Spinal De-rotation: How Breathing helps Correcting Your Scoliosis
Scoliosis isn’t simply a bent spine to the right or to the left.
You need to think of your spine as 3D; it’s only then that you’ll realise there’s also rotation involved.
Vertebral rotation makes you breathless
If you’ve scoliosis, you might also be breathless to some degree.
Breathlessness with scoliosis varies in severity according to the degree of the abnormal curvature in your spine.
Generally, as your vertebrae rotate, they’re no longer properly aligned and they start bending sideways.
The rotation also causes the ribs on one side to protrude backward creating a hump, while ribs on the other side approximate and move forward.
As a result, the side where the ribs are shifted to the front is restricted.
This makes you more dependent on one lung than the other.
Breathing hard worsens your scoliosis!
As you do your daily activities, you feel out of breath due to your decreased lung capacity.
Automatically, your body tries to breathe deeper.
However, with the mechanical restriction on one lung, only the free-to-expand lung opens up to provide the oxygen you need.
Unfortunately, expanding one lung pushes your ribs and vertebrae into further rotation, and worsens your breathing –and scoliosis– on the long run.
De-rotation Exercises
As an expert personal trainer Islington, I recommend you add de-rotation breathing exercises to all the stretching and strengthening you do.
De-rotation exercises means gradually increasing your lung volume while restricting the lung you use the most.
It may include manual correction by your physiotherapist or yoga-moves included in your programme of personal training in Islington.
Conclusion
Scoliosis is a 3-D spine deformity that needs to be seen differently.
Therefore, Jazz Alessi, an expert rehab specialist, recommends using de-rotation breathing exercises along with the traditional programme to maximise benefits and prevent complications.
