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Displaying items by tag: Exercises for scoliosis
By Dr. Aatif Siddiqui DC and Dr. Clayton J. Stitzel DC
The word scoliosis is derived from a Greek word meaning “twists and turns.” While the most obvious characteristic of scoliosis tends to be the lateral movement of the spine, these “turns,” are often accompanied by a rotation or “twisting” in the vertebrae as well. Together these twists and turns not only unbalance the muscles that support the spine, but also create challenges in the functioning of the ribcage, lungs, and pelvis. Although the exercises for scoliosis patients mapped out below, it must be noted that Re-training the automatic postural control centers of the hind brain is the only way to alter the natural course of the scoliosis condition. With that being said, these Exercises for scoliosis patients may help reduce the symptoms and pain associated with some scoliosis cases.
Exercises for scoliosis patients #1 Rediscovering Your Balance. Over the years, your body has developed an intricate balancing system to compensate for your spine’s curves. We now need to relearn how to stand properly. Start by standing with your feet hip-distance apart. (While it’s most important to feel what’s happening in your body, the first few times you try this you may benefit from standing in front of a mirror.) Check that your toes are all pointing straight ahead. Allow your arms to relax by your sides. Begin breathing, and notice if one foot is pressing deeper into the floor than the other. Try to press evenly through both feet while you continue to breathe. Notice if one hip is pulling out to the side and gently guide it to back to stack over its’ corresponding foot. Feel your collarbones widening as you breathe deeper. Bring your awareness to your head. If it is tilting to one side, allow it to float easily at the top of your spine. Focus your eyes on something specific directly ahead of you and breathe.
Exercises for scoliosis patients #2 “Filling the gap”....Increasing your breathing capasity. The rotating of the ribcage in the scoliosis patient can cause constrictions in the lungs and limit your breath capacity. The convex (overstretched) area of your back receives breath very easily, while the concave (more hollow) side needs your focused attention to breathe fully. Practice moving your breath deeply into your concavity and feel your ribs stretching open. You can do this anytime throughout your day. It is especially effective to engage this practice while you are exercising (in whichever form of exercise you choose). If it is difficult for you to access this point on your own, you might ask a partner to warm up their hands and place one very lightly on the most concave area of your back. You can then breathe deeply into the heat of their palm.
Exercises for scoliosis patients #3 Lengthening Your Spine. This is a very simple exercise that can be done anywhere. Find something solid you can grab onto and pull (a dance bar, a porch railing, a sink etc.). Grab onto the bar with your arms shoulder-distance apart and walk your feet back until your feet are directly under your hips and your spine is parallel to the floor. Now walk your feet just one step forward and pull your hips away from the bar. (Make sure you keep your neck in line with the spine). Your spine will receive a wonderful, long stretch. Stay in that stretch for at least three breaths then take a break before beginning again.
Exercises for scoliosis patients #4 De-rotating the Spine. Find a sturdy chair with a hard surface. Sit sideways on the chair with the right side of your body toward the back of the chair and your feet firmly planted on the floor. If you have a yoga block, place one between your thighs (this helps keep your knees pointed straight ahead). Place one hand on each side of the chair back. Press your hands down and feel yourself growing tall through the spine as you breathe in, then twist to the right as you breathe out. Allow your ribs and head to follow. Do this several times on the right before turning around and repeating the process to the left. Depending on your particular scoliosis, you’ll notice it’s much “easier” to twist in one direction than the other, as your ribcage may be compromised and already turned in that direction. Resist the temptation to under-do-it, if this was meant to be easy they wouldn’t call it work. In fact, you’ll want to spend a few extra breaths on the more difficult side to start de-rotating your spine and coaxing your ribs back into healthier alignment.
Exercises for scoliosis patients #5 Strengthening Your Spine. This exercise is aimed at properly aligning your scapulas and strengthening your spine’s postural muscles. Lie down on your belly (preferably on a yoga mat or blanket). Stretch your arms in front of you shoulder-width apart and turns your thumbs up. Keeping your legs long and the tops of your feet pressed into the floor, lift your shoulders and arms up a few inches from the ground. While you are there, encourage your shoulders to slide down away from your ears, and be sure to keep your neck in line with your spine. Breathe there for a full minute, then rest.
Exercises for scoliosis patients - cool down After doing this focused work on your spine, it is a wonderful idea to end by lying comfortably, face-up on a yoga mat or carpet for up to 20 minutes with a rolled up towel at the back of your neck and at the base of your ribcage. Be sure you’ve lined your body up as symmetrically as possible, close your eyes and breathe consciously. This is an excellent way to re-mold your spinal discs/ligaments and allow your body the opportunity to integrate the work you’ve done.
Dr. Brian T Dovorany provides scoliosis rehabilitation in Wisconsin and offers a 2 week scoliosis boot camp which can significantly reduce a scoliosis curvature when measured on x-ray using the Cobb’s method. The program aids as a jump start to successfully reducing and stabilizing scoliosis long term in both children and adults. The boot camp program is not painful or exhausting and most patients find it much less physically demanding than they had thought it would be. Unlike traditional exercises for scoliosis treatments, like Schroth, this program doesn’t require the tremendous effort from the patient nor the precision of getting every movement or position perfect. This innovative approach recruits muscle memory through challenging the body’s postural righting reflexes which control spinal alignment. Since we cannot consciously create scoliosis through movement or positioning it is highly unlikely that you can permanently correct scoliosis using this principle.
Through tremendous amounts of trial and error Dr Dovorany has developed a mechanism in which we can cause scoliosis in a person that doesn’t have the condition and therefore using this principle we can apply this mechanism to correct scoliosis. Since the body responds in time and in need to its environment by challenging the postural reflexes correctly we can cause the body to adapt to this increased demand and significantly reduce an existing spinal curvature and in some instances eliminate the scoliosis all together.
Scoliosis Rehabilitation in Wisconsin has helped hundreds of children and adults successfully reduce and stabilize their scoliosis without labor intensive home care which often takes hours out of your day for a few degrees of change but rather significantly reducing scoliosis by as much as 80% in as little as 20 minutes twice a day. If this sounds too good to be true than just take a look at our results page or ask to contact other patients who have received Scoliosis Rehabilitation in Wisconsin by Dr Dovorany to find out how they were able to succeed at beating their scoliosis condition. Better than braces, safer than surgery and certainly less work with greater rewards than the Schroth program right here in Wisconsin. The question of “how to treat scoliosis” has been asked over and over again for the past 3,500 years of recorded medical history and the controversy the “how to treat scoliosis” question still rages on to this day.
The very nature of the scoliosis condition is a topic of great debate, which only fuels the “how to treat scoliosis” argument even further due to the uncertainty about what even causes idiopathic scoliosis. Generally, there are several different schools of thought; for most of scoliosis medical history doctors and quasi-researchers have assumed that idiopathic scoliosis was caused solely by an abnormal spinal bone growth that caused one part of the spinal bones to grow faster on one side than another. While it is without a doubt that Dr. Stokes’ 1996 publication of “the vicious cycle of scoliosis progression” outlines a mechanism in which asymmetrical loading on the scoliosis spine will cause the bones to grow in a slightly wedge deformity, it also clearly demonstrates this process is a secondary adaptation to the scoliosis spine and not the cause of idiopathic scoliosis. Unfortunately, most scoliosis brace treatment is still to this day based off this false notion of being able to fix scoliosis through this “guided growth” attempt at “how to treat scoliosis” and is plagued by low compliance and high scoliosis treatment failure rates. Essentially, scoliosis brace treatment attempts to treat the bone wedging symptom of idiopathic scoliosis, instead of treating the scoliosis condition itself.
The most current researchers almost unanimously agree that idiopathic scoliosis stems from a yet to be determined neurological feedback system that fails to coordinate the scoliosis spine in terms of neurological alignment to gravity when weight bearing and possibly the symmetrical growth of the nervous system (the spinal cord in particular) in relation to spinal bone growth. Dr. Porter (a noted scoliosis researcher) supported the uncoupled neuro-osseous growth concept of idiopathic scoliosis being a physical manifestation of the mal-adaption of the growing immature spine to the tether created by the short spinal cord. This evidence for this was the finding that the conus medullaris (the end of the spinal cord) position is NOT significantly different from that of a normal spine. Thus, all attempts in “how to treat scoliosis” in the future must be based on stimulating or re-training the neurological spinal feedback mechanisms and reducing the bio-mechanical stress on the spinal cord in the idiopathic scoliosis patient prior to the onset of the adolescent growth spurt (approximately age 12 in females).
The early stage scoliosis intervention program was specifically designed to address these key concepts in the most updated understanding of the scoliosis condition and provide parents and patients the greatest opportunity for success in answering the “how to treat scoliosis” question.
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One of the most common mis-conceptions I find among the general pubic in regards to understanding idiopathic scoliosis is they feel the condition is some how due to weak spinal muscles or curve progression can be halted by strengthening spinal muscles through general scoliosis exercises. Both of these concepts couldn't be any further from the truth.
While it is true that spinal muscle strength does become unbalanced in moderate to severe scoliosis spines, this is a secondary adaptation to the structural curve in the spine, and not the cause of idiopathic scoliosis. This is confirmed by normal EMG studies in early stage scoliosis patients that later show hyper-tonic muscles on the convexity of the curvature a substantial amount of time after the curve as already progressed. Therefore, it is a secondary adaptation and not the cause of, nor the reason for scoliosis curve progression.
The muscles aren't weak, they are dis-coordinated.
Idiopathic scoliosis is primarily a neurological condition that has it primary effects on the spinal column. Essentially the brain's postural feedback mechanisms aren't working correctly and they don't set off any "red flags" in the brain's automatic postural control centers. No alarms going off in the brain's automatic postural control centers means the muscles aren't directed to self correct the abnormal posture and the spinal curve (scoliosis) is the result.
Environmental influences as scoliosis curve drivers....especially bio-mechanical.
While early stage scoliosis appears to be the result of a genetic under-development of the automatic postural control centers in the brain, the reason some curves progress to a severe degree appears to be largely dependent on both genetic and environmental influences...especially bio-mechanical influences like head position, hip rotation, and certain activities (ballet, gymnastics, ect). This would explain the significant increase in likelihood of curve progression in scoliosis spines with a cobb angle larger than 20 degrees vs scoliosis spines with a cobb angle less than 20 degrees.
No one is arguing the value of good core strength and stability, but it probably plays little to no role in the development of, nor the progression of idiopathic scoliosis curve progression. The only scoliosis exercise based rehab program that will have any true affect on the spinal curvature is one that is specifically designed to "re-train" the automatic postural control centers in the brain. |
