invasive practices to open tissue?

[mixjourneyman]

Today while doing Pi Quan the inside of my shoulders started to really drop a lot. I like to think that in general I can keep my shoulders down, but today they went down and forward and really opened up (maybe like Shawn was talking about his spine opening, same kind of thing).
Anyways, I'm willing to be that if the exercise wasn't very deep and invasive that that type of softening of the tissues could not have happened.
What are people's views on opening the body through deep tissue stretching and the like?
Any personal experiences?

[shawnsegler]

It's a little spooky.

S

[kshurika]

As a yoga teacher, I find that the two easiest areas of the body to harden up are the shoulders and the groins. Consequently, they're also the hardest to open and keep open. I do yoga and nei gong shoulder openers every day, without fail, because I tend to have tight shoulders anyway from years of weight training. (Side note: weighted overhead presses and shrugs will turn your shoulders into huge, immobile and absolutely worthless lumps of granite.) You should be careful stretching shoulders open - moving from lighter, more shallow stretches to the deeper ones. Good shoulder openers will also free your upper back and neck, where we usually store stress from our Western, computer and car-centered lifestyle.

[escrima]

I've had zen body therapy done on me before which contains aspects of the deep tissue work of Rolfing, the neuro-muscular re-education of Feldenkrais and the ki training of Tanouye Rotaishi. . ZBT includes 10 sessions of some of the most painful and invasive body work you can have done to you and follow up maintenance exercises.

At the time I already had six months of consistent standing practice and the results of certain sessions were dramatic. I think the biggest benefits I got out off all the sessions were new levels of awareness in my body and reaching levels of softness in areas that had previously only been hard during my standing practice.

The body awareness comes from the bodyworker going in and working on muscles most folks don’t even know that they exist. One of the memorable ones for me was my psoas. I had been trying to find it during various movements that engaged the "kwa"/ball and socket joint/inguinal crease. It felt like a painful and invasive tickle, one of the most uncomfortable sensations that I have ever felt. During that session we were intimately and painfully united.

It’s also not that the way they open you up is supposed to hurt, it's just that the stuck together fascia is painful when it's separated for some. Ida Rolf had said something like “I don’t cause pain, I just find what is already there”. Techniques that had felt like a hot knife the first time they worked on a particular muscle felt good in latter sessions even though the same technique and pressure was being applied. Some muscles never felt good though the original intensity dropped off.

I remember reading that in some kalaripayatu training centers in South India, future students receive daily massages for a month before starting their training to get their bodies ready for the training. It was in the book form of the BBC documentary that also has a section on Hong Yi Xiang.

As for stretches, I remember doing a yoga pose (I think it was called the fish) where you start on your back; then I pressed my palms together facing up but behind my back while I arched my upper back opening up the front of my rib cage. Even though I had done plenty of back bend in my life from Capoeira, I had never before experienced a sudden opening up of an area. It was like a new openness had come with a corresponding warmth in my chest and a sense of peace and satisfaction.

I also had a similar experience during a Bikram yoga session with my hamstrings. That was amazing for me since they are typically one of the tightest places on my body. In that case the sensation of tightness and pain shifted. I felt like a zipper opened up in those areas and then I just had more room to stretch. I am sure if I had had a consistent practice I would have had dozens of such experiences.

I've gotten some cool results from both body work and yoga. But like everything else unless you have a consistent practice the benefits are moot and useless. I am coming back to IMA after a 10 year hiatus and it's pretty darn annoying how much I have lost.