Scoliosis

Scoliosis and lordosis are clinical terms that identify spinal exaggerations. In using the terms, we fall into the trap of understanding the imbalance as solely or mostly confined to the spine. But scoliosis is a structural imbalance of the body as a whole. The spinal imbalance affects the arms, legs, head pelvis, and rib cage as well as the rest of the body.

Because of this overall postural imbalance, a person who has Scoliosis tends to suffer from headaches, insomnia, back pain, shallow breathing and sciatica which are all brought about by having an elongated musculature on one side of their bodies and a shortened musculature on the other side of their bodies. This is what causes the curvature of the spine.

Treatment for Scoliosis

There are few schools of thoughts that helps treat scoliosis. Some of these common are yoga, pilates or core training. For example on yoga postures, there is an emphasis of postural alignment, particularly in the Iyengar system. However yoga is a generic exercise that may do more harm than good when applied to you as the exercises would not have been tailored to your specific needs.

Doctors on the other hand will often recommend surgery or a back brace. Surgery is an expensive, time consuming and invasive option, which bears many risks. Back braces on the other hand don’t actively seek to realign the posture of your back and correct the damage that scoliosis has done to it.

Rolfing incorporates the best of both treatments and offers its own strengths as a viable alternative.

How Rolfing Helps Scoliosis Patients 

As the scoliosis patient walks into the Rolfing Clinic, the Rolfer assesses the person’s posture and structural balance to ascertain the extent of the imbalance n the feet, knees or pelvic area as well as gauging any other outward indicators of scoliosis symptoms.

Rolfing is used as a means to improve these conditions by realigning and lengthening the shortened connective tissue that wraps around the muscles. In other words, it de-rotates this connective tissue. This improves your posture and movement, which can help reduce or eliminate the headaches, back pain, shoulder and neck pain that is brought on by Scoliosis.

Rolfing specializes in de-rotating the connective tissue of the thorax and entire body to bring a certain level of balance and peace to beings with rotoscoliosis. Rolfing takes the whole being into consideration when exploring how to work with each individual, seeing them for more than just the product of their environmental conditioning. Certified Rolfing has the capacity to release, realign, and balance the whole body

When your Rolfer works with you, your spine will be lengthened and the paraspinal muscles (longitudinal muscles down the spine) and other supporting muscles of the back are strengthened which together help offset further lateral curvature and rotation.

Besides looking at scoliosis, Rolfing also helps those with kyphosis and lordosis

The diagrams above shows the curvature of the spine on the left and on the right. The condition of scoliosis can be benefitted by Rolfing and specific stretching and exercises.