5 REASONS TO PRACTICE ROPE FLOW

In this article we will dive into some of biggest benefits of starting a rope flow practice. Here we go!

Benefit1: Joint Health & Repair

There are over 209 bones in the body connected by 350 or so joints, each joint has varying angles of motion. Over time repetitive patterns of movement make the joints weak and stiff. More importantly, after many years an individual may THINK that is just the way it is supposed to feel. Many commercial training methods do not train the joints, especially not systematically. Rope flow offers a unique opportunity to both learn how a joint can move and develop control throughout the entire range of its motion.

The rope is an excellent discovery tool. A great way to learn how the body can move as a whole unit with more ease and less pain. On the left you can see how the body is almost “asleep” or lazy. And on the right the body is sort of breathing out into the arm. the shoulder is actually involved now where as on the left it is all elbow. Aside from how good it feels the appearance of the body also changes.

Benefit 2: Balance & Coordination

“Each year, about 3 million older adults are treated in emergency departments for a fall injury. One out of every five falls causes an injury, such as broken bones or a head injury.” (Source CDC)

The body is made up of “parts” but they are designed to be one buoyant unit. Trips, slips and potential falls are always a a possibility at any age. Weather or not an injury occurs is based on weather or not the person can quickly organize their body to catch and support it before a fall.

The challenge is, how do you train that sense of stability?

This sense is called Proprioception. It’s you ability to know where you are in space without your eyes. In the same way you can close your eyes and lift your right hand, you know its your right hand even though you do not see it.

Developing this sense throughout the whole body may sound like a daughnting task but this is one of the biggest benifits of rope flow. You train your body to move as on buoyant unit with the constant influence of gravity.

With the rope you can see the whole body is moving together, specifically you can see her back is more upright and her arms harmoniously cross over the midline keeping her balance and timing. Without the rope, the landing is rougher, her legs are doing most of the work and the upper body is being pushed along. The rope makes a game out of movement where there is a wider focus and more spatial awareness being developed.

BENEFIT 3: BETTER WALKING EXPERIENCE

Walking is the most fundamental movement pattern of being human. If you are blessed with two legs, you will walk. From the kitchen to the car, in the store, at the airport, this is our primary mode of transportation. everyone walks different, just look at your shoes and its likly youve noticed you wear them out on one side more than the other. Or look at photos of yourself and see which side you lean to most.

It’s not a big deal in the moments, but as the moments add up over the years, the pattern begins to show up as pain in the body. Moving this 100+ pound body around everyday is no small feat. Rope flow teaches through the mechanism of discovery and play how to feel the ease of walking in rhythm. Timing the whole body to move with ease and grace

Below is a clip from our 8 week course:

Benefit 4: peace of mind & reduce stress with Bilateral brain stimulation

The topic of mental health is so proliferate these days but the approaches to treatment often exist at the extremes. Sit and do nothing, meditate into oblivion or pump yourself full of big pharma drugs. Bilateral brain stimulation is a wildly accepted and practiced form treating PTSD There are many articles and accounts to read but I will post this from the NIH here.

Rope flow offers a unique opportunity to create this effect in a closed curcuit. The rope acts as a cable connecting both hemispheres of the brain through the hands and by repeatedly crossing the midline of the body. Ida Rolf the creator of the Rolfing/Structural Integration field is quoted saying “the issues are in the tissues”

Memories may be viewed in the mind but they are stored in the body. Rope flow teaches you to move in the same spiral patterns the the body is formed. Muscles are not separate from eachother they are interwoven and connected through wrapping around the breath in spirals.

The Spiral Line

The blue lines are fascia tissue. You can see how they spiral around the body

From the get go Rope Flow is about quality not quantity. Its a practice that helps you harmonize your movement and your thinking with the natural formation of your body. It follows the same pattern of development The rope is the teacher, it both reveals your current quality of movement and also installs a more efficient spiral movement pattern. Spiral patterns are seen in drill bits, coils and springs.

Benefit 5: Spinal Health and Nervous system regulation

Your central nervous system is housed inside the spinal column and reaches out through the body into the periphery nervouse system. You can look at the nervous system in two ways The first way is that you have have 7 trillion individual nerves. The second way is that you have one nerve that connects and communicates information at the detail of 7 million pixels of clarity. The nervous system transmits signals to the body and as well as receives information from the sense.

The body is efficient and when a pattern occurs enough times the nervous system “sets” the pattern in lock postion. We everice this as neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain. A patterned way of being. There are many treaments to reset the system but not many the correct the movement pattern itself.

Rope Flow first and formost works with the spine, and thus the nervous system, and very gently encourages the system to down-regulate while at the same time strengthening the muscles that will support that new level of relaxation. When you might feel tight and stiff after a wight training day, rope flow leaves you feeling more collected and lighter. With just 2 minutes a day you can rack up hundreds of repetitions with ease becuase your focus is not on the reps but instead the quality of the movement between each rep.

Conclusion

Rope flow is a fun, easy and immensely beneficial practice to incorporate into your daily life or athletic endeavors. It fosters a greater sense of balance, harmony and power in both the mind and body. If you are interested in starting out check out or 8 week beginners course here.