Scoliosis is a condition that causes your spine to curve sideways that occur during a person’s growth spurt right before puberty. It can cause chronic pain, weakness, and changes in how a person walks. Fortunately, in mild scoliosis cases, people can treat the condition by doing specific exercises and stretches.
Here are the six best stretches and exercises for scoliosis:
Hot Yoga
Although not all yoga styles are ideal for scoliosis, hot yoga offers several easy poses that can help scoliosis patients locate their center, improve core muscles, reduce pain, and improve their overall quality of life. Hot yoga enhances the poses’ effects by incorporating a hotter environment, increasing circulation, and relieving pain better.
Here are the best yoga poses that people with scoliosis can benefit from when practiced regularly.
- Tree Pose — It’s a standing pose that provides more balance and improves a scoliosis patient’s core strength and posture.
- Cat Pose — It’s a kneeling pose that opens more space between each vertebra in the spine, loosening the back, alleviating pain from scoliosis.
You can take professional classes from a hot yoga studio or do it yourself at home. Either way, they can help with pain relief.
Pilates
Although you can’t reverse the curvature in your spine by performing pilates exercises, experts believe that doing pilates relieve pain by releasing your spine’s tight areas, improving awareness and power. It consists of different movements. It emphasizes correct postural alignment, muscle balance, and core strength.
Pelvic Tilts
Pelvic tilt can help stretch tight muscles in your lower back and hips, alleviating scoliosis pain. To do a pelvic tilt, do the following:
- Lie on your back on a floor or any flat surface with your feet flat and knees bent.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles while flattening your back towards the floor and hold the position for five seconds.
- Do two sets of ten reps for the best results.
Play Soccer
If you have mild scoliosis, soccer is a fantastic and fun exercise that strengthens the core muscles, relieving pain associated with scoliosis. All player potions in the game except goalie are fine. However, if you’re suffering from moderate to severe scoliosis, it’s wise to consult with your physician before playing the sport.
Cat/Camel Exercise
The cat or camel offers a gentle strengthening workout for your stomach muscles while stretching your lower back, alleviating pain while improving your posture. To do this, you need to:
- Go down on the floor with your hands and knees on the floor.
- Hold the position and maintain tight abdominal muscles with your head straight.
- Take a deep breath, bring your lower rib cage upwards, slightly arch your back, and relax your neck (you should resemble a surprised cat or camel).
- As you breathe out, slowly lower your chest on the floor while looking slightly upward.
- Return to your initial position with your tight stomach muscles.
- Repeat the movement ten times per set.
Stretches
Simple stretches can help mitigate pain and discomfort with ease. Easy to do and effective stretches include hanging from a bar as long as you can, bend in the direction of your spine’s curvature, lie on rolled towels, and static chest stretch.
While the mentioned exercises and stretches are proven to be efficient for scoliosis, it’s still a good idea to consult with your doctor, chiropractor, or physical therapist to see which ones would work best for you.
