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Lower-back pain

LOWER-BACK PAIN “Having wasted time and money trying to treat a herniated disc in my lower back, I committed myself. I would get Rolfed.”

I’ll admit, I was afraid. The extent of my knowledge about Rolfing came from a friend who’d had his nose worked on as a child. He told me that it’s some sort of deep massage (yay!) and that it’s exceedingly painful (er…). But having wasted tons of time and money trying to treat the consistent unease that stems from a herniated disc in my lower back (as well as several other injuries, due to a lifetime of running and playing soccer), I committed myself. I would get Rolfed.

Since most specialists work privately (as opposed to being on staff at a treatment center), finding one was relatively easy—at rolf.org, plugging in a zip code yields a list of area Rolfers. I decided to call Sam Adams (60 minutes for $140, 90 minutes for $160; 917-693-3712 or adamsrolfingnyc.com) because I love beer—and because he has a thorough website, which explains a great deal about the technique.

Developed by Dr. Ida Rolf some 50 years ago, Rolfing is somewhat like massage, but the practitioner manipulates the fascia (tissue that surrounds the muscle) in order to realign and balance the body. If you manipulate the fascia into a position where it can properly support the muscle, it relieves tension and pressure, thus alleviating the pain.

I showed up to Sam’s “office” (a.k.a. his beautiful, calming apartment) and was met by the extremely well-postured man, who ushered me into his Rolfing room and began a lesson in fundamentals. (His treatment consists of a ten-session cycle, but Sam and I met only three times, during which he combined elements of several sessions so that I could get a sense of the entire course.)

“I don’t care who you choose to pray to,” he says, “but here, we all pay homage to the goddess of gravity.” Meaning, you have to accept the fact that at some point, the force will push your shoulders over, your paunch out and your knees toward the floor.

He also tells me that everything in your body is interconnected. If your back hurts, it might be because you walk with your head down, which pulls on your neck, shoulders and lower back. So you have to concentrate on holding yourself as though you have hooks attached to the top of your head and your chest that are always pulling up.

Sam started on my shoulders and back in what felt like a fairly straightforward massage, except that instead of working the muscle as a massage therapist would, it felt more like he was putting brief but intense pressure on the edges of the muscle. Throughout the treatment he would ask me to move my right or left leg (depending on which side he was working on) back and forth—a technique, he explained, that helped the fascia move into place without him having to use too much pressure, which can be painful.

After about 20 minutes, Sam worked on my legs, concentrating on the areas between the muscles and moving them back and forth so as to get deeper into the tissue. He also stretched me. At one point, I sat up on my knees while he stood behind me and pulled my arms back to open up my chest.

After rotating onto my left side so that Sam could work on balancing out my right for about 20 minutes, he rolled me onto my back and asked me to extend my arms. “You see that?” he asked. Yes—yes, I did. My right arm was blatantly longer than my left, and felt amazingly loose and flexible.

I left the hour-and-a-half session feeling light and energetic and as if I was walking taller. I didn’t immediately notice much of a difference in the pain levels, but in the time since I’ve finished my third treatment, the pressure on my lower-back area has eased up and the gnawing ache that accompanied it is about 75 percent of what it had been. The best part: The actual treatment wasn’t as painful as I’d imagined it to be, and actually had more of a tender feeling, similar to someone massaging your ribs (go ahead, try it). I’m the last person to believe in miracle treatments, but I’ll take three 90-minute sessions of massage over years of physical therapy any day. In fact, I’m sure I’ll get Rolfed again. —Katharine Rust

OR TRY

Kiki Herold
The Rolf Method of Structural Integration practitioner—she’s got a serious title, and serious hands—operates out of her cozy Upper West Side home. 212-663-2423; 75 minutes for $125 (first session 90 minutes for $150)

Jamie Compton
Also on the UWS, this kindly practitioner (who offers a free half-hour consultation) targets your worst aches, including computer-related stress. 917-628-8591; 60 minutes for $140