How Structural Integrative Massage
(SIM)™ Can Reverse Aging

By Leslie Landberg

There are many, many components to the phenomenon we call aging, but one of the most insidious, and least talked about, is spinal compression. Each of your spinal vertebrae, the bones that make up the spine and neck, requires an optimum amount of space between it and the next vertebra in order for muscles and nerves to function properly.

Over the course of decades, due in large part to the effects of gravity, your spine gradually becomes more and more compressed, meaning that the amount of space between each vertebrae becomes compromised. This process results in a significant loss of physical stature (height) and is accompanied by tightness, loss of free motion and usually, some degree of pain.

Because gravity is relentless, it is not uncommon for someone in their 60's to be severely compressed. However, due to the very gradual nature of this decline, it is common that most people remain unaware of these changes in their bodies until the changes are very far advanced. By the time many individuals have had their 40th birthday, they have already lost an average of nearly 3/4 of an inch of their original adult height!

This loss of stature takes an insidious toll on the overall health of the body, causing pain, fatigue, muscle stiffness, nerve pain, lowered organ function, sleep disturbances and more. When the spine gets shorter, the response it causes in the soft tissues is similar to that of a marionette whose strings have become tangled: the puppet's limbs are pulled inwards and upwards, its movement becomes restricted.

This is one experience of aging we all are familiar with. And because, without intervention, this process of spinal compression is constant, the first order of business in a SIM bodywork session is to identify and remove spinal compression.

In Structural Integrative Massage, spinal compression is an easily-corrected disorder that, if left untreated, leads to much greater general physical disorders in the body. Now visualize the puppet, once grotesquely distorted and unable to freely articulate his limbs, freed from his former constraints when the puppeteer untangles his cords: that is how it feels after a SIM bodywork session!

SIM is performed on a wide futon mat or platform which supports the arms and allows the subject to comfortably lie with his head to the side. The process of lengthening the spine is done gradually using just the hands and is called "manual traction". There is usually no pain associated with this technique and it is very gentle and safe. A SIM adjustment is very stable and usually lasts anywhere from several weeks to several months.

Another factor that contributes to aging are changes in the relationships of the hard and soft tissues in your body, so an additional and equally important objective of the Structural Integrative Massage practitioner is to identify and remove what are known in SIM as "kinetic artifacts." I work with clients on how aging effects the body and the role Structural Integrative Massage can play in reversing its damage.

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