What is Scoliosis?
Picture on the left: 2018, Picture on the left: 2021:
After 1.5 years of strength training and ELDOA exercises. At 44 years of the expectation was for my curves to worsen over time. I actually improved my curves and I am still going strong.
Scoliosis & Structural Imbalances
Scoliosis is a lateral and rotational curvature of the spine in the shape of an “S” or a “C” curve. Scoliosis may develop from birth or acquired from poor posture/compensation patterns during adolescence, puberty and adulthood.
Structural imbalances will develop from poor posture and unhealthy compensation patterns. Structural imbalances may suggest or develop in to a scoliosis because of the increase in fascial tension and musculoskeletal disparity between our:
front & back bodies
right & left bodies
right front & left back bodies
left front & right back bodies
right front & right back bodies
left front & left back bodies
Any combination of the above.
These structural imbalances may be visually apparent and physically felt.
HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?
Think of your skeleton floating in a sea of connective tissue, aka fascia. Now add into this sea of connective tissue, your organs, blood, nerves, lymph system, muscles and skin. Every structure in our body is floating and this is because of TENSEGRITY = TENSION + INTEGRITY. Looking at the photo to the right, you can see what our fascia looks like. The basic structure of fascia is a triangular shaped-nonlinear model that looks like a spider-web. Fascia takes this shape because the triangle is the strongest geometric shape. If one side of this triangle breaks, it adopts another side. The triangle will change its shape to a wider triangle or a longer triangle but it always maintains its tensional integrity. The goal of this TENSEGRITY MODEL of our fascia is to normalize the tension in the whole body to keep us upright.
HOW DOES FASCIA CONTINUE TO NORMALIZE THE BODY?
Through MOVEMENT!
Fascia reduces friction allowing structures to glide over each other during movement!
When fascia gets twisted, contorted or dehydrated our nerves.
This can cause our organs to malfunction because they cannot receive the proper communication from our nervous system, receive nutrients, and oxygen from our circulatory system or remove toxins from our lymph system.
This can cause blood to get trapped or back up.
This can cause our muscles to get tense, cramp or constrict
This can impinge our nerve roots causing PAIN!
FASCIA MAINTAINS BIOCHEMICAL INTEGRITY OF ALL STRUCTURES AND REDUCES INFLAMMATION AND IRRITATION OF OUR TISSUES.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SCOLIOSIS AND STRUCTURAL IMBALANCES?
Correcting our structural imbalances and scoliosis (as close to normal as possible) is imperative to maintaining healthy tension on our fascia. If we continue to indulge our compensation patterns due to our structural imbalances and scoliosis our fascia will continue to change its shape to maintain its tensional integrity to maintain us upright. This is at the expense of our internal organs, muscles, blood, nerves, lymph and bones. This phenomenon equals POOR POSTURE and a WORSENING OF OUR POSTURE, PAIN, DISCOMFORT, DISEASE AND DIS-EASE.
HOW DOES THIS DOMINO EFFECT HAPPEN?
Many adults with no genetic or hereditary predisposition to scoliosis will acquire it from: (this is a limited list).
Collapsing of one of our inner ankles (very common).
Carrying a heavy purse or luggage on one shoulder.
Sitting unbalanced in the car, at your desk, on a wallet and/or crossed legged.
Participating in unilateral sports like tennis, golf and baseball.
Relying on only your dominant side to accomplish tasks.
Propping up on one leg while standing.
Carrying your child on one hip.
It is important to know if you have scoliosis or a structural imbalance before any exercise program so you can correct your unique compensations patterns, and avoid injury.
Correcting our postures with scoliosis and a structural imbalance is slightly more challenging. Our sensory cells and receptors in our joints have been giving our brain incorrect information as to where our body is in space for a long time. Your brain wants to keep your eyes level. In order to do that your structure/spine has to zig zag back and forth to keep your eyes level, creating an imbalance in our musculature. We need to unlearn this incorrect information and relearn what is correct. We need to make your sensory cells in your ligaments smarter so we will go back to the basics learning how to stand with awareness in our bodies.
Strength is of utmost importance to develop, maintain and support our structure. Ultimately, our structure always dictates how our body functions.
ELDOA™, Yoga Therapy, Soma Training, CranioSacral Therapy and Soma Therapy all work together to balance the fascial tension improving and/or stabilizing scoliosis curvatures, improving posture, releasing unhealthy tension by normalizing your connective tissues so you can function optimally.