you realize).
The psoas release also freed up the low back and pelvis. Now when I bend forward, I can curve over and extend all of the lumbar vertabrae so that the stretch is felt across the sacrum and ischeum, not the back and lower hamstrings like before.
Lou also went much deeper into the leg muscles and broke up more restictions and adhesions in the deep layers. Now when I roll the legs back and forth, the muscles actually roll too. Before the treatment, the whole limbs were restricted in motion. Then he freed them up so that the bones and joints rotated freely, but the muscles were still stiff and glued together. Now the different muscle layers roll (ripple) independently as the bones freely rotate underneath them. I hope I’m articulating this clearly, because it’s really something you have to see and feel. It’s difficult to describe. But I’m trying to help people understand what optimal movement and tissue texture should feel like. I for one really didn’t have a clue until now.
He also freed up more of the deeper layers in the back, chest, shoulders and neck, which further freed the legs, just as the leg release freed the upper body. Bascially, the last treatment was the final integration part, where the whole structure was really brought together.
The other benefit I received from this past week’s treatment was a better understanding of how to apply stretching properly, and how the different muscles and stretches interact, particularly the hamstrings, adductors, abdominals, and psoas.
If I’m trying to loosen and relengthen a muscle, I now know how to work other muscles that affect it if it’s not lengthing properly. It’s no longer a matter of stretching one muscle, then going on to the next one, etc. I know what each muscle group is supposed to feel like, and if I’m not getting the right stretch, I know which other muscles to work on, then come back to the original muscle group and get better length. Stretching now is more of a process than a prescription (to borrow one of Ian King’s phrases) wherein I know what the end point should feel like and can now work back and forth between the stretches until I get to that target point.
This is important since there is still a lot more that I have to do on my own to maintain and build upon the work Lou has done. The structural integration bodywork has essentially put my body in the optimal state to respond to stretching and other soft tissue work (i.e. massage). In other words, I’m now ready to begin.
I hope I haven’t been annoying everyone with these long detailed posts, but this has been a truly transforming experience and I thought some of you might be interested. I’ve waited a long time for something like this, and I hope some of you will also try it and see for yourselves.
Flash, I’ve enjoyed the posts. Makes me wish I had more disposable income. Let us know how you feel once you start running again.
I wanted to make a point about one of my previous posts. I originally stated that Mike Powell said the deep tissue massage made him sore and stiff. I’ve edited it to read it made him feel “beat up”, which were Mike’s exact words. I just wanted to clarify that point, since my paraphrase put words into Mike’s mouth, and I don’t want to burn any bridges between him and Lou.
duck,
I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m going to start easing back into it this week. There is naturally going to be some acute shortening of the muscles in response to the training; in fact there has been all week in between sessions. The key is how much shortening occurs and how easily I can release it back to the state Lou left me in (and hopefully even go beyond that state).
Like I stated before, the muscles actually release pretty easily when I stretch them now rather than fight me, which is a new thing for me. Releasing acute tightness caused by neuromuscular reflexes is much easier than releasing chronic tightness caused by adaptive shortening and collagen cross links in the fascia. I’m also starting to experiment with Feldenkrais exercises to help with flexibility and muscle release. I’ll keep you posted on that as well.
Regarding cost, at the very least, give Lou a call and get some free stretch coaching from him. He’ll ask you about your situation and walk you through some stretches that might help. He’s very good at diagnosing where the holding patterns are coming from. Lou loves working with athletes and I know he’d love to talk with anyone on this forum. I know from the number of views that a lot of people have been following this thread, so at the very least give him a call or email him.
http://www.backfixbodywork.com/index.htm
He has registered with the forum, and hopefully he will jump in and share his insights.
I wonder if that is akin to “reflexology” in which allegedly different parts of the feet correspond to different parts of the body. I always wonder if that’s real science or hocus-pocus-look-into-my-crystal New Age stuff.
I think to whatever degree reflexology has merit (which I believe is much less than its proponents say), it’s probably from the fascial connection between the feet and the rest of the body. That aspect definitely is not New Age mumbo jumbo.
Today I did my first tempo workout since getting the structural integration work and there was quite a difference. Because the hip joints are looser and freer, my legs land more under my body and there is more action at the hip joint, reducing the amount of pushing coming from the feet and calves. It’s nice to be able to run and not have my calves gradually lock up as the workout progresses. Overall, I felt much lighter and more fluid when I ran.
I was also able to stretch and easily reset the muscle tone between sets. Now that I’m used to loose muscles, I was very aware of the acute tightening that occurs during the workout.
I also had a massage tonight and noticed a dramatic improvement in the effectiveness of the massage, since the muscles are much softer now and more responsive. I definitely got more return on my investment.
How did your body get into such a state?
When will you sprint? Keep us informed…
I got that way from a lot of lifting and running over the years without the necessary accompanying stretching and massage work. It’s hard to be consistent with massage from the beginning because it’s expensive, and when you’re a teenager or college student you simply can’t afford it, unless you are lucky enough to be coached by someone like Charlie who will do the massage himself if he has to.
Stretching, on the other hand, is cheap and should be emphasized from day one. As I mentioned in another thread, Ian King has been a fiend about stretching for years, and I think he’s right.
I’ll probably progress to some speed work next week, weather permitting. This has been an exercise in Murphy’s Law. I sat out weeks of beautiful weather until my soft tissue problems were resolved, and now that I’m ready to train, the crap weather has rolled in. Rain is more of a problem than cold.
For right now I’m easing back into tempo and weight lifting. The muscles are definitely tightening in response. However, thus far they have responded very well to stretching and massage, and I’ve been able to reset the tone and length without too much trouble, unlike before. The key is whether that will continue as the load progresses. My priority is to immediately release any acute tightness so that it does not become chronic again.
I’m using my muscle looseness and structural alignment as a gauge. I won’t increase the load until I know I can still maintain the correct soft tissue state. Now that I know what it’s supposed to feel like, I can use that as a feedback mechanism. This might require doing much less training, but if the tissue is not in the proper state to train, then I’m just wasting energy and making the problem worse, not improving performance. Less is more.
I hope you get fully back in the groove soon. Best of luck to you. Where do you compete? Masters?
I believe in stretching too. There has been a real movement amongst trainers these days to get rid of it entirely. All I know is that I feel better when I stretch, and the more extensively I stretch the better I feel.
I even stretch the hip flexors and hip extensors now too, and I think that helps my back a great deal.
When I bend over to touch my toes there is much more restriction in my left side than my right side. I don’t feel my hamstrings too much in that stretch - rather my back and joints.
Many years ago I suffered a stress fracture in the L5, and I wonder if there is a fascia problem.
Have you sprinted yet? How do things look and feel?
I’ve done some warm-up accelerations this week as a way to ease back into it. The action felt very loose and easy, particularly in regard to pelvic and shoulder rotation. However, the muscles really tightened up in response, and I’ve spent that last two days stretching and getting massage to release them. Luckily, they’ve responded well to the therapy.
A lot of this has to do with not having sprinted in 7 weeks. Most of the tightness was in the hamstrings, as you would expect, which translated down into the calves and up into the back. Before I had the structural integration work done, I probably wouldn’t have been aware of the tightness, because I considered that normal. However, now that I know what everything should feel like, I’m acutely aware of any tightness when it occurs, which is an invaluable feedback mechanism.
It’s going slow because I’m stuggling to maintain the looseness while going through the normal tightness/soreness that inevitably comes from reintroducing training elements after a detraining period. This is a great object lesson in the value of vertical integration.
Previously, I would just train whether or not my tissue was in the ideal state (which it never really was). Now, when I go through the warm up process, if I can’t get the muscles into the state I want them in I simply end the workout and do some stretching and/or schedule a massage. I had to do this Wednesday with my scheduled tempo workout. The legs were too tight from Tuesday’s modest speed work, and I couldn’t get them loose enough even for tempo running, so I went home and stretched, and then got worked on last night. It can be frustrating, but there’s no point in training (even low intensity training) if the tissue is not prepared for it. I never realized before how much training can screw up the body, especially the weight lifting. Most weight trainers are soft tissue nightmares.
However, I’ve been very happy with my ability to maintain the loosness and postural alignment that Lou established. There’s been some “settling” of the structure, so I don’t quite have the super loose, “anti-gravity” feeling I did after I jumped off the table when Lou worked on me, but that’s to be expected. But for the most part, the structural changes have held pretty well and are becoming easier to maintain.
Hello Flash!
glad to see you are ready for some action again! hope everything is getting better and better from now on!
just some help here, since you have all this recent experience and i wouldn’t say i’m an expert on this kind of treatments as i’ve told you before…
re microStretching: i can see it takes a rather long time for each session; however, is there any way you can split the routine, e.g., some muscle groups on a day, others on the next, or is it something that has to be done as a whole?
would you use it after specific sessions, or it works better after, say, tempo?
thanks!
PS let me know about your pregress now that some time has elapsed!
I haven’t been using the microstretching routine, because the stretches really don’t engage the fascial chains. Instead I’ve been using Lou’s stretches along with a few other stretches I’ve picked up or developed on my own. I’m doing as much research as I can on fascia to further develop my stretching skills, and hopefully I’ll have a chance in the not so distant future to train with Guy Voyer.
As far as breaking up the session, yes you can do it. However, since everything is connected, I really can’t get the proper release unless I work through the whole body. Also, I don’t just go through a series of stretches. I usually work back and forth between stretches since the muscles all interact, so the length of my stretching sessions is determined more by kinesthetic feedback than a prescribed time.
However, I do think breaking the stretching into several shorter sessions throughout the day is very effective (maybe more so). But I would recommend trying to hit the whole body in each session, rather than a specific body part or region due to the interaction of the fascial planes. That way, you can go deeper overall in subsequent sessions.
Regarding use on tempo days, this is exactly what Clemson recommends. His prescription is to use more neuromuscular methods (i.e. PNF, MET, AIS) on high intensity days to reset the muscle tone, and then use more structural type stretches on tempo days.
As far as how my training is going, basically, it’s not. Due to work and weather, I really haven’t done any consistant training since I got worked on by Lou, just short spurts. The last few months have really been an extended soft tissue regeneration period. But I think in the long run, my body will thank me for it. I am 32 after all.
hey old man! are you kidding me? you are just fine!
it’s pity you can’t apply all this improved state of yours on the track! hopefully, in the long run, as you say, you can build up on this!
thanks for the info!
i’m just trying to stretch after each session, but this is just normal stretching; i’ve tried PNF after some sessions, but usually i feel a bit sore the next day, especially in flexors; i might have overdone it…
also, i’ve tried some deep massage, but as you say, most of the time it feels like tissue bruising rather than “functional” treatment and i tend to avoid it and i sometimes live in about the same state as you were before your late experience -although i’m not as bad as you were i’d imagine…
thanks for your comments though!
Try to keep the stretching intensity low, even with PNF work. You don’t need to use much more than a 25% effort during the isometric contraction. And don’t try to stretch too much further after you release the contraction, the changes are subtle.
I should also clarify that I do use the basic microstretching approach (low intensity stretch, longer holds). I just don’t use the specific stretches outlined in the basic routine in Nikos’ article.
ok, so: i probably overdid it with the PNF (pushing too hard); i think it’s good though, especially after speed work as you said
secondly, i’ll use normal stretching after tempos -and if possible some stretching at some other point of the day (as a second session), even if this is a short one -and for the whole body; i think it will help with recovery; it’s just a matter of time sometimes… Or microStretching, at least as a concept -i like the idea of “relaxed” stretching and long durations have helpled me in the past with an ITB injury (still more flexible on this side…)
can you drop me a line about muscle tone though? i’ve seen this term used extensively in Charlie’s books and although i’ve got some idea what’s about, i’m still not sure… any links or something?
thanks!
PS if i’m bothering you too much, let me know; no probs!