Second Hour

Structural Integration is not a treatment but a preparation for the use of gravi ty. Structural Integration is preparation for relating oneself to gravity. We are not healers but teachers. We are understudies of gravity. We are teachers not therapists. The Rolf Line forms a relationship between man and gravity. Watch how a random body lies. This tells you a lot. Insistent corrections to nor mal for random bodies may put strain into the structure. Use your heads! To a random body, straight/upright is the position which balances the strains. Discrimination is the hallmark of maturation. Discrimination = Differentiation Even psychological healing requires discrimination. Gravity does not heal shattered nerves!! We can say, however, that Structural In tegration does help. In some cases it is possible to create more pain by changin g stresses and balances. A child with club feet has a problem from the bottom of the spine to the occiput . I believe that reflexes are points of strain transmitted by the fascia. IPR Be artists, not scientists. MD's should be artists and some still are but those who can't be artists become scientists. See the whole, not the parts. Reflex work tends to be very temporary unless the necessary structural changes c an be made. If the big toe is very sore, see what's wrong with the neck and head. If your real interest is in symptoms and pain, then you have no business doing S tructural Integration. In the Second Hour we begin to look specifically at joints. You should be able t o get the lateral arch moving during this hour and you had better get the ankle moving It is not so wonderful, nowadays, to relieve a symptom; but it's indeed wonderfu l to relieve and change a whole man. Flat feet are not flat feet they are flat shins. If you really know shin and ret inacular anatomy you should have no real problem with flat feet. Club feet are in the spine. Yogi's used to go out and walk in grass to aid in excretion through the feet.

If the gut is continually full, then material flows from the gut into the body. This is the value in fasting. Yogis believe that the soles of the feet are second only to the rectum as organs of excretion. Do not work on people who are fasting. They need ample new metabolites and prote in in their blood. The essence of exercise is the sliding movement of fascial planes. A normal foot tracks straight ahead and does not evert. Sometimes eversion of th e foot is a matter of cultural conditioning. The ankle should look as if it were horizontal. It cannot be, but it must act as if it were. Weight should be transmitted through the inner three toes of each foot. The oute r two toes (outer arch) should be slightly tipped upward in order to support the inner arch. The folds of skin at ankles are a good clue as to the horizontality of the joint . An ordinary aberration is the gluing together of the two peroneal tendons under the outer maleolus. The plane on which the ankle folds must be horizontal. This is not necessarily t he plain of the external and internal maleolus. If the structural plain is "way off" the functional plain cannot be "way on." Flat feet: The flattened fallen bones never get to a place where they cannot rev ert back to give normal support unless they are genetically malformed or severel y damaged surgically. Unless a bone has been traumatically moved, our work need only be on the fascia to restore function. When you have flat feet, you don't have flat feet you have disorganization of th e muscles crossing the shin. Don't change the foot at the foot. Get the muscles of the leg so organized that they can change the foot. No foot has ever broken down until the outer arch breaks down. While the outer a rch is intact, the foot is intact. Look at the foot and decide whether or not the foot belongs to the person. What is wrong with the foot as a foot? as a part of the person? The outer arch must b e long enough to match the inner. Sometimes it's more important to start with the peroneal group rather than the r etinaculae. Usually we start at the retinaculae. Normally work up on the outside of the leg and down on the inside. It's a good idea to have your client walk on one good foot before doing the othe r. Work where you see the "heaping" on the leg. Tissue should be balanced as much o

n the front as on the back as much tissue on the inside as on the outside. The tibialis anterior and the peroneus brevis form a stirrup for the foot, since both attach to the medial cuneiform and first metatarsal. Why is the fibula always in so much trouble? The soleus, flexor hallucis longus, tibialis posterior, extensor digitorum longus, extensor hallucis longus, perone us tertius, peroneus brevis, and peroneus longus all pull down on the fibula. Th e biceps femoris is the only muscle which pulls up on the fibula. In Session One you are balancing the back. In Session Two you are taking the lon g back muscles and putting them into a position where they can act as extensors. In First Hour backwork, you are balancing the material you have available. In th e Second Hour, you are trying to make some move material available. In Second Hour backwork, we stretch and release extensors to allow a horizontal pelvis. This may involve lumbar rotations, etc. But the main job is to make the extensors more resilient. Without length you cannot straighten bodies. We need the peace of space in which to function. The pelvis comes to horizontal by adjustment through the legs and feet. You cann ot have a truly horizontal pelvis with flat feet. The feet must relate (feel rel ated) in a horizontal way to the earth before the pelvis can be (feel) horizonta l. Work below the pelvis is to establish a horizontal base for the pelvis. Work abo ve the pelvis is to lift and lighten the load on the pelvis. Without balance from the feet (feet which feel flattened or grounded), there mus t be holding and attempts to adjust to horizontal throughout the rest of the bod y all the way to the top of the head.