Anatomy Trains Video Series

by Tom Myers

This video, Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers, is about Rolfing or Structural Integration bodywork techniques
combined with Myers' particular perspective—the Anatomy Trains. The techniques are not new, nor are
they unique to Myers, just his Anatomy Trains perspective is new. Maybe anyway.
Rolfing is a trademarked term, whereas Structural Integration is not and is considered a more generic
term. We will use both labels interchangeably; however SI is a nice short abbreviation.
Rolfing is the aligning of the body with respect to gravity via direct manual manipulation. It was started
by Ida Rolf back in the 50's and was based on Ida's studies of yoga, osteopathic, and possibly influenced
by some of Frederick Matthias Alexander's more radical students. She may have been influenced by G. I.
Gurjeff as well. The only initial connection between Rolfing and massage may have been that there was an
Indian bodyworker in France during the early part of the Twentieth Century who practiced what he
called, “pranotherapy.” The same guy had an influence on the founder of Neuromuscular Therapy or NMT,
now a major form of massage.
Structural Integration, or more narrowly Rolfing, focuses on aligning a person's body in such a way as to
maximize a person's ability to function in gravity. If a person is skewed and twisted, even slightly, their
ability to function in their lives is diminished. Whereas chiropractic and osteopathy focus on the
alignment of bones, SI practitioners focus on aligning the soft tissue holding bones in misaligned
positions. The work is not random, nor is it restricted to localized applications as is the case with some
other therapy-type work. Rolfing is not considered “therapy” as the work is meant to facilitate an overall
increase in function of the individual.
It should be noted that often in a person's body structure, there will be compensatory tensions to help
“correct” the person's posture. These compensations only get in the way and in SI work they must be
addressed before or as the underlying problem can be dealt with fully and proper body alignment can be
achieved.
Rolfing, or SI, is not casual massage. The only goal of the work is to rearrange body structure and is not
intended for a relaxing transitory effect that is the usual goal of most bodywork. The videos presented
here are for people who are very serious about learning this type of work. It is not for casual viewing and
most certainly not for someone who wants to try out “techniques” on “Suzie” to just see what it can do.
This video collection has some fairly advanced material in it, and while it may be of use to the average
person interested in body work, it will require more than casual study for it to be of any real value to the
viewer. Myofascial release work can be of immense benefit to a person, however it can also cause harm.
The human body is plastic, and these techniques may be used to align or equally to distort a person. A
headache may be cured or given. A spinal misalignment can be corrected or created. Use the techniques
with care. These videos are for people serious about studying advanced bodywork techniques. For people
looking for more casual massage methods, check out some of the Oriental massage types—Shiatsu, Tui-na,
etc.
Myers' has presented his material to both make money, as he likely watched as the Advanced Rolfer Art
Riggs made a bundle off his videos, and to promote his own school of KMI, an offshoot of the Rolfing
schools. As for his school, there are a handful of graduates from the training and even less teachers, while
the main three SI schools, Hellerwork Structural Integration, The Guild for Structural Integration, and the
Rolf Institute. All three are all well acknowledged institutions teaching the craft.
It should be noted that these videos are intended more for advanced students, and as such Myers does not
cover basic safety as well as Art Riggs does in his Deep Tissue Massage and Myofascial Release video set
(first video in series).

I came upon some information on a couple of Alexander Technique teachers on the East Coast in the first
half of the last century who seemed to be of special interest to Ida Rolf. While most of the Alexander
movement Ida dismissed as mere auto-suggestion or self-hypnosis to improve posture and generally
distained it, these two renegade practitioners she seemed to view with interest. The one point I was
caught by was their view of the body as being a series of several anatomical structural lines. While I don't
have access to the Rolf Institute library and while I couldn't find more info on these people and to follow
up on the possibility of the basis of Myers' ideas being rooted in the concepts of these two Alexander
teachers, Tom Myers certainly did have access to that information.
There are some requirements for entering into Rolfing training back in the days when Ida Rolf was still
living that included being emotionally fairly healthy and being of a certain body type. Ida felt that both
were important. Being emotionally whole helps a person tune into their own inner self, to tap into their
intuitional side and in turn to tune into whomever they are working on fully. This is important. In an
interview with Tom Wing, a Rolfing instructor, Wing mentions that Ida wanted students to be able to
project their energy out through their hands as well, and to be more of a mesomorphic to normal body
type. It turns out that people with endomorphic or somatomorphic structures are not able to sustain the
physical demands of doing Rolfing routinely without very seriously affecting their own structures. They
can end up needed the work more than the people they are working on.
More on the intuition issue, Tom Myers stresses that intuition is directly linked to body awareness. I
agree as far as he goes. There are a number of practices that can be used to facilitate a greater self-
awareness: Tai Chi, yoga, Feldenkrais Method, Pilates, etc. Meditation has been used by some Rolfers to
help center themselves and is an excellent way to learn to listen to the more subtle aspects of the self. Ida
Rolf at one time encouraged some of her students to get into the Arica work in South America, an eclectic
practice pulling techniques and philosophy from both eastern and western mystical traditions. The
movement turned into more of a supermarket-type mystical school later and I doubt that it is anything
like what it once was under its founder, Oscar Ichazo.
While Ida Rolf could afford to be selective of her students, with the current competition for students in the
SI schools, much of the screening of prospective students has been reduced, consequently some of the
graduates are less than gifted. Again, Myers avoids the issue of the importance of person involved in doing
to work. The work involves more than merely memorizing body structure.
A requirement in Ida's day that is still in effect for all SI schools is that the student undergo the Rolfing
sessions themselves. This serves both to increase the functioning and body awareness of the individual
and to let the student experience the work first hand on a personal level. The structure of a practitioner
matters greatly, and while Myers poo-poo's the importance of the individual doing the work, many others
within the SI do take this more seriously. Myers never taught hands-on Rolfing at the Rolf Institute, just
anatomy, though he is very well respected as a Rolfing instructor.
Myers comes from more of an anatomy perspective as he has taught anatomy for years. He also studied
design under Buckminster Fuller further adding to what I consider a more mechanistic perspective of the
body. While these aspects of Rolfing education are all well and good, there is also a more esoteric aspect
to the work and an emotional-psychological aspect to the work that he largely ignores which Ida Rolf did
not. I have included in this torrent some audio recordings of other voices from better known teachers in
the SI field from some of the other Structural Integration schools to help balance out Myers teachings.
While Tom Myers is respected in his field, he is not the sole voice of SI. It should be remembered that he is
actively promoting his school, Kenesis Myofascial Integration or KMI, and in his videos he talks little about
anything but his own little corner of the universe he is trying to nurture. Currently those with
accreditation with the main SI schools have the advantage of being more widely recognized in their fields
than those who have graduated from Myers' KMI.
While Tom Myers goes on at great length about the inter-relatedness of all aspects of the body fascia, and
coins the term tensegrity to denote this, in fact this is nothing new to Rolfing/SI. Ida once said that she
could discern a person's entire structure simply by working on the head. Again, emphasizing that each
aspect of the fascial web is affecting the whole. One foot in misalignment will throw off the entire system.
This is not a new concept to the discipline, though Myers seems to paint it as such.
A note of caution. Beginning Rolfing students have a strong tendency to see the body's of the people they
work on as having the same structure as their own. This cannot be emphasized enough. The person you
are working on is not like you are! Don't treat them as carbon copies of yourself. Their bodies are
different, their holding patterns are not like yours, and their body structures are not like yours is either.
A suggestion when looking at someone before you begin working on them: try to imagine how they are
holding themselves and inwardly try to imitate what they are doing. Watch their mouths, lips, jaws, chin,
eyebrows, shape of the eyes, muscles around their eyes, watch their gait, their pelvic position, how they
stand, hold their shoulders, belly muscles, etc. Watching how people hold themselves is fundamental to
both somatic (body) psychotherapy and to myofascial release work, though each discipline focuses on
different aspects of a person's body.
Very importantly, watch how people breathe. Do they breathe more with their chests, bellies, or both? Are
their chest held rigidly more inflated (more blocked anger) or deflated (usually blocked fear). Listen
carefully to the voice. Is the throat tight? Is the voice more nasal? If you try watching yourself in the
mirror, remember denial is a defense mechanism we all use. We're all perfect, right? Well, at least the
person in the mirror is. I am not going to go into a lot of detail regarding Reichmann psychology here, but
the way a person holds themselves is basically a reflection of their emotional history and the way they
relate to the world around them. About half the people going to Rolfers are seeking personal growth; the
others probably just need it. Rolfing-type bodywork does more than just facilitate emotional opening,
however.
A note on emotion, there is some discussion on the lack of integration with Structural Integration with
somatic psychology while SI is being actively integrated with chiropractic, orthodox medicine and with
osteopathy. I have a torrent on the Neo-Reichian psychology of Charles R. Kelley that goes into detail
about the specific holding patterns for each of the three main “negative” emotions and their
corresponding personality types. I haven't seen this information made available for general access before
except through the more closed training reserved for Reichian psychotherapy students. It can give an
added dimension to SI work. Often only basic body alignment is emphasized while the overall emotional
tone of an individual is overlooked by Rolfing practitioners. The Kelley material helps address this
deficiency within SI. Bodyreading goes beyond mere left-right/anterior-posterior symmetry of more rigid
and narrow Structural Integrators.
The Myers' Bodyreading 101 video series talks more about analyzing body structure, but only from the
Rolfing perspective. He ignores the somatic psychology aspect of bodyreading. Hellerwork does a better
job of incorporating emotion, psychology and a concern with the whole person into the art of SI.
This video collection was made available as a torrent for the benefit of those of us who cannot afford to
pay the high costs of the material presented in this video set--those of us who are students, semi-pro
bodyworkers, and people not charging $50-$120/hr for their time. It is the belief of the original seeder
that knowledge should not just be the made available for the privileged and wealthy, and $450-$500 for a
video set for general use is inappropriate. While greed may be in vogue in the world at the moment,
ultimately a more sharing and caring attitude toward one's fellow man is a higher goal. Those who
worship at the altar of greed and live solely to exploit others, should in turn expect to be preyed upon. And
for those who worship at that altar, please go purchase the video set from the usual sources. The rich
should not be allowed to eternally get richer, while the rest of humanity is kept in its place.
For those who can't get enough of this sort of thing, try www.rolfguild.org or www.rolf.org for
professional training or to locate certified Rolfers. Remember, Rolfing education does not end with the
formal Rolfing training, and it takes at least several years of actually doing the work to become moderately
proficient.
As being Rolfed is a fundamental aspect of doing the work, I'd like to make a few notes on choosing a
Rolfer. Avoid Rolfers who seem stressed, and again watch body language carefully. Neurotic Rolfers do not
do the best work and unlike in the past, emotional health is not now a requirement for acceptance into
Rolfer training. Don't be afraid to say no to someone you have questions about and don't be afraid to shop
around. You may, of course, still utilize the techniques discussed in the videos here without becoming a
certified Rolfer. Myers is trying to start his own version of bodywork, and I can't say there are advantages
to his training over regular Rolfer education. Myers has added a couple of sessions to the 10 session basic
Rolfing series, one for rotational work and one for extra arm and shoulder work, however graduates of his
KMI Structural Integration training lack the prestige and recognition of their Rolfing counterparts. The
Myers training also lacks the Advanced Rolfing training of the Rolf Institute, though it probably is open to
the graduates of KMI.
People who are overly rigid in their bodies should probably stay away from doing this sort of work on
others. The work requires a combination of good intuitional sense and a good understanding of
bodywork. Also, the work itself puts a strain on the person who is doing the work, so it is recommended
for people with a more average to mesomorphic body type (more like a bulldozer, and not pudgy or
scrawny). The work over time can do damage to people not properly built for it. Body size doesn't matter
as much however, just body structure.
The few hours of video instruction here cannot really compare with a 1200-1500 hour instructional
program from one of the SI institutes and this should in no way be considered complete training in
Structural Integration.
Tom Myers and Art Riggs are both to be commended for bringing Structural Integration techniques out of
the closet and to make the teachings of the SI schools available to the world at large.
Myers also has an excellent series of online articles about the psoas muscles, which are at the core of body
structure:
www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/497
For the other articles, replace the last 3 digits with 498, 500, 501, and try 569 for a good general
discussion of structural integration work.
As heart is at the center of good bodywork, please try to live that in your sharing massage work in all its
forms, while being true to yourself.
The following is a quote from an interview with Tom Myers that is interesting (again Myers taught
anatomy at the Rolf Institute and it is one area where he shines):
I think this thing between mechanical anatomy and systemical anatomy has bedeviled the massage schools because
very often they'll go get a physical therapist, a chiropractor or a nurse to teach the anatomy so they'll have good
medical school anatomy. Well, if you start with medical school anatomy, you're going to have medical school
conclusions. And most people did not get into this profession because they wanted to be a lower-class doctor. They got
into this because they wanted to be a real wholistic healer. If we're going to have a wholistic profession, we're going to
have to have wholistic anatomy studies to go with that profession. So, that's why I've been writing the books and
writing the articles to try and develop a wholistic anatomy that's not based on the mechanistic principles that inform
medical anatomy.

Cadavers can really help, but cadavers are dead. One of the best anatomy classes I give all year, I give in Germany on a
farm. It's in a real Heidi-like, Alpine setting. We usually do it over Easter. The farmer kills a sheep or a lamb for the
Easter feast. We're out there within five minutes of the sheep being dead, and with the help of the farmer we take the
sheep apart over an hour or two and we get to see the attachments of the organs and everything is warm. When you
put your hands on that connected tissue and it melts in front of your hands, you can see what is actually happening in
a living body. It's harder with the cadavers you get in some med school course. It's great to see the positioning, but it's
awful to get a sense of what's going on with the connective tissue because they are so changed by the process of
embalming that they don't feel or respond at all the way they do with a living body.

A cadaver is great for understanding human anatomy but if you want to understand human tissue go down to your
butcher, get the freshest leg of lamb you can, with the skin still on it, but one that hasn't been frozen or one that hasn't
been sitting around for several days. Run home as fast as you can and dissect it with your fingers, not a knife, and you
will get a sense of how the muscle and connective tissue respond in a living human being.

I have included in my torrents some of the descriptions of other of my Structural Integration uploads as
some of the material in the introductions of both the Art Riggs and Tom Myers videos apply to both.
Happy viewing!
ToadOne Torrents