Yoga and Scoliosis: How to Practice Safely

While yoga can’t be used as a scoliosis treatment discipline, it can offer a variety of therapeutic benefits, including increasing the spine’s responsiveness to treatment through improving its flexibility and postural restoration.

When it comes to yoga and scoliosis, all yoga poses need to be approved by a patient’s treatment provider due to strain on the spine and its surroundings caused by the unnatural curvature and rotation. When performed properly, yoga can improve core strength, spinal flexibility, pain, and posture.

Before getting to the specifics of yoga and scoliosis, let’s discuss some of the main effects of scoliosis.

Scoliosis Effects

Scoliosis causes the spine to develop an unnatural lateral curvature, and because the spine also rotates, scoliosis is 3-dimensional.

Scoliosis is also progressive, meaning its nature is to increase in severity over time, and while we don’t fully understand what triggers scoliosis onset in most cases, we know it’s growth that makes it progress, so how scoliosis is managed during periods of rapid growth is crucial.

Ranging from mild scoliosis to moderate and severe scoliosis, symptoms can vary significantly based on differences in patient age, severity, scoliosis type, curve pattern and location, and cause.

If scoliosis is progressing, as most cases will at some point, the size of the unnatural spinal curve, and its rotation, are increasing over time, and effects will become more noticeable and conditions more complex to treat.

There are never treatment guarantees, but there are direct links between early detection, intervention, and treatment success; the earlier treatment is started, the better.

In cases of childhood scoliosis, the earliest effects are postural changes caused by the scoliosis disrupting the body’s overall symmetry, often involving uneven shoulders, shoulder blades, hips, and the development of an arch in the rib cage.

In adult scoliosis, a common effect that leads to assessment and diagnosis is pain: back pain and nerve pain caused by compression.

Mobility changes are also common as disruptions to balance, coordination, and gait occur.

Part of diagnosing scoliosis involves comprehensive assessment regarding activity recommendations/restrictions that can vary from one patient to the next.

While some activities are deemed safe and therapeutic, others can involve restriction and/or necessitate modifications.

What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient practice that integrates breathing, postural, and movement awareness through positioning the body in specific poses.

The practice works towards improving mental and physical health through mindful stretching and strengthening exercises.

When it comes to activity recommendations/restrictions for scoliosis patients, they are case-specific, which is why no new exercise or exercise regimen should be attempted before approval from an individual’s treatment provider.

It’s important that exercise and activity doesn’t strain the spine further, exacerbate the condition’s asymmetrical effects, introduce more compression, and/or or involve repeated shock.

Yoga is based on symmetrical movement, and one of the prime effects of scoliosis is disrupting the body’s overall symmetry, so certain poses may be harmful and should be approached with caution, while others offer therapeutic benefits.

Let’s talk about the potential benefits of scoliosis-specific yoga poses that are deemed safe and appropriate.

Core Strengthening

It’s not just the spine that maintains its healthy curves and alignment; it relies on the spine’s surrounding muscles for support and stability.

A strong core is one that can support the spine, taking pressure off its individual structures and surroundings.

In fact, a focus of nonsurgical scoliosis correction is improving core strength through scoliosis-specific physical therapy and the rehabilitative power of scoliosis-specific exercises.

Yoga poses can build core muscles for improved spinal support, stability, and take pressure off spinal nerves; a common effect of scoliosis is nerve compression that can cause a wide range of symptoms, including back and radiating pain.

Increasing Spinal Flexibility

An effect of progression that increases the complexity of treatment is increasing spinal rigidity.

As scoliosis gets worse, the condition’s uneven forces and spinal rigidity are increasing, making the spine less malleable and responsive to treatment.

Nonsurgical scoliosis treatment relies on the integration of multiple scoliosis-specific disciplines to impact scoliosis on every level and fully customize treatment plans.

Here at the Scoliosis Center of Utah, patients benefit from the application of Chiropractic BioPhysics® that’s evidence- and science-based, and combines the potential of scoliosis-specific chiropractic adjustments, exercise, and bracing for the best potential results.

In cases of scoliosis that have progressed significantly prior to being diagnosed, some preparatory work may be necessary to increase spinal flexibility so patients can perform key therapeutic exercises and the spine is more responsive to chiropractic techniques and adjustments.

So exercise that is deemed safe and increases spinal flexibility can help counteract the effects of progression, making the spine more responsive to treatment.

Pain Management

Scoliosis pain is more closely associated with adult scoliosis.

Compression is one of the main causes of scoliosis pain, and scoliosis becomes compressive once skeletal maturity is reached.

While pain management isn’t a common focus of childhood scoliosis treatment, it is in most cases of adult scoliosis, and the more severe the scoliosis, the more potential there is for increasing pain and instability.

Scoliosis pain caused by compression commonly involves compressed nerves, and radiating pain in the extremities is the main symptom of adult scoliosis that leads to assessment and diagnosis.

A focus of yoga is increasing the spine and body’s overall flexibility, and this can mean stretching the spine for decompression, creating space within the spine and relieving pressure on compressed nerves.

Scoliosis-specific yoga can offer pain-relief benefits by increasing spinal flexibility and relieving pressure on the spine and its surrounding nerves and muscles.

Practicing yoga poses regularly and safely can also help relieve muscle tension and pain associated with muscular imbalances (a common effect of scoliosis).

Postural Restoration

Postural restoration is a goal of nonsurgical scoliosis treatment; posture shapes spinal health and vice versa.

Improving posture means reducing uneven forces exposed to the spine and its surroundings and supporting healthy movement patterns.

If poor posture is left untreated, it can lead to a number of health problems: pain, vertebral subluxation, fatigue, disability, headaches and migraines, disc degeneration, and organ dysfunction.

Yoga improves core strength, spinal flexibility, and supports healthy movement patterns: factors that shape posture.

A focus of ScoliBalance is teaching postural awareness through the use of Mirror Image exercise so patients know how to hold their spines and bodies during movement, and yoga also incorporates breathing techniques (a focus of the Schroth method) to reduce imbalances and encourage mindful movement.

Yoga Poses for Scoliosis

When designed by a scoliosis-specific yoga instructor and approved by a patient’s treatment provider, certain yoga poses offer a number of benefits from strengthening core muscles to improving the spine’s flexibility and body posture.

While yoga-pose recommendations are case-specific, poses commonly approved include the Cat-Cow, Mountain pose, Warrior pose, Child’s pose, and the side plank pose.

In some cases, poses can be modified to suit a patient’s scoliosis and ability further, and when integrated into a proactive nonsurgical treatment plan, scoliosis-specific yoga can increase the spine’s flexibility and responsiveness, offer pain relief, postural improvement, and supports a healthy mind-body connection.

Conclusion

Here at the Center, treatment plans are highly individualized, including activity recommendations/restrictions.

Both scoliosis and the practice of yoga have been around since ancient times, and over the years, our understanding of the condition and its responsiveness to exercise-based treatments has evolved to include the potential therapeutic benefits of scoliosis-specific yoga.

It is important to understand, however, that as a structural spinal condition, no yoga pose alone can correct a scoliosis, but for patients being proactively treated, scoliosis-specific yoga can help create an environment inside the body and mind that’s more conducive to healing and responsive to treatment.