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Combining Modalities Works
Yesterday I had a session with my Rolfer. I see her about once a month. For the past year I have been having knee pain due to a malalignment of my right leg (i.e., ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, and hip are all involved). I have had her work on this several times and I feel better after the session for a few hours.
Yesterday she watched me walked before she began to work, and then she did my right ankle and right hip before going to my right knee. About half an hour into this work, she asked me to stand up and walk again so she could see if my alignment had changed. It was mildly different and the pain was lessened. She said, “maybe we could do some SMRT to it.” SMRT, for those of you who do not know, is Spontaneous Muscle Release Technique, a modality I created and teach.
I said, “there is one thing I can think of that might help.” At first I attempted to show her how to do the two handed move I desired by placing her hands on my leg, but it was not working. I said, “here, let me do it on you.” “Great,” she said, “do my right knee because it has been hurting.” I placed my left thumb on the lateral condyle of the femur and my right thumb on the lateral condyle of the tibia. My hands were splayed so that my right fingers were about midway down the medial tibia and my left fingers were about midway up the medial thigh. I moved both thumbs medial while moving the fingers of both hands lateral. I then brought both hands toward the knee very slightly to decrease the space in the knee joint. “That feels good!” She said.
I explained what I was doing while holding this both hands in this position for about half a minute. Then I laid back down on her table and she did the move to me. It was fantastic. It felt like my leg had lengthened two inches when she released. She followed this with some amazing work on my sacrum with me in a sitting position. The next time I walked my gait and my alignment were much improved. This morning when I got out of bed for the first time in a long time, I continued to have significantly less pain in my knee and my movement was much more natural. The pain has been returning after sleeping.
In every class I tell students that SMRT combines with and amplifies the other modalities they use. This was a wonderful example of that. Full Circle will be teaching both the SMRT: Thigh & Knee and SMRT: Lower Leg & Foot courses in various locations in 2015. Please check this link for more information or to register, https://efullcircle.com/spontaneous-muscle-release-technique-lower-extremities/
