Episode 54: Can Scoliosis be Corrected with Exercise?

I often get asked if Scoliosis can be corrected with exercise or if progression be stopped with exercise. To be able to answer this properly, we need to understand what Scoliosis is.

Scoliosis is NOT a curable condition. You can't ever correct it or cure it completely. You're always just managing Scoliosis. Because when Scoliosis occurs, it affects the physical structure of the spine. It's a structural spinal condition that occurs during growth. And since it progresses during growth, patients grow with this curve. And the fact that they have grown with this curve, their whole body has grown and developed with a curvature in it. So, we're always just working at controlling and reducing Scoliosis.

One of the big things that scoliosis affects especially as it progresses is something that we call spinal flexibility. Spinal flexibility is what the spine should have. Normally, when the spine moves and the patient moves, the spine will bend and flex as they move, and it does it relatively symmetrically on both sides. However, when scoliosis occurs, it affects the structure of the spine in such a way that it creates this asymmetrical curvature. This asymmetrical curvature creates something that we call spinal rigidity. Spinal rigidity is something that the spine becomes stiff or stiffer. So, when patients actually bend the curve remains. Proactive treatments are really trying to manage this spinal rigidity and progression.

Does a good Scoliosis treatment include exercise?

Of course, it does and there are two very specific types of exercises.

• General Exercise
• Scoliosis-Specific Exercise

General exercises will have NO impact on your curve. Your progression isn’t in any way connected to how strong or how weak you are. General exercises like cardiovascular, Yoga, Pilates are aimed at main just improving your general health. Scoliosis Specific Exercises or SSE on the other hand are exercises that are prescribed to a patient that is designed for their curve type and are designed to help reduce their curve and nothing else. However, SSE is limited in how much they can do based on how flexible or how rigid the spine is.

Although Scoliosis-Specific Exercise can help reduce your curve, one big factor in order for this type of exercise to work is to improve the flexibility of the motion of your joints in order for your body to respond to the exercises that you perform.

If you are looking for an exercise approach to help with your Scoliosis and to know more about this Intensive type of treatment, check out Dr. Tony Nalda’s podcast.

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