The Deal

• $59 for one 60-minute rolf bodywork session ($150 value)

Rolfing: Tuning Up the Whole Body

More than a massage technique, structural integration, also known as rolfing helps set all the muscles right instead of focusing on specific regions of the body. See Groupon’s guide to this holistic wellness approach.

A typical rolfing session may feel intense at times, but professionals declare that the relief a person feels after the treatment is worth any pain they may experience during. Following the teachings of their forebear, Ida P. Rolf, rolfers apply deep, sustained pressure throughout the body to manipulate fascia, a plastic-like webbing that covers and connects muscles. The goal is to grant pain relief by aligning the body as a whole, rather than treating only the places that hurt.

Aside from its more intense methods, a few things set rolfing—or structural integration, as it’s more formally known—apart from massage. Clients always keep their underwear on. Rolfers rarely use oils, preferring focused pressure over gliding strokes. And the first treatment begins with a period of observation, where the rolfer watches how his or her client stands and walks. A 10-treatment regimen is standard for most, after which the body is allowed to adapt to its new alignment—and the enhanced breathing, flexibility, and coordination that is said to come with it—for anywhere from one month to a year before returning for tune-up sessions.