07-22-2013, 12:55 PM Hello everyone,
I have several doubts after reading the following article on Yoga and Scoliosis.
site: schrothmethod.com/about/yoga-for-scoliosis-menu
This article is obviously extracted from a website that sells its own treatment and exercise routine for Scoliosis. But the reasons given and explanations layed out somehow resonates with my personal experience as a Yoga practicioner with scoliosis.
For the past 3 years, and since I had a herniated disc surgery , I was told to avoid forward bend and focus mostly on backbend and in the case of muscle tension because of the scoliosis, practice twists to relax the lat muscles...
These were coming from people in the Yoga sphere.
From a more medical pov, like PT, ostepathes, chiro etc.. I was told to focus more on forward bend as it allows each vertebrae to create space and then gives more space to the disk.
It's difficult to really visualize what's happening around my spine when I forward or back bend... in my personal case, both feel good, knowing that I practice only gentle asanas and practice yoga mostly to fight the stifness invasion since the operation !! 
I would love if some of you could take the time to go through all the article and give his / her opinion on such dilemma. I'm sure others with scoliosis would be interested in confirming what is good or what should maybe be avoided...
Thanks a lot in advance !
Peace 
07-23-2013, 07:31 AM Thanks for sharing this! Interesting article.
A question for you though: You had disc surgery and was told to avoid forward bends. What type of surgery did you have? Spinal Fusion? If the disc protrudes toward the back, then yes, forward bends would be contraindicated. To the front, they would be therapeutic.
Elise Browning Miller, MA has written extensively about scoliosis over the years before she passed. She was a certified Iyengar teacher who was personally trained by Iyengar, helping her treat her own scoliosis. Her premise is to strengthen the muscles that are weak and lengthen those that are tight and to de-rotate the spine/ribs which helps bring about balance in the scoliosis body. Strengthening the erector spinae will help stabilize the spine. Salabasana (locust) is one asana that is effective in doing this. This contradicts, in the article you shared that Salabasana should NEVER be performed. Elise also advocates forward bends and twists, which again contradicts the article.
Pranayam practice is very important to the scoliosis practitioner. They eluded to their own breathing exercise, but I couldn't find it explained anywhere on the website. Would be curious to know what it is.
As with anything, the temptation is to read something and believe it is true. Find what resonates with you. My opinion about the article? Good points brought up, many contradicting what several Yoga experts say. Worth investigating.
07-24-2013, 10:04 AM Poor Elise I had her passing! My visual was of Esther Myers(who did pass recently)for some reason as I was writing. Elsie is alive and well as far as I know. I had considered taking one of her Yoga for Scoliosis workshops being offered this summer, but my schedule wouldn't permit. @ Gordon......One would think that backbends would push or diminish the rib hump.
The thoracic area develops kyphosis, rounding the shoulders and dropping the head forward. Backbends would be therapeutic.
07-24-2013, 05:01 PM Originally Posted by lotusgirl 
A question for you though: You had disc surgery and was told to avoid forward bends. What type of surgery did you have? Spinal Fusion? If the disc protrudes toward the back, then yes, forward bends would be contraindicated. To the front, they would be therapeutic.Hello Lotusgirl, thank you for your reply and suggestion about Elise's book, I already found her material on amazon but didn't think it would add much to what I already learned over the years with different teachers, including Iyengar ones.
To be more specific, I had a L5-S1 disc microdiscectomy back in 2011. It is not a major operation and totally removed the sciatic pain that was causing me so much distress. Although at the time, most iyengar teachers recommended not to do the operation and be patient and practice yoga. Only one day I couldn't walk and almost didn't feel my left foot so I've got to say I felt frightened and did the surgery anyway.
For some reason other problems appeared few months later, pain here and there gradually increased with time, but it is more muscular discomfort than nerve pain.
It feels like imbalances and bad energy circulation is now creating problem with one disc gone from my lumbar area. It makes sense though if we think in term of levels and the fact that the spine was already curved at a 37 degrees angle due to chronic scoliosis. Remove the second floor of the Tower of Pisa and see what would happen...
On a more practical note now: I did start a yoga class, one-to-one with a friend from Kerala, who's a Hata yoga teacher from the Sivananda tradition. For 2 months, we focused on backbends, and almost didn't allow forward bend into the practice, except in Surya namaskar with Uttanasana, always with knees bent, and child pose to counter effect all the back bends I was doing.
I felt very good after these classes, only that the next day, I was always feeling stiff in my lumbar area. With his classic Indian flair, my friend told me it was normal, energies were moving and needed to be adressed with backbends. After few warming up exercises, it was ok and I could practice again, And so on for few weeks, stiffness in the lumbar when my body became cold few hours after class, then ok during class after warming up! But in general I was feeling more "open" and I could feel I had a better range of motion.
Unfortunately I stopped this routine, as I had to travel for work and I got sick, some flue I caught in Asia, and then I couldn't practice for more than 2 months. After this time, where I am now, I feel like my lumbar lordosis is much more pronunced than before. My lower back it extremely hard, the curvature inward is more noticeable than before (is this the wedge you are talking about?) .
So that's when I did some research and a friend sent me that article. She's a Pilates teacher and also believes that forward bends are not recommended in my case and that I should focus on strenghtening the core (pilates teacher talk...) and focus on backbends...
But for me, no more forward bends means no more relaxing child poses, no more hip opening asanas and yin yoga hip series, no more surya namaskar!! So where is the fun in yoga after removing all that ?!
All is very confusing, that is why I asked for the forum advice. I will see a new PT who just moved in my region (south of France). apparently he's qualified with athletes and sport related injuries. Let's see what is his opinion in this.
Thanks again for all the help, hopefully Inner Athlete could enlighten us more on his field experience with the issue 
Peace
07-24-2013, 11:56 PM What is a lumbar wedge? And Gordon, why don't you just tell us what the issue is? 
But okay, fine. My thought right off the bat is that the author is simply drawing conclusions from observations of poor asana practice. Backbends in asana may exacerbate lumbar lordosis in Hardtail ads but they are not designed to do so and when properly practiced the curvature of the spine does not go into already mobile parts (lumbar curve in backbends).
When approaching a student with scoliosis it is important to know the degree of the curve and its location. In the more extreme instances the work for such a student could not possibly come from a group class unless said class was with a master teacher. Instead it would be more appropriate in private sessions.
And there are absolutely some postures that are not done with a student that has scoliosis. So I'm uncertain where the author is drawing information from. Surely it isn't from their own practice.
__________________Gordon Kaplan
President, Team Yoga
http://www.teamyoga.com/
- - - -
Certified Purna Yoga Teacher (CPYT)
RYT-500, ERYT-200, IAYT,
M.S. Kinesiology, Indiana University
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