In this video, I'm going to show the best scoliosis
exercises for pain and posture using no equipment. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. When it comes to relieving scoliosis
back pain and also helping to improve back posture, we need
to focus on strengthening and lengthening muscles as specific
parts around that curve and I'm going to show you how to do
this in a very easy to follow step-by-step guide. As a bonus,
all of the exercises can be done at home require no
equipment and you may find give quick back pain relief even
within 30 seconds. So, with that being said, get started.
So, let's start with a really easy warm up exercise. This is
really important to do because it's going to help loosen up
the muscles and soft tissues to make the exercises in this
video much easier to do. This is known as thoracic controlled
articular rotations or thoracic cars. That's a fancy way of
saying that we're going to put the back through a lot of
different movements and positions to target the spots
that are most tight and achy. So, you can do this one
standing or seated. Just a arms cross them over like this I
always call it the mummy and what I'm going to do to start
off with is just do a nice big circular motion like this with
your back doesn't matter what direction you go and we're
going to do it on both clockwise and counterclockwise
so what I'm trying to do is really focus on trying to put
as much movement into my back as possible taking big wide
swings do this roughly 3 to5 times nice and slowly and then
switch it up in the opposite direction from there I'm going
to repeat this one. Afterwards, I like to take this one to the
next level by now focusing on going into flexion which is
bending forward and then also going into extension which is
leaning backward while doing these motions. So, you kind of
want to just throw a random motion in there as much as
possible. If you have scoliosis, you're probably
going to quickly identify a movement or position that
really is tight and achy. Maybe it's going towards my left
while I'm leaning into flexion. At that point, what I want to focus on
doing is keep repeating this over and over again in that
position until you finally start to feel that you're
gaining more range of motion and having less tightness and
achiness but go through every single motion that you could
think of identify any tight achy movement and work through
it until everything is nice and loose so after we have the
muscles warmed up we're going to move on to a blend of
stretching and strengthening exercises is really important
to note. Assuming that you have a C-shaped curve, what you have
to focus on first is strengthening the muscles on
the outside of that curve, the convex side and then you need
to focus on stretching the inner part or the concave part
of that curve. If you have an S shaped curve, you're going to
have to do double duty. So, I'm going to break this
strengthening exercise portion up to target the upper back
first and then the low back. So, with the upper back one,
it's going to be a combination exercise. The first one is
known as a scapular push up. It's really important that we
focus on the muscles around the shoulder blades including the
rhomboids. This one right here, we're going to start off on a
floor but if your mattress is firm enough, you may be able to
do it in bed. I'm going to start off with my arms, my
forearms right here in a V shape, I just put my hands
together. I like to tuck my chin slightly towards my chest.
The beginners part of this, you can go on your knees and then
just lift your back up. The key is you want your back as
straight as possible. So, we're not really trying to let our
pelvis right here sag towards the floor. If you would like to
make this one more challenging, you can go into a plank
position just like this but just like the name implies,
what we're going to do is a push up motion with our
shoulder blades. So, I'm going to first focus on just
allowing my chest to go downward towards the floor. You
should feel pretty much the shoulder blades in the back
starting to pinch. You want to hold this position for about
three to 5 seconds. Really focusing on keeping your
shoulder blades level. If you feel like it's not level or
you're having difficulty, you might want to spotter with this
one so they can really help guide you to make sure that
everything is nice and level. You also want your hips right
here level if you're doing the plank variation but afterwards,
what I'm going to do from there is then press upward moving
through my arms and my shoulder blades and taking my upper back
towards the ceiling, you'll feel the muscles really start
to engage. With this one, you should feel the chest muscles
firing but also the shoulder blades in the back starting to
expand. Again, hold this one for three to five seconds,
you're going to relax and then you're just going to repeat
this one nice and slowly for about 10 to 15 repetitions.
Afterwards, if it feels like you have a little bit more
energy, you can always throw in another set or two. If you
really want to take this one to the next level, You can do what
is called a dolphin press which is going to target a muscle off
to the side right here called the serratus anterior. It's
also known as the boxer's muscle. This one is a huge
muscle for scapular stability. So, if you have winging of your
shoulder blades, this may help. What I'm going to do is get
back into that position just like this but I'm going to take
my toes forward kind of like walking forward and then I'm
just going to simply raise my butt upward torso ceiling while
then lowering my head downward towards the floor and taking my
chin towards my chest. This one right here, you're going to
feel a really good activation off to the side. So, I like to
hold this one for about 5 seconds. Relax on the next
repetition. Walk forward just a little bit more and try to do
this one for about 10 to 15 repetitions. So, moving on to
the second part of the upper back strengthening exercise,
we're going to do a side raise. We're going to lie on our side
just like this on a floor. With this wall, you want the
C-shaped curve or the outer portion of the curve, the
combat side facing downward towards the floor. So, what I'm
going to do with this one is start with my legs kind of in a
staggered position. I'm going to have my top leg in front.
You just want to put your hand right on your hip to support.
Movement from here very easy. We're just going to drive our
hips upward towards the ceiling like this until our body is in
a nice straight line. What you're going to feel is a lot
of activation on the outer part of that scoliotic curve. You
want to hold this position for about three to five seconds but
if you have a little bit more in you, you can hold it for
longer. This is actually pretty challenging and then from
there, you're just going to relax, take a breather. You
want to do this one nice and slowly for about 10 to 15
repetitions but if it feels like you have a little bit more
energy, you can always throw in another set or two. When it
comes to a scoliosis in the lumbar spine or the lower back,
a big telltale sign is a pelvic tilt that is the appearance of
one hip higher than the other. So, if you've ever gone in
front of a mirror and seen that, this may help level them
off while also giving very quick pain relief. It's known
as a hip hiker exercise. Very easy to do and we just need to
go next to a staircase. So, again, we want to focus on
strengthening the weak muscles. The side that is lower is going
to be the weak side. So, we're going to put the high hip side
up on that stair. Our other side is going to be off just
like this. So, I'm going to take my hand, put it on the
weak side and then, I'm going to slowly raise that hip upward
towards the ceiling as much as I can. It's really important
not to bend the back with this one but move only through our
hips through our pelvis. As you do this, you're going to feel a
lot of muscles start to fire the glutes, pretty much all the
muscles around the hips and also the muscle off to the side
of the spine right here called the quadratus lumborum or the
QL. This one is a big instigator of lower back pain
but it helps stabilize our pelvis and keeps it level. So,
you want to really focus on trying to feel that engage. You
should feel it pretty much from the lower portion of your ribs
going down towards your pelvis. Hold this one comfortably for 5
seconds. What you're going to do is then slowly lower back
down like this and then repeat this 110 to 15 times. With each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more.
Always challenge yourself and if it feels like you have a
little bit more energy, you can always throw in another set or
two. The second exercise that you can do is called a side
bend. For this one, we just need a simple weight like a
water bottle but to make it more challenging, you can use
things like kettlebells or dumbbells. Just progress into
it with more weight. What I'm going to do this time around is
whatever side that I have an open curve, I'm going to have
the outer rounded portion with the side that I'm going to have
my weight. So, in this case, I'm having a right-sided convac
curve. What I'm going to do is just slowly lower that weight
downward towards the floor tilting my body towards that
side of convexity. With this one, you only want to tilt
straight like this. We don't want to rotate our body but
keep lowering that weight down. You should really feel a lot of
muscles start to fire off to the side of your back. I like
to hold this one for about five seconds but you can hold it
longer if you would like and then you're going to slowly
come back up like this fighting the resistance of that weight.
You want to repeat this one nice and slowly for 10 to 15
repetitions but again, if you feel like you have a little bit
more energy, you can always throw in another set or two.
So, after we strengthen the muscles on the convex side or
the outer part of the curve, we're going to turn our
attention now to the muscles on the inner part of the curve or
the concave side. These muscles tend to become shortened and
tight over time leading to decrease range of motion and a
lot of pain. So, I want to show two lengthening exercises that
you can do. The first one is going to focus on the upper
back, the second one on the lower back and to make this one
easy, I'm going to show exercises demonstrating an open
curve towards my right so that concave part is on my right
side. What I'm going to do first is known as a standing
puppy. We're going to go next to a wall or a door for this
one and just space yourself out roughly one arm length away.
Going to have your hands overhead like this arms roughly
shoulder width apart and you're just going to lean into the
door our hands are going to be like suction cups so they're
not going to move during this exercise instead all movement
is going to come from our legs so I'm going to tuck my chin
towards my chest bend my knees and put all of my body weight
onto my heels and slowly squat downwards taking my bottom down
and away from the door the more that you do this and go down
the more that you're going to feel a deep stretch forming
through the whole back you should really really good. When
you can't go any further, hold this position and now allow
your chest to sag forward towards the door. It will
really open up the shoulder blades. Since we really want to
target the muscles on the concave side, what I'm going to
focus on doing is leaning my body away from the side of the
open curve. So again, we have that open curve towards the
right. I'm going to slowly start to lean my body towards
the left. You'll really feel those muscles to get a very
deep stretch on that side. You want to hold this one
comfortably for 30 seconds but if it feels good, hold it for
longer, a minute or two and do nice, slow, controlled
breathing also. Just let that tension out. When you need a
breather, just come back like this but you want to do this
for about three to five repetitions and with each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more. For
the lower back, we're going to do what is known as a walling.
Again, we're going to go next to or a door for this one. I'm
going to again demonstrate an open curve towards my right. So
you want the open curve facing towards that door of the wall.
We're going to put our feet together and space yourself out
enough where you're going to be able to lean into the door. I'm
going to have my elbow bend in 90 degrees and then just rest
all of my body weight on my forearm just like this. So my
body's kind of tilted. From here what I'm going to do is
take my hand and start right around the bottom of the ribs
right at the top of the lower back and we're going to slowly press
our body and our hips towards that door. You should start to
feel a really gentle stretch starting to form. Only go to
your comfort level. Once you feel a deep stretch, you're
going to hold this one for 30 seconds but you can again hold
it for longer. From there, you're going to relax. On the
next repetition, I'm going to go down just a little bit and
repeat. We're going to target pretty much the top of the
curve, the middle of the curve, working our way all the way
down towards bottom. So, pretty much from our ribs right here
all the way down towards our hip. You're going to notice
that one certain spot just gives you the most stretch or
relief. At that point, you want to throw in more repetitions
and work your way completely across that curve until it
feels like it's loosened up quite a bit. If the exercises
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