Feasibility of measuring lumbar, postural, and biomechanical outcomes before and after a Rolfing® Structural Integration 10-series delivered by trainees: a single-arm pilot study

Background Rolfing® Structural Integration (RSI) is a manual and movement-education approach, traditionally delivered as a 10-session series, that aims to support postural organization, movement efficiency, and body awareness. Although the evidence base has expanded, prospective studies using standardized objective outcomes remain scarce. Before an adequately powered controlled trial can be justified, researchers should establish the feasibility of delivering the 10-series in an educational training setting and collecting objective postural, sensory, physiological, and biomechanical outcomes. Methods This single-arm, non-randomized pilot and feasibility study used pre–post measurements around a Rolfing® Structural Integration 10-series delivered in an educational training setting in Munich, Germany. Rolfers-in-training delivered the intervention under senior supervision. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment, eligibility, retention, intervention completion, post-treatment measurement completion, data availability, and adverse-event data capture. Exploratory postural outcomes included individual DIERS formetric 4D rasterstereography parameters and an unvalidated exploratory z-normalized postural imbalance index. Secondary/exploratory outcomes included DIERS parameters, pressure pain threshold, perceived pain assessed using a visual analog scale, subject expectation, skin temperature as a potential confounding variable, and MyotonPro and IndentoPro measures. Results The final analysis included n = 10 participants with complete pre–post instrumental data. Recruitment, retention, post-treatment assessment completion, DIERS measurement standardization, provider background documentation, and completeness of patient-reported outcome data were identified as key feasibility domains. Exploratory instrumental outcomes, including the unvalidated z-normalized postural imbalance index, could be summarized descriptively, but the small, uncontrolled sample was not designed to evaluate the intervention’s efficacy. Conclusion The RSI 10-series and the objective pre- and post-measurement protocol were feasible in principle within an educational training setting. Limitations included a small final sample size, attrition, incomplete provider background documentation, and challenges with DIERS standardization during on-site training. Future studies should improve retention, optimize DIERS procedures, document the training and supervision context, and ensure complete capture of patient-reported outcome data.