Erica B.
Yelp
This past weekend I had the painful pleasure of attending Leila's Body Rolling Workshop at the Islington Centre (we'll get to the painful pleasure part later). Being an avid yogi, fitness fanatic and having numerous major injuries over the years, I entered the studio pondering and curious as to what we could possibly do with three hours, and just what was I going to get out of "Body Rolling"? Would I get bored and distracted? Are we breaking for Tea & biscuits? Just what exactly were all 25 of us going to do rolling around on the floor with these balls?
Well, little did I find out that not only did 3 hours go by in a blink of an eye, but I would learn that from feet up you can target superficial skin, fasciae, muscle fibers, tendons, ligaments, bones, internal organs with the use of a single hard plastic ball rolled along specific points of the body. Basically, you can ease all that tension and years of discomfort you carry around day-to-day, year-to-year from poor posture, old injuries or just stale and stiff joints. As Leila pointed out, it will be like "clearing the impact from the body...and re-building the blocks of the body one on top of another." As I like to put it is like a self-inducing Rolfing session, prompt the pain description here for those of you who know what Rolfing is. Some discomfort at times a level of 8 out of 10, followed by amazing openness and change.
Leila warmly welcomed us into the room with a large smile and sincere eye contact as we sat comfortably in a circle. She enthusiastically explained us the origin of Body Rolling, her experience and training with Yamuna in New York City before opening the discussion to us, and what ails us day to day. Comments ranged from upper back pain, tight hamstrings, neck discomfort, crunchy feet to sitting at a desk, high heels, and just plain feeling crummy. She passionately listened to our ailments and addressed each issue with immense knowledge of the human anatomy, and how we can release and find freedom from discomfort with simple method of Body Rolling.
Starting with a body scan standing upright, Leila had us close our eyes and feel how we were in that moment. What was pulling? Were we leaning on one leg more than the other, more forward, more backwards, was our jaw clenched, was one shoulder lower than the other, did we have any discomfort anywhere? What in that one minute felt icky and miserable?
Remembering this feeling, she moved us back to our mats and we started literally from the ground up through the entire body. We worked repeating a deep inhalation and exhalation and varying ball sizes to literally roll on the ball in specifically placed locations along the muscles & tendons. Feet, outer edge, inner edge, middle foot, all the teeny tiny micro fascia between the toes, Achilles tendon, calves, lower, middle upper, shins, hips, outer hips, glutes, front body, spine & neck.
We controlled the use of our own body weight, stimulating muscular origins, tendons, muscle bellies, and insertion points. She got into the nitty gritty places we all love to hate, but hate to go there. She had us "grrrrr.... (like a bear) and bare the weight of the body on the ball." We seized to fight the muscles and tendons and released into the freedom, freedom from past poor habits, inflexibilities, good & bad strengths and ailments. We sunk into that ball like it was going to break through the floorboards and pop out of the ceiling on the ground floor. We elongated muscles, increased the movement in the joints, we rolled on one part of the body only to feel it in another.
Towards the end of the workshop, I looked up to find slumped over, unyogic bodies lying around. Looks of pure ecstasy and euphoria were setting in left and right. Grimaces turned to smiles, grunts turned to deep exhales of pure joy. Leila has successfully turned us into a pile of mush.
My body felt literally like it was on cloud nine, tingly sensations ran through those tough spots I was nervous to work on, and felt as if I had shed years of discomfort. I got immediate and direct feedback with every move and change in pressure working through the ball. My nervous system was in shut down mode, my muscles and joints had undergone a gentle manipulation back to where they anatomically were suppose to be, the tightness in my neck was gone, and my feet felt like they were one size larger.
In our closing body scan, I felt more open the front body, and like Leila mentioned, as If I had just restacked all the building blocks of my body back into place. She had accomplished convincing me that there something I was going to get out of the workshop. That being not only freedom in movement, but also this is something everyone should partake in and incorporate in their lives.
Thank you Leila, I will be back!