Can Scoliosis Be Corrected With Exercise? Facts You Need

Scoliosis treatment can involve a number of options, and particularly with early detection and intervention, nonsurgical treatment can be highly effective. Nonsurgical scoliosis treatment involves the integration of scoliosis-specific exercise, chiropractic treatment, and corrective bracing.

While scoliosis-specific exercise is a key facet of nonsurgical scoliosis treatment, exercise on its own can’t correct scoliosis. As a structural spinal condition, its underlying structural nature needs to be addressed for long-term sustainable treatment results.

It’s important to understand that nonsurgical scoliosis treatment depends on a number of disciplines working together to impact scoliosis on every level.

Understanding Scoliosis Treatment

Scoliosis causes an unnatural sideways spinal curve to develop, and because it also causes the spine to rotate, it’s a complex 3-dimensional condition.

It’s important to understand that regardless of how mild a person’s scoliosis is at the time of diagnosis, as a progressive condition, it won’t stay mild; in fact, its nature is to become more severe over time.

Scoliosis can range from mild to moderate and severe scoliosis, and it’s growth that triggers progression, meaning the unnatural spinal curve’s size is increasing, as are its effects.

Scoliosis treatment needs to be proactive, particularly during periods of rapid growth; children can progress quickly, and as progression makes the condition more complex to treat, the sooner treatment is started, the better.

Scoliosis treatment can be proactive and work towards preventing progression, or it can be reactive and focus on responding with surgery once a certain level of progression has occurred.

Here at the Scoliosis Center of Utah, the focus is early detection, intervention, and proactive treatment that’s started as close to the time of diagnosis as possible; this is when conditions are at their mildest, the spine is at its most flexible, and condition effects aren’t yet well established.

While scoliosis affects all ages, it’s most commonly diagnosed during adolescence as adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, and this age group is also the most at risk for rapid advancement due to the stage of growth they’re in.

Understanding scoliosis treatment means understanding its necessity; as a progressive condition, it’s unlikely to resolve on its own, but it is likely to become more severe and difficult to treat over time.

Nonsurgical scoliosis treatment is proactive, and the corrective power of scoliosis-specific exercise is at its center.

Scoliosis-Specific Exercise as Treatment

Firstly, no exercise program should be adopted without clearance from a patient’s treatment provider, and it’s also important to understand the difference between general exercise and scoliosis-specific exercise.

General exercise can help improve a patient’s general health and strength, but for corrective potential, the exercises have to be scoliosis-specific and designed by a scoliosis specialist.

General increases to strength and spinal flexibility can make conditions more responsive, but can’t actually treat scoliosis.

Treating scoliosis with exercise means integrating scoliosis-specific exercise into a proactive and comprehensive treatment plan that also includes scoliosis-specific chiropractic treatment and corrective bracing.

Scoliosis can’t be corrected with exercise alone, but when scoliosis-specific and combined with the corrective potential of additional treatments, it can be an indispensable treatment modality.

These are the general facts you need to know about exercise as scoliosis treatment:

• General exercise can’t offer corrective potential
• For corrective potential, the exercises need to be scoliosis-specific
• No type of scoliosis-specific exercise alone can correct scoliosis
• Scoliosis-specific exercise needs to be combined with other forms of corrective treatment
• There are a number of scoliosis-specific exercise programs with proven results

What makes exercise corrective is its potential to help reduce curve size, thereby improving its structural position and alignment.

ScoliBalance®

Here at the Center, patients experience a comprehensive initial assessment that shapes the customization of treatment plans moving forward.

Our approach involves a complete scoliosis-specific exercise-based treatment plan: ScoliBalance® designs a scoliosis-specific exercise program to address each individual patient’s ability, curve size, type, location, posture and mobility.

ScoliBalance® has the goal of teaching patients postural awareness and restoring healthy posture in the process.

Patients learn how to counteract the unnatural spinal curve with certain exercises, postural changes, and breathing techniques (rotational angular breathing).

In addition to postural improvement through the use of corrective Mirror Image exercises, ScoliBalance® can help:

• Slow/stop progression
• Increase spinal flexibility
• Improve the spine’s surrounding muscle strength and balance
• Reduce curve size
• Reduce pain
• Improve the spine and body’s balance and stability

When ScoliBalance® is combined with corrective bracing and/or Chiropractic BioPhysics®, the scope of nonsurgical treatment increases.

Chiropractic BioPhysics® and Corrective Bracing

Chiropractic BioPhysics® is offered here at the Center, and applies a number of scientific principles to diagnosing mobility issues related to joint and spinal health.

CBP is the most comprehensive branch of chiropractic, and not many Centers can offer CBP-trained physicians.

When scoliosis-specific exercise plans are combined with CBP, there are different treatment modalities working towards the same goal: improving the spine’s alignment and 3D body posture.

Precise chiropractic manual adjustments can target the most unnaturally-tilted vertebrae and work towards improving their position and alignment with the rest of the spine.

Practitioners trained in CBP can craft a customized corrective exercise program that addresses the specifics of each patient’s scoliosis.

When combined with the power of corrective bracing, the scope of nonsurgical treatment widens further.

The ScoliBrace® is a modern corrective brace that can further alter the position of the spine, and its modern design works with movement, making it an ideal complement to exercise-based treatment.

The ScoliBrace® is also based on customization and uses state-of-the-art scanning software, computer-aided-design (CAD), to ensure each brace is bespoke to its wearer to improve comfort and compliance.

Traditional scoliosis bracing is limited in its potential efficacy because it doesn’t address scoliosis as 3-dimensional, and compliance is the number-one challenge.

ScoliBrace® addressed the shortcomings of traditional bracing by designing a modern innovative counterpart: the ultra-corrective ScoliBrace®.

If the ScoliBrace® is worn precisely as prescribed, and is combined with the potential of a scoliosis-specific exercise program and CBP, the potential to correct scoliosis with nonsurgical treatment may be within reach.

Conclusion

Key facts about exercising with scoliosis include knowing which exercises are safe, which to approach with caution, and which to avoid completely; this is why no exercise program should be attempted without first being cleared by a patient’s treatment provider.

Here at the Center, treatment plans are 100-percent customized to address the specifics of a patient’s scoliosis, ability, symptoms, and treatment goals.

It’s also important to understand the difference between general exercise and scoliosis-specific exercise. While general exercise can benefit scoliosis patients by maintaining overall strength and fitness, for any type of corrective potential, exercises need to be scoliosis-specific, designed by a specialist, and integrated into a proactive multifaceted treatment plan.

There are never treatment guarantees, but the earlier scoliosis is diagnosed, particularly in children, the sooner treatment can be started and the more potential there is for a successful outcome.

When scoliosis-specific, exercise can help increase spinal flexibility, making it more responsive to treatment, reduce flexible curves, improve the spine’s surrounding muscle balance and strength for more support/stability, restore posture, body appearance, and reduce pain.

In older adults, a focus of treatment is on fall prevention through postural awareness, restoration, and improving spinal balance and core stability.

The sooner treatment is started, the better because as a progressive condition, the nature of scoliosis is to become more severe and difficult to treat over time.