The choice that must be made at the eighth hour, whether to do an upper or lower girdle hour, is often a point of confusion for the beginning practitioner. Students in Dr. Rolf's classes were admonished that if they chose the wrong girdle they would watch the structure "fall apart". Legend has it that Dr. Rolf would sometimes choose the wrong girdle just to show people what happened.

Dr. Rolf's rule for the choice was to "choose the girdle which will help the other girdle most". This still wasn't of much help for the desperate and scared beginner who saw visions of their careful work disintegrating before their eyes. In order to assist with the process of choosing the girdle a number of assessment tests have been devised. This page looks at the visual response to one of thsoe tests sometimes referred to as the 'crest test' because of the area where the test work is done.

In the rhythm of the recipe the 8th hour is a lower girdle hour following on the 'ultimate' upper hour of seven. The test assumes that the practitioner is going to do a lower girdle hour unless there is a compelling reason to do an upper girdle hour. The test involves observing the client before the session and getting a sense of the vital capacity of their system, generally from observing the breath. Then the practitioner does about 2-3 minutes of work on the pelvis, generally in the region between the trochanter and the ASIS or the iliac crest. The client stands up and the practitioner again observes the response of the structure/system. If the side that is worked with shortens or the upper girdle shrinks (decreased vital capacity) then this is an indicator that the system cannot sustain a lower girdle hour and the practitioner should probably do an upper girdle hour.

Most practitioners see lots of examples of a 8th Hour Test that shows a system that will sustain a lower 8th hour (since anywhere from 60-80 per cent of clients at the 8th hour can sustain a lower girdle hour). The question is often asked, "What does it look like if you choose the wrong girdle?" Occasionally after the "8th Hour Test" we find a person who cannot sustain a lower girdle hour. This set of pictures displays an example of this phenomenon. We captured the before and after test images and are displaying them in difference image mode so you can see the difference.

Use the 'Before' and 'After' buttons to switch between views. This model was tested on the left side. Instead of getting longer the whole left side has shrunk up and looks as though it has 'pinched up and rotated slightly to the right. The system as a whole looks less 'easy' and comfortable.