News

Get Rolling:
Body rolling stretches and tones muscles in a relaxing way

Cover story By Kara G. Morrison
Special to The Detroit News
Wednesday July 3, 2002

Kelly Hale, left, owner of Functional Fitness Holistic Wellness Center in Birmingham, Assists Elizabeth McKenney of Huntington Woods, center, and Dale Frankel of Bloomfield Hills in body-rolling exercises.

SOUTHFIELD — A dozen students claim the bright yellow, red and green balls strewn across the room. This isn’t gym class or sports practice. No gloves, protective gear or games are involved.

Instead, the students are preparing for a class called Yamuna Body Rolling. It’s a yoga like exercise method involving self-massage using one’s body weight and a rubber ball.

It’s not exactly exciting to watch. At Irene’s Myomassology Institute in Southfield, students crouch atop the 6– to 10-inch balls, rolling them into their leg muscles at a meditative pace. Instructor Randy Fillion speaks in hushed tones, and soothing instrumental music plays softly in the background.

“Go slow,” Fillion says gently, “and focus on your breath.”

Yet, those who try body rolling say the sensation is intense.

“It does make a big difference in how you feel,” says 33-year-old Bedelia Brown of Detroit, looking invigorated after a one-hour class. “I was feeling tense in my legs when I came in, but I feel lighter on my feet now.”

Debra Powers, a massage therapist in Kimball Township, trains body-rolling instructors and says the exercise form is catching on in Michigan.

“You feel a greater degree of flexibility and your muscle tissue feels much softer,” Powers says. “People have described it as feeling energy running through their muscles. It’s a sensation that things have been freed up, and there’s room for energy to run through the body.”

For that reason, Fillion says one could spend hours stretching, toning and lengthening muscles using body-rolling techniques.

About a year ago, he convinced Kathy Gauthier, director if Irene’s Myomassology Institute to send him to body rolling training. When Irene’s Institute recently moved to a new, custom-built facility at 10 1/2 Mile, west of Telegraph Road in Southfield, the added space gave him a place to teach public body rolling classes.

Gauthier, whose mother founded Irene’s and who grew up understanding the benefits of massage, insists body rolling takes stretching and relaxing one’s muscles to a whole new level.

Unlike a massage, where a therapist controls the amount of pressure used to work the muscles, those who practice body rolling can control the pressure themselves with their body weight and by their choice of the ball’s size and density.

Typically a body-rolling routine focuses on working a specific set of muscles, such as the leg muscles or the back and neck muscles.

“I’ve never (before) gotten some of the stretch and release I’ve gotten from body rolling,” Gauthier says.

Another advantage is that it offers benefits to a wide range of fitness levels. Anyone from couch potatoes to competitive athletes can use the simple exercises to increase blood circulation and flexibility.

“It prevents injuries, so it’s ideal for people who are doing sports,” says Gauthier.

Powers started to realize the benefits of body rolling when she felt less pain after running. She says body rolling benefits those whose jobs entail repetitive movement or anyone who feels stiff and achy in the morning.

“I don’t think there’s anybody who can’t benefit from this,” Powers says.

Used correctly, instructors say, body rolling can even offer some relief from health problems like chronic pain or fibromyalgia. During a recent class at Irene’s, Carol Ashby of Davisburg brought her 11-year-old granddaughter who suffers from cerebral palsy.

“With cerebral palsy, her muscles get so tight,” says Ashby, who is studying massage in part to help her.

Her granddaughter, Megan Montgomery of Clarkston, walks with crutches and braces, and is still recovering from an invasive surgery. She struggled a bit balancing atop a ball and left class early saying, “It was hard.” But she added, her legs were feeling looser from the exercise.

Body rolling was developed by Yamuna Zake, a New Yorker who started practicing yoga at age 16. In part because of hip complications after childbirth. Zake discovered body rolling as a type of self-treatment for working muscle tissue.

“I took all the theories of my work and translated it to a ball so someone could do my work to themselves,” says Zake, who estimates she’s trained more than 325 body-rolling instructors in the last two years at her Body Logic facility in New York.

“I probably do body rolling an average of eight to nine hours a week because it feels so good.”

Today, Zake, who authored “Body Rolling” An Experimental Approach to Complete Muscle Release” (Inner Traditions, $19.95) — the definitive guide to what she calls therapeutic fitness — is working on a second book titled “Get Rolling.” Zake promises the second book is less technical than the first. It also provides more step-by-step and quick tips on body rolling exercises one could do commuting to work or at one’s desk to relieve pain or stress.

She is also continuing to develop new body-rolling equipment to address specific muscle groups. Already, in addition to the basic rubber balls used in body rolling, Zake sells smaller balls for foot and calf muscles.

“The calf balls are particularly good for athletes and for runners,” she says. “I’m interested in designing products that really work and that help people to help themselves.”

Kelly Hale, owner of Functional Fitness Holistic Wellness Center in Birmingham, also offers body-rolling classes. And, she incorporates body-rolling techniques into many of her yoga and Pilates classes as a cool-down and stretching exercise.

Let your body melt around the ball,” Hale instructed her students at a recent Pilates class. “Let the stress go. Part of our work here is getting rid of the stress.”

Hale, who worked as a full-time occupational therapist before starting her own wellness center, teaches everyone from fitness buffs to those recovering from injuries.

“There are a lot of people that are in high stress situations that carry stress in the neck, upper back, shoulder or hamstrings,” Hale explains. “That high-stress, overworked person does really well with this technique.”

One thing she likes about body rolling is the fact that with proper training — anywhere from two to 10 sessions — people can learn the proper techniques to practice it at home.

“I really find body rolling to be an empowerment tool,” she says. “The body awareness you gain is huge. People understand where a muscle starts, where it connects to the bone and where it travels. That knowledge helps them move it correctly.”

At a certain level of experience, Hale says utilizing different body positions can turn body rolling into a challenging workout, because strength and agility is required to balance the ball.

As someone who travels frequently for her job, Hale says body rolling is also a great tool for working out the stiffness and kinks associated with travel. The balls also deflate and pack easily.

Meanwhile, at Irene’s, students such as Maria Blunt from Grosse Pointe Park are utilizing body rolling to help them stay healthy for demanding careers.

As a 40-year-old carpenter, Blunt says she’s aware of the toll on her body from her occupation. So she signed up to learn massage and body rolling, which she says is helping her stay active and fit — with an added bonus.

“It takes some stress away,” Blunt says. “It’s very quiet and relaxing.”

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