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| Rama with the Sage Vashisthasa |
The excitement around the use of a single pose to help correct the curve of scoliosis continues! I wrote an initial post on the study Friday Q&A: How to Practice Side Plank Pose for Scoliosis and then did a little follow-up More on Side Plank Pose and Scoiliosis after Nina announced the Side Plank pose challenge (see Take the Side Plank Pose for Scoliosis Challenge). As our good fortune would have it, one of our readers forwarded my first post Friday Q&A: How to Practice Side Plank Pose for Scoliosis on the new study of Side Plank Pose to the lead investigator, Dr. Loren Fishman. In quite a generous spirit, Dr. Fishman responded to the various questions that arose for me as I looked over the study results. Below are his answers to my most pressing inquires. The original text from my post is normal font and Dr. Fishman’s responses are in italics. —Baxter
Dear Baxter: I appreciate your thinking about the paper that Karen Sherman, Erik Groessl and I wrote about Vasisthasana in treating scoliosis. Maybe I can clarify things a little:
One question I have also heard from a few different readers is: what do you think of only doing it on the one side? Before I answer that, I am wondering if the study author Dr. Fishman thinks these folks should only do one yoga pose each day and not have a balanced yoga asana practice in addition to this special practice? I’d hope not, but don’t know his thoughts on this. However, if a person with scoliosis wanted to have a regular practice, too, I’d use this new info to inform certain poses.
Yes, naturally, all the other poses should be done as they were before. Our study would have been meaningless if people didn’t continue doing what they did before, apart from performing the side-plank, Vasisthasana, with the convex side of the lumbar curve facing downward, but not the other way, not with the other side down. If you have scoliosis and are in a yoga class where Vasisthasana comes up, then when the class does it on the other side, you do it on the same side twice.
Personally, if I had scoliosis, I might consider:
- Doing the convex side of Side Plank pose first with the hip/side body arch as in the study.
- Then doing the Pose on other side, but without the lift, focusing on keeping the two sides of the chest as parallel as possible.
- Then repeating the first side again with the study lift variation.
Baxter, scoliosis is an asymmetrical condition, and requires an asymmetrical measure to correct it. Doing a little this and a such an little that (sic) just vitiates what one needs to do to get better. I recommend doing the one-sided pose whole hog, and re-measure your curve in three months. Such an X-ray only exposes you to 140 mVs, about as much radiation as you’d gather sitting in a room in your house for a year. By contrast, one CT scan is 3,000 to 5,000 mVs. However, Baxter, your intuition’s in the right place: a few people continue doing the pose too long without any monitoring. Two people went so far as to develop slight curves in the other direction! They did not do anything to monitor their progress for more than 6 months.
I would then apply this body arch idea as well to other side bending poses, such as, Triangle pose (Trikonasana), Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana), and Half Moon pose (Arda Chandrasana). And I would be very interested in not only the improvement in physical appearance of the vertical alignment of my spine, but just as or more importantly in the functional improvement of my body and the subjective improvement in how my body is feeling.
We’ve experimented with a number of other poses, and it is really good that you’re considering it too, but so far none of the ones we’re tried come close to Vasisthasana. A few people [in the study] have wrist pain (no carpal tunnel yet), or mild shoulder pain, and two had transient pain in the SI joint, but otherwise, no side effects, and a pretty potent main effect.
The study is a first, exciting research step in using yoga to improve scoliosis. I hope there is a larger and broader look at it in the near future.
Thanks, Baxter. We’re looking to do a more complete double-blinded, controlled and randomized study. According to the American Orthopedic Society the medical establishment spends an estimated $7,100,000,000 annually on a several hour surgery. In actual practice this involves girls 11-17 years old, and the surgery has to be redone more than 50% of the time, effectively obliterating their teen-age years. This happens 38,000 times per annum.
Well, I am feeling very grateful for this feedback and hope that it is of further use and benefit to our readers!
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Dear Baxter,
Thanks for your wonderful articles.
I have several comments regarding Vasisthasana. I teach this as well for my students with scoliosis. I feel that Dr. Loren Fishman has not addressed those with a double curve, the most common being a right thoracic, left lumbar curve as I have this curve. I need to do it on both sides. When I am doing it with the right side facing the floor, I draw in the right ribs to counter the convex curve as Dr. Fishman suggests. I also have a left lumbar curve so I also practice with the left side (convex) side facing the floor and I draw the left waist in to counter that curve. There is always a compensating curve or curves of lesser degree with the other 3 typical patterns of idiopathic scoliosis being a right thoracic, left lumbar and right thoraco-lumbar curve. With these 3 curves, I will have the student practice on the major curve twice and for the compensating curve, once.
Perhaps many of Dr Loren's subjects were right thoraco-lumbar curve which is a long curve going from the mid thoracic and continuing in the lumbar. In that case or with a right thoracic curve, I can see why he focused on only going to the right but I still see that there is reason to do a 2 to 1 ratio. What do you think?
Warmly,
Elise
I can't understand how an S-shaped curve can benefit from this side plank method, if one does the plank on the convex side of her primary curve, won't the compensatory curve suffer? Who can explain this more clearly? There are so many videos on youtube on how to manage a perfect plank but none of them are any good for someone with a strong double curvature of the spine.
If you change the main curve, probably the compensatory will follow and adapt ?
Greetings,
As a retired physical therapist with a long time yoga pracitice, I've been following the discussion about scoliosis with interest.
One of the factors that I've not seen addressed is the etiology of the scoliosis under study. It would seem that adolescents developing scoliosis have a whole different set of physiologic factors going on than a person in their 60's and older. There's a difference in bone age, muscle development, hormonal make up, and even differences in functional abilities are just a few of the factors that come to mind.
The last paragraph of Dr. Fishman's statement seems to indicate that they are studying adolescent girls. Given the physiologic differences between the two age groups, is it a good idea to make the leap of applying what works in adolescent girls to senior adults who may have developed scoliosis for a whole different set of physiologic issues?
I’m confused. I have an S curve with a right convex lumber curve and a left convex thoracic curve. If I understand correctly, I should be doing a side plank on the right lumber side and the left will benefit also. Can doing a side plank on the left side actually reduce the overall benefit.
Yes, it is confusing. It is much easier to apply the side plank pose when there is just one dominant curve. I seem to recall Dr. Fishman mentioning some new modification when there is an S curve in regards to how to do the pose and whether to do it on both sides or not. He is usually pretty receptive to questions from people, so you might want to check out his website and send him a question from there. http://www.manhattanphysicalmedicine.com/alternativetherapies.html