One individual may experience his losing fight with gravity as a sharp pain in the back, another as the unflattering contour of his body, another as constant fatigue, and yet another as an unrelenting threatening environment. Some may call it old age; yet all these signals may be pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structures and the structures of others that it has been ignored; they are off-balance; they are at war with gravity
Dr. Ida P. Rolf

One of Rolfing’s primary goals is to balance the human structure in relation to the force of gravity. Gravity exerts a constant pull on all bodies toward the earth which we experience as weight. When we are out of balance it drags us down just as it does a building or tree that has lost its structural integrity. We “shrink” over time. Poor posture, emotional distress, injury or illness inevitably leads to an unbalanced body that struggles to stay upright. This constant strain in the body’s myofascial/musculo-skeletal system often gives rise to pain, rigidity of movement and depleted energy. Through Rolfing a person can discover ways of utilizing the weight of their body while standing, sitting and in movement in such a way that gravity transforms into a means of support.