New member, looking for advice

[Kenneth LaVoie]

Hello, new curious member from Winslow Maine here. 

Do you think these program(s) would be appropriate for someone like me with scoliosis? I'm 51, 6.4" tall, 170 LBS, decent shape but alot of aches and pains from joints and muscles due (I'm sure) to my scoliosis.  I want to kick it up a notch (or 3) and be in the best shape of my life. Here's my daily routing now, and a bit about my scoliosis. 

I've had some luck with some of the eGoscue excercises. I have scoliosis and also spend 3-4 hours per day at computer. Every other day, I do:

A bunch of egoscue stretches or "e cises" geared toward back, shoulders and neck.

Then I use Bowflex every 3 days for strenght, (total body, 3 sets of 15 mostly. Whenever I start doing anything heavier, lower rep, I find myself injuring myself) 

I do 30-50 mins light aerobics at least 6 days per week (1 hour walk, or 30 minute excercise bike). Then I add things here and there (extra air squats, bridges, trunk excercises, etc.)

I want to add muscle for stability. And I'm determined to get rid of 80% of my neck, shoulder and back discomfort. They are:
Ache in neck
VERY tight traps
trigger point discomfort left front rib, right upper lumbar near spine.
right shoulder mimic bicep tendon injury (could also be bursa or rotator cuff....??)
My xrays show: I have a lumbar scoliosis convex right or curved toward the right of 26 deg. with an apex at L2. Also have a thoracic scoliosis convex left of less than 10 deg. 

In reading about these programs, I'm getting the impression that things like the "thoracic bridge" might be literally life changing, so I'd like to spend some time investigating. Any thoughts you have would be welcome, even if that thought is, "Hey, this probably isn't for you!"
 

[Alessandro Mainente]

Hi Kenneth, with scoliosis the best training approach it is the bodyweight training since our growth perfectly compensate the body tendency to modify itself, so no worry for the program. for your other problems once began the program you can evaluate the single exercise execution with a physio to check for possible limitations.

[Si Hoang]

18 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hi Kenneth, with scoliosis the best training approach it is the bodyweight training since our growth perfectly compensate the body tendency to modify itself, so no worry for the program. for your other problems once began the program you can evaluate the single exercise execution with a physio to check for possible limitations.

Hi Kenneth,

Alessandro's advice is usually astute and accurate however on this point I'm going to have to disagree with him on this, if in fact he meant that Foundations is ok for someone with scoliosis. As someone who has a lumbar curve to the left and who has trained in GB methods since 2014 my experience says otherwise. As much as I loved the methodology here it doesn't take into account the complications that arise with a structural deficiency as scoliosis. At the beginning I followed the programming to a tee but after a few months muscles would get tighter, pain would increase and quality of life would go down. So I stopped the training and pain decreased.

2015 I saved up money and went to a specialist centre for scoliosis treatment and management in London where I met tons of different people with all kinds of lumbar and thoracic curves, all of which were worse than mine. I discovered mine was only a mild curve, yet it was so detrimental to my goals and the life I wanted. It was on the month long course that I discovered the asymmetries occurring in my body, the reasons for it, and the necessary part; the methods to get my life back. The problem with GB especially on the earlier progressions like front lever, you are working your body symmetrically. When you have an asymmetry which is normal with scoliosis there are massive imbalances. In my case, the entirety of my right extensor spinae had deactivated during general movement that when it came to exercise I was unaware that only my left side was working. So when I did hollow holds etc my left side did all the work and got extremely strong while my right side stayed asleep. If I had pushed on past the pain I'm sure that injuries would have come my way. I think even Coach Sommer said somewhere recently that GB is great for someone who is structurally sound but just deconditioned, and I would agree entirely with this statement. But I wouldn't class anyone with a scoliosis as structurally sound. 

I was given an individual program of exercises that I continue to do to this day after I left the course to keep my muscles in balance and I put my GST training on top of this which works fine. I am now progressing slowly but steadily with my GB. I still have issues to deal with in regards to old injuries but I am getting there. I highly recommend the program as it is very user friendly and there are great people on here like Alessandro who not only make you feel welcome, but go out of their way to answer your questions and guide you on your journey.

So I would recommend you see someone who has a firm knowledge and experience with management and treatment of scoliosis before you embark on any kind of GST training. At the minimum take Alessandro's advice and get a physio to check for your limitations.

 

[Alessandro Mainente]

Basically 1 person of 100000 has a perfect spine, the other tends to be all with scoliosis, this is a real fact. scoliosis has many form, all of them can affect the training process more or less. how much? only a PT can say something more.