The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Physical Restrictions › Scoliosis- getting worse
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So I’ve been practicing bikram for about a year and a half now. I go pretty consistently until my back hurts too bad to continue and then i stop for a few months. Until I feel so tight, that I HAVE to go back. I feel good for a while and then the back pain comes back.
I have a pretty severe curve 53 degree thoracic and 48 lumbar. You really can’t tell if i have clothes on, because i’m really diligent on my fitness and keeping my back strong. And the rotation isn’t too bad… until now.
I recently went to the doctor because my back hurts so bad in forward flexion that I can’t bend over to brush my teeth, or wash my face etc. (and i’m in REALLY good shape)
We took x-rays, and I got good news and bad news…
Good news – i have a great deal of space between the vertebra NO STENOSIS
BAD news – my rotation is about 30% worse! in my lumbar. Not sure if my thoracic is worse as we only did a lumbar xray becaues the pain is centrally located there.So my question – Shall i continue my practice and NOT do any rotational poses…
I obviously do not want it to get worse, but the lengthening feels so much better afterward.Since I also have an “S” curve. and it rotates one way at the top of the spine and another way at the bottom…whats good for one part of the spine is bad for the other…. HELP 🙂 thanks
Hi Sarafina
I will get to this in the next day or so!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Sarafina
I have been thinking on your questions. It’s tough because I am not sure what kind of practice you have. I have no idea as to your breath, your alignment or your depth in your poses.
What I must do is know a lot more about your practice before I could go anywhere near telling you whether you should stop or continue.
In my experience hot yoga helps every time BUT one’s practice has to be diligently focused on ALIGNMENT and NEVER DEPTH. For example with my own scoliosis I have to be sure that I am not trying to match one side’s depth to the other side (and I guess that could be out of ego if I were to do that) and really focus on micro-adjustments every moment especially when I feel resistance around the dysfunctional curves.
For example I feel that especially in Half Moon. On the right side my pose is perfectly aligned and it’s easy. On the left side I have to adjust, adjust, adjust every moment hips and shoulders and antero-posteriorly as well.
There are other poses where I feel a difference between the sides.
Questions I can ask you:
>> What do you do during the day? For your job? If you’re employed…
>> When you sit down do you cross your legs? If you do do you always cross them the same way?
>> What does it feel like when you do poses like Standing Bow (comparing side to side)? What about Spinal Twist?
>> When you do go consistently how often do you go?
>> What do you mean that your back hurts and that stops you from going?
>> Have you read my story on the forum about my scoliosis yet? It has some details that could help you.Apologies it took more than a day!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi, thank you so much for responding. I had been checking back everyday to see if you had written back, so I apologise now for ME taking so long.
To answer your questions,
I am a pilates instructor, I stand all day. Occasionally at a computer on my breaks, but for the most part I am standing and instructing.
I do not cross my legs, EVER. I used to, but about a year ago i stopped. When I did, it always used to be right over left. That’s most comfortable for me.
Standing bow is much easier with left leg balancing right leg up.
Spine twist the second side is much harder even to keep the sit bones down on both sides…
When I do go I go about 4-5 times a week. I consistently go, for as long as I can, then I start to get lower back pain. Sacrum area.
My problem, frustration is that I KNOW my body, I have teaching pilates for 7 years with a kinesiology background. I do ONE lung breathing during the warm up to get into that one side etc…
I have a double curve thoracic and lumbar and an oppositional rotation thoracic and lumbar.
So what’s good for the top, is bad for the bottom….
I have read your story I believe, but did you have a double curve? I am pretty severe at 53 thoracic and 48 lumbar…Looking forward to your thoughts,
Hi Sarafina
With every movement there will be adjustments! It’s interesting that most people would believe you can bring your body to the side in Half Moon in a pure movement of sideways bending. But you would know (with your background and your condition) that at every moment you are working with counter-rotations of hips to shoulders (with vertebrae that are irregular in shape and stacked in curves) in order to simulate that pure sideways movement.
When it comes to you and your interesting back (!) my sense is that you have to work extra hard to keep alignment without surrendering at all to the now habitual curves your back has developed. Moving to first point of resistance for you and then working like crazy on alignment (but no struggle) would be what should work. Of course this goes for any movement you make – half moon was just an illustration.
There is definitely a part of me that wants to see you to work with you, to get beyond the words here. Meet me in Costa Rica on May 19! Just kidding. 😆 But I will be there for teacher training. I would want to spend time watching your habitual movements and how to master better posture. Being a pilates instructor i have faith that you are describing the issues well. But I still don’t have a clear picture of what you are moving like in poses.
We will start with some questions about a particular pose. Then we can move onto different poses as required to try and get a better picture.
I notice that you have mentioned an your issue with the sacrum area. A common question you’ll see me ask on the forum is whether you have legs locked out in Standing Sep Leg Stretch. Do you? If you do, is your back straight? Or rounded? Can you describe what your arms are doing and where you grip your foot.
Let’s see what you have to report 😉 and we’ll take it from there
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂thanks 🙂 We’ll let me start by saying that I haven’t responded because I now have injured my back. 3 slipped discs. L2 through S1 with the disc between L5 and S1 being the worse.
My husband is all for me coming to Costa Rica, and if it wasn’t for my clients, I would do it! I fully intend to attend the next teacher training, or i’ll fly out to Australia. I just need someone to WATCH me closely, as I firmly believe that this can help me!!.
So i’ve seen a lot of doctors over the last two weeks, chiropractors, cranial-sacral guys, a spine scientist, everybody and anybody that can help me. the good news is that i’m in great shape and flexible. I had a profound two hours with the Spine “scientist” who was amazing!! Basically my Illiopsoas is inflamed, contracted, etc. (because i’ve also been having a wicked stomach pain with my disc problem)
ugh – i’m getting off track. To answer your question
I try my darnedest to keep my legs straight in the Standing Separate Leg Stretch. I am Super hypermobile. I hyper extend 60% in my right leg and 45% in my left leg. (measures from Spine Specialist) I try so hard to keep them straight without “popping them backwards” i try to see my hips to make sure its level I naturally shift into my Right leg, so I try to shift back to my left.
And I wrap my hands around the outside of my ankles. Fingers and thumbs under the heel.thank you so much!!! You are so helpful and here in LA i’ve spent $1000 in the last two weeks seeing “dr’s” that are too cool to take insurance!!!
Anyway- do you ever let people come out to Australia to train with you? may is so close, so I obviously cant just drop things and go, but I could later on 🙂
THANKS AGAIN!
Hi Sarafina
It would be wonderful to work with you. Let’s see what we can work with here. You can write to me on email if you need to talk about training, or visiting. Thank you for the trust.
So what I need you to do now is go and see the blog post called Opening Up Your Hamstrings With Hot Yoga.
If you’re having such terrible issues in that area then this technique should help you physiologically be more gentle and more effective in opening your body up. It will help soothe your hamstrings, psoas and your sacral area and you’ll feel so much more ease and yet great challenge in this pose. Then you will want to apply this same technique to similar poses.
Let me know how you go and if you need more help in working out how to apply it.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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