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Zero balancing is a type of manual therapy devised by American osteopathic doctor Frederick "Fritz" Smith in the 1970s. Drawing from principles of osteopathy, Chinese medicine and Structural Integration, Smith proposed that the energy field within the human body could be affected by manual manipulations, thus bringing health benefits. The practice teaches that currents of energy are stored within the human skeleton, and that these affect both physical and mental wellbeing.
According to an article in Science-Based Medicine, zero balancing is pseudoscientific.[1] Article writer and lawyer Jann Bellamy places zero balancing among many vitalism-based practices that exist within the "cornucopia of quackery" of massage therapy. Bellamy writes that in the United States of America the public are inadequately protected from such practices because of the lack of independent oversight; instead regulation is carried out within a "closed loop" system by massage-focused organizations.[1] Edzard Ernst wrote in 2018 that zero balancing did not appear to have evidence published for its efficacy.[2]
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Transcription
I am here at the University of Sydney where the mechanical engineering shop has built this incredible piece of apparatus for me. It is a forty pound, that is nineteen kilogram flywheel on the end of a meter long shaft. Can you imagine trying to hold this out horizontally with just one hand at this end? It is virtually... it is impossible, ok? No I'm going to let go. You going to be able to hold this at all? I hope so. Can you lift it out? Make it horizontal - hold it, hold it, hold it. Come on. Just try to - I want you to hold it out horizontal. See if you can. Hold it, hold it! Ahh, come on! No. What I'm going to do is I am going to spin this up to a few thousand RPM and then I'm going to attempt just that, to hold it from one end and have it out horizontally. Five, four, three, two, one. Boom. I'm going to let go with my left hand. What you'll see is that the shaft remains horizontal, see it going around there. It almost looks as though the wheel is weightless. How does this work? Well instead of pulling the wheel down to the ground as you'd expect, the weight of the wheel creates a torque which pushes it around in a circle. You may recognise this as gyroscopic precession. For a more detailed explanation, click the annotation, or the link in the description to see my video on the topic. Here I want to try something more extreme. I'm going to try to lift it over my head with one hand while it's spinning. Wish me luck. But before I make the attempt, Rod wisely suggests that I first check if I can lift the wheel above my head without it spinning. OK, let's prove that I could lift it, just this end, without it spinning. Here we go. agggh I mean it's just kind of awkward with the hand. Careful! Ah, che Careful! Ha Oooohhh Just barely. Oh goodness, do you even lift? Clearly I do not. Undaunted by my lack of strength, I'm going for it, but I want to make sure the wheel is spinning as fast as possible to give me the best chance of success. Give it ten more seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Pull! Go. That was perfect. Now I'm going to release my left hand and holding only with my right hand at the end of the shaft, I'll try to lift it up over my head. This is a forty pound, nineteen kilogram flywheel. Ready? Here we go: three, two, one. Beautiful! Let's go again in three, two, one. Nice! Smooth. Three, two, one. It feels incredibly, incredibly light as I do that. When you said it felt incredibly light, yeah you mean when you're lifting it feels light? Yeah. It shouldn't! I know. Hahahaha Honestly, I have lifted it up with one hand when it's not spinning. Yeah. And it feels really hard to lift it up, like it's a big effort. Yeah. But with this, when it's spinning it honestly felt like it was just... wanting to go up by itself. Yes. It felt like I was not struggling like I was not putting in the amount of force that you'd think to lift that kind of weight. I bet if you let it go, it'd crash down to the ground. It's not weightless! We can't do that though. We can't do that part of the experiment. What we could maybe do is I could stand on a scale and we could see what the weight of me plus that apparatus does, while I'm lifting it up over my head, see if I get lighter in essence. You can see that just my weight is about 72 kilograms. Now when I pick up the flywheel it goes up to about 91 kilograms, which makes sense because the flywheel itself is about 19 kilos, that's about 42 pounds. Now we're going to spin it up and I want you to make a prediction. As I'm lifting it over my head, do you think the scale reading will be more, less than, or equal to 91 kilograms. What do you think? You can make your prediction by clicking on one of the on-screen annotations or if you're on mobile you can click a link in the description. Five, four, three, two, one.
Description
According to Frederick Smith, the founder of zero balancing,[3]
Zero balancing teaches that the deepest currents of energy are in bone, that memory can be held in tissue, that energy fields in the body underlie mind, body and emotions, and that imbalances in the field precede pathology.
The Zero Balancing Health Association say that zero balancing "uses skilled touch to address the relationship between energy and structures of the body".[1]
The client stays fully clothed for the duration of the session in zero balancing. It includes techniques such as gentle lifting, pressing, rotating, and stretching of different body parts, with particular attention paid to the bone.[4]
History
Frederick Smith created zero balancing in the early 1970s, after studying acupuncture and being inspired by eastern philosophies.[4][5] Smith also had a background in other alternative therapies, including meditation, taoism, and yoga. His aim in creating the therapy was to "integrate the differing truths of eastern and western models of healing".[4][5]
Training
According to founder Frederick Smith in a 2009[update] interview, there are more than 500 practitioners internationally, and another 500 in training, with most in England or the United States.[6] Practitioners are trained in its use as an adjunct skill, though it is also practiced as a self standing therapy.[4]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Bellamy J (17 September 2015). "Massage Therapy rubs me the wrong way". Science-Based Medicine.
- ^ "Zero balancing … zero evidence". edzardernst.com. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
- ^ Fritz Frederick Smith quoted at "About Zero Balancing". Zero Balancing Health Association. Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d Geggus, Pam (2004). "Introduction to the concepts of Zero Balancing". Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. 8: 58. doi:10.1016/S1360-8592(03)00066-4.
- ^ a b Denner, Sallie Stoltz (November 2009). "The Science of Energy Therapies and Contemplative Practice: A Conceptual Review and the Application of Zero Balancing". Holistic Nursing Practice. 23 (6): 315–334. doi:10.1097/HNP.0b013e3181bf3784. ISSN 0887-9311. PMID 19901607. S2CID 5126935.
- ^ Lauterstein, David (May–June 2009). "Reflections, a conversation with Fritz Smith on Zero Balancing" (PDF). Massage and Bodywork. p. 77.
Further reading
- Ralston, Amy Louise (1998). "Zero balancing: Information on a therapy". Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery. 4 (2): 47–9. doi:10.1016/S1353-6117(98)80025-5. PMID 10025287.
External links
This page was last edited on 15 February 2024, at 16:39