Ep 75: Should Students w/ Scoliosis Practice Yoga?

Ever wondered if students with scoliosis can practice yoga safely? Spoiler, the answer is Yes, but first we’ve gotta ditch the one-size-fits-all alignment cues and actually work with the curve, not against it. 

In this episode, I’ll break down spinal anatomy, the risks, and the best practices to keep students with spinal deviations strong, mobile, and inspired in your classes. 

Let’s get to it!

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

Have you ever wondered if students with scoliosis can practice yoga safely? Well, the spoiler is, the answer is yes. But first we've gotta ditch the one size fits all alignment cues and actually work with. The curve and not against it. In this episode, I'll break down spinal anatomy, the risks and the best practices to keep students with spinal deviations, strong mobile, and inspired in your classes. So let's get to it.

0:34

Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together.

Monica: 1:43

Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here because here is where we get real about Yoga's role in helping students with conditions and injuries and what you can do to help them recover while they're in your care. Today we're discussing scoliosis. Have you ever heard of it? Know someone with it. What is it? Well, first, imagine the spine. We already know that it has a natural curvature to it, right? Typically, the cervical and lumbar vertebrae are in a lordotic curve and the thoracic spine slightly rounds forward in what is known as kyphosis or a kyphotic curve. These curves are necessary as they help with. Force transfer throughout your body when you move throughout your day. The degree of the curves varies from person to person, which is why using cues like level your pelvis with the floor in standing positions or have you heard make. Your pelvis level, like a bowl, so it doesn't feel as though any water could tip outta the front of it. That's a common cue that I've heard. Well, this cue is not appropriate or effective for students with an excessive lordotic curve in the lumbar spine. Their neutral is with the front of the pelvis tipping forward. And down, and this is why it's so important to look at your students' bodies and see what neutral is for them, and then cue from there. Scoliosis involves curving of the spine, but it's different. Scoliosis is defined as a lateral or a sideways curvature of the spine, more than 10 degrees often. Accompanied with a little rotational deformity. Scoliosis comes in different types. The first is idiopathic, and that's about 80% of cases with no known cause, and it's common among teens. The second is congenital, and these cases can be seen from birth and are due to malformed vertebrae. finally, the third type is neuromuscular, which arises from conditions like cerebral palsy, The spinal variations in scoliosis are not centered to only the spine. These variations affect other areas of the body as well. So you might be able to see uneven shoulders and or hips. One side is higher than the other, or you can see rib cage asymmetry, which can impact breath mechanics for the person with scoliosis. And there could also be muscle imbalances where there are tighter on the concave side and overstretched on the convex side. The first time I became super interested in scoliosis was when I was in a 300 hour yoga teacher training focused on biomechanics. In this training, we spent a lot of time looking at specific poses, traditionally taught alignment and their effects on different types of bodies. One pose we spent many hours studying was triangle pose. So for a moment, I wonder if you can imagine a student with a scoliosis in triangle pose. Now, can you imagine queuing them to open their hips, fit themselves between two panes of glass, lengthen their spine? Stack their shoulders and reach towards the ceiling. That's a lot to ask, and a student with scoliosis will probably have a difficult time with these alignment requests. I say all of this so that you keep this information in the back of your mind and realize that a student might not be able to reach the alignment. It could cause them pain and discomfort, and your assists could make matters worse. Okay. Let's talk about how yoga can benefit students with scoliosis and some risks we should be mindful of as teachers. The great thing about yoga is that we teach body awareness, right? We teach students to get more in tune with what they feel, how they feel it, and where they feel it. We also teach students to be mindful of how they're feeling from day to day. Is today the same or different than yesterday without judgment, but instead knowing and understanding. What we teach can improve postural awareness by directing students' attention to it. We also teach breath capacity via pranayama practices. And with Asana, we can help strengthen underactive muscles on the spinal extensors on the convex side, and we might be able to help reduce pain by helping students decompress compressed vertebra. This, I'll admit, is easier to accomplish in a private yoga session because you can target the sides of the body appropriately as opposed to doing the same practices on both sides, which is what we teach in a group setting. In scoliosis, the concave side's muscles are shortened. It's kind of like a clinched fist. While the convex side is overstretched, sort of like a rubber band, it can be helpful for some to practice exercises that lengthen the tight side and strengthen the weak side. I always ask students at the start of class if they have any injuries or conditions I should know about. I teach mostly online now, but I still have a questionnaire before every class for students to tell me if they're injured or hurt. But I've had students say no, and when we start practicing, I can visually see that they have some spinal deviations. In their bodies, whether they know it or not, I can see it, so I take a mental note of it and it informs my teaching and queuing. I don't necessarily have to have a conversation with them about it. It just helps me know how to teach. Here's what I know. Symmetrical poses Like forward folds can exaggerate, asymmetry. It's always a good idea to check in with students to be sure that they're feeling okay throughout class. If you're teaching twists in class that may torque and already rotated vertebrae and affect what the twist. Looks and feels like. Also, think about poses that include spinal extension, like upward facing dog or wheel pose or camel pose. The excessive back bending can compress facet joints on the posterior part of the spine. How do our alignment cues fail students with deviations in their spine? Well, cues like square your hips, flatten your spine, or even level your shoulders. Ignore that natural asymmetry many of us have in our own bodies. It's important to remember that the vertebrae rotate in scoliosis, so queuing and expecting neutral can lead to straining the ligaments. Instead, teach proprioception over perfection. Teach students to tune into themselves. I know students fall into the comparison trap, especially in in-person group classes, but keep reminding them that the shape that feels right for them is what's most important. Also, you know, the benefits of using props, use blocks, towels, blankets, or wedges to help support uneven sides. Can you imagine Shavasana with a minimally rolled towel just under the right side to help students with slight spinal deviations that cause twisting towards the right. the key here is to have the prop be minimal in support so as not to force movement, but instead to allow the student to settle and feel more supported and connected to their mat. Here's some safe yoga practices for students with scoliosis. Always remember to customize instead of standardizing your teaching. Teach breathing. First, diaphragmatic breathing with rib awareness and movement. have students lie supine and place one hand on their upper chest and the other hand on their ribs on inhale. Ask them to expand the collapse side of the rib cage more. Even though you can't physically do this, ask them to try to breathe only into the collapsed or concave side to attempt to bring length, space, or even a bit of stretch sensation to that part of their body. Then when they exhale, ask them to come back to their neutral Next teach asymmetrical poses like a side bend towards the convex side. Stand tall, reach the arm overhead and side bend towards the convex side. The overstretched side. This will help lengthen the short inside muscles. Hold for a few breaths and you could also ask them to breathe into the shortened side to help find more length or stretch as well. Another option is to strengthen the overstretched side in your classes. You could teach, side plank on the convex side. Side. Plank on the convex side works on engaging the overstretched muscles via isometric holds. Remember to try not to teach or to modify these as much as you can. Deep twists. You can substitute these with open twists or active twists. I like to call them without hooking the arm outside the leg. Okay. Be mindful of symmetrical forward folds. You could use a chair or a wall for support if you have them available. And finally, resist teaching extreme back bends. Replace them with supported bridge with a block or a blanket or a bolster underneath their sacrum. And as always, when should you refer out? First, you should be asking your student if they've been diagnosed and talk with them about their treatment plan, what they're doing to cope and what the outlook looks like for them. If your student complains about pain that shoots down the limbs, progressive curvature over time or breath restriction, they need to see a medical professional. Here's the thing, scoliosis isn't a problem for you to fix. Instead, it's a unique blueprint students have that you can be prepared to work with The best yoga teachers don't force symmetry or universal cues. They teach students to move wisely within their asymmetry and body limitations. Okay. How are you feeling about scoliosis? I. Do you feel like you know a little bit more about it and can see your students differently now? If so, I've done my job here now. Go out and get excited about seeing spinal deviations in your students and know that you got this because you are learning more about how to help them. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities. Come to your classes and you can serve them all. You know that. My goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. If you love this episode, let me know. Don't forget to download the ebook sequencing for different injuries. The link is in the show notes, and I promise you it will help you form a foundation for teaching students with injuries and aging bodies. The information will also help you understand how to accommodate students of different accessibilities, and it'll be a great resource for you to return to again and again. When you download the ebook, you'll be joining my newsletter. That's just for yoga teachers. I've got some more exciting teachings coming soon just for you, so I wanna tell you all about them. The link is in the show notes below, and I would love for you to join it so we can always stay connected. I've added a link in the show notes for you to send me a quick text message about your thoughts on this episode. I won't know your phone number. It's just a neat addition to the platform I use that allows for this new and super easy way for you to communicate with me. Once you click on it, it will take you to your messages, but don't delete the code. That's how your message will get to me, and I would love. To know your thoughts, subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops, and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. Thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast, and if you've been taking notes in your journal as you listen to these episodes, I'm so glad you are and I would love to hear about it. Alright, that's it for now. Bye.