Scoliosis weakens the spine due to its uneven forces causing misalignment. Scoliosis can also impact the spine’s surrounding muscles, so weak and/or unbalanced muscles can be a factor when exercising with scoliosis. Scoliosis patients who cultivate a healthy and approved activity level can be more responsive to treatment.
When it comes to exercising with scoliosis, it’s important to understand its importance, along with which exercises to avoid. While exercise recommendations/restrictions are case-specific, general restrictions include exercise that overuses one side of the body, is high-impact, involves hyperextension, and compressive lifts.
Before getting to specific exercises to avoid with scoliosis, let’s talk generally about what happens to the spine as scoliosis develops and progresses.
Understanding Scoliosis
Being diagnosed with scoliosis doesn’t mean a life of limitations, but it does mean understanding spinal health and how to lead a scoliosis-friendly lifestyle is important.
Scoliosis causes an unnatural sideways-bending spinal curvature to develop, and scoliosis doesn’t just cause the spine to curve unnaturally, but also rotate, making scoliosis a 3-dimensional condition.
Because scoliosis is progressive, most cases will increase in severity over time, particularly children who are still growing; growth spurts are the main cause of scoliosis progression.
Scoliosis introduces uneven forces to the spine, its surroundings, and the entire body, which is why postural deviation is the main symptom of scoliosis in children. The main symptom of adult scoliosis is pain.
The most important thing to understand about scoliosis is the necessity for treatment. Scoliosis ranges widely in severity from mild scoliosis to moderate, severe, and very severe scoliosis, and the more severe, the more important it can be that exercise restrictions are followed.
Straining a scoliotic spine can cause injury, curve progression, pain, and interfere with treatment, and this is where mindful movement and posture becomes particularly important.
Part of diagnosing scoliosis involves comprehensive assessment to further classify conditions based on a number of key variables: patient age, condition type, severity, and location. Exercise recommendations/restrictions are shaped by these factors.
Exercises to Avoid
Being diagnosed with scoliosis doesn’t mean a person can’t enjoy sports and exercise, but it does mean that sports and exercise routines have to be approved by a scoliosis patient’s treatment provider.
Scoliosis exercises that are customized and corrective can be valuable facets of treatment; in fact, there are scoliosis-specific exercise-based treatment approaches with proven results.
Awareness of the best exercises for scoliosis, along with which to avoid, is important for overall spinal health and facilitating treatment efficacy.
Overusing One Side of the Body
Scoliosis can cause unhealthy posture and movement patterns to develop, and some exercises use one side of the body more heavily than the other.
Scoliosis is an asymmetrical condition, so its effects involve disrupting the body’s overall symmetry, and a common effect is a muscular imbalance.
As scoliosis develops and progresses, it can affect its surrounding muscle strength and balance as the unnatural spinal curve is pulling the spine’s surrounding muscles in different directions.
Most cases of scoliosis involve right-bending curves, and this means the muscles on the right side are going to be stronger from attempting to counteract the spine’s unnatural curve, and muscles on the left side can become weaker due to lack of use; this can cause weakness, pain, and muscle spasms.
So exercise that overuses one side of the body can exacerbate the condition’s asymmetrical effects, including sports like tennis, golf, and bowling.
High-Impact Exercise
Scoliosis becomes compressive once skeletal maturity has been reached. Compression is uneven and excessive pressure, and high-impact exercise like horseback riding, long-jump, and basketball can involve repeated jarring impact that exposes the spine and its surroundings to more compression.
High-impact collision sports like football and hockey are commonly restricted due to stress from repeated jarring impact.
High-impact exercise can cause pain and curve progression by further straining the spine, and this can also interfere with treatment.
Hyperextending the Spine
Hyperextending the spine means excessive bending that strains the vertebrae, so sports and exercise that include deep back bends such as yoga, gymnastics, and certain types of dance are generally restricted to scoliosis patients.
Exercise that involves hyperextension can strain the spine, its joints, soft tissues and supportive ligaments, and this can lead to injury, pain, and injury such as damaging stress fractures.
Exercise that extends the spine unnaturally is pushing it beyond its natural range of motion so should be approached with caution and/or avoided completely.
Compressive Lifts
While strengthening exercise can have a number of benefits for people with scoliosis, including increasing the spine’s surrounding muscle strength for more support, weightlifting with scoliosis should not include lifting weight straight over the head (deadlifting) and shoulder presses.
Lifting heavier weights straight over the head and shoulders puts excessive weight and pressure on the spine, introducing more compression to a compressive condition.
For those who are unsure of what types of sports, activities, and exercises are safe for scoliosis, the first step is consulting a scoliosis specialist for specific recommendations that are customized around a patient’s scoliosis.
Healthy Exercise for People with Scoliosis
Exercise is beneficial for everyone, but for people with scoliosis, it can have the specific benefits of increasing spinal flexibility to counteract increasing spinal rigidity (an effect of progression) and pain relief.
Increasing the spine’s flexibility is necessary for pain relief and treatment efficacy; in fact, a main benefit of early detection and intervention is starting treatment before the spine becomes increasingly rigid as scoliosis progresses.
In addition, a spine that’s surrounded by strong and balanced back and core muscles is receiving optimal support and stability, taking pressure off the spine and its individual structures. A spine with supportive and balanced muscles has the support it needs to maintain a healthy alignment and promotes good posture.
A corrective scoliosis-specific exercise program is a key facet of nonsurgical scoliosis treatment plans that combine the power of scoliosis-specific chiropractic adjustments and care, corrective bracing, and scoliosis-specific rehabilitative exercise.
Healthy exercise for scoliosis needs to be approved by a treatment provider, engage the body’s muscles symmetrically, doesn’t strain the spine, involve repeated impact, hyperextension, or compressive force.
When scoliosis-specific exercise is combined with other therapies, the scope of nonsurgical treatment increases, and activities like walking, road cycling, swimming (not competitive swimming), and certain yoga poses and stretches can increase treatment efficacy for long-term pain relief and a better quality of life.
Conclusion
People with scoliosis have to practice mindful movement for healthy posture, spinal alignment, and facilitating treatment efficacy.
Exercises to avoid with scoliosis are case-specific, but generally include those that overuse one side of the body and can exacerbate the condition’s asymmetrical effects, are high-impact and introduce adverse spinal tension through repeated jarring impact, involve hyperextending the spine and straining its vertebrae, and compressive lifts that add pressure and weight to the spine.
Scoliosis is also progressive, so activities that have the potential to increase curve progression should be avoided.
Safe movement tips for scoliosis patients include being mindful of proper posture, not straining the spine, and avoiding twisting motions and deep bends that overextend the spine and push it beyond its natural range of motion.
While the spine’s natural design and function is movement-based, too much movement can strain the spine, cause stress fractures, cause uneven wear and tear, and increase curve progression.
Exercises for scoliosis that are specific and corrective can increase core muscle strength for more spinal support and stability, while increasing spinal flexibility to make the spine more responsive to treatment.
A strong core is not only helpful for spinal support, treatment efficacy, and pain relief, it’s also essential for proper posture, and few things shape spinal health more over time than postural habits.
Here at the Atl anta Scoliosis Center, scoliosis treatment doesn’t end with a curve reduction; it includes continued care and lifestyle guidance, including customized exercise recommendations, and treatment goals include improving the spine’s alignment, balance, stability, and body posture.
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