Structural vs Functional Scoliosis – and how it affects your yoga practice

Did you know that 1-3% of the population has structural scoliosis? Did you know that more than 70% of people are estimated to have functional scoliosis? But what do these terms mean and why is this important to know for our yoga practice?

Functional Scoliosis 

Let's start with functional scooliosis. 

Functional scoliosis primarily affects the muscles and soft tissues which then “pull” the spine into a scoliotic position. This could be due to a previous injury where you might be compensating your posture for long periods of time. It could also be from overuse of one side or doing something asymmetrically like playing the violin for hours every day. 

We also call it functional scoliosis if the scoliosis is due to different length legs but that’s another subject which we might get into in a future blog post!

What is important to know about functional scoliosis is that it occurred because of a muscle imbalance so we can most of the time improve it in that way too! The good news is that yoga is great for that! 

It might mean that you have to work each side differently for a while. Maybe one side needs a little more strengthening whilst the other side needs a little more lengthening so pay attention in all your asymmetric poses such as Triangle Pose (Trikonasana), Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana), seated twists etc! They will give you a lot of information. 

Structural Scoliosis

Structural scoliosis can have different causes, just like functional scoliosis, but many of them are unknown – in which case it’s called idiopathic scoliosis.

This type of scoliosis often starts between the ages of 10-15 (idiopathic adolescent scoliosis) and occurs during growth. It affects the shape of the vertebrae of the spine and can be seen on a x-ray and when the person bends forward (Adams Forward Bend Test). 

The forward bend is performed because taking the spine into flexion also shows the maximum amount of rotation which is a big part of structural scoliosis. 

No amount of yoga (or other exercise) will be able to completely straighten a spine with structural scoliosis unfortunately.

The good news is that a scoliotic spine is in no way weak or inferior in it’s function than a straight spine! Most people with scoliosis live very normal lives and even some high performing athletes have scoliosis.

What we can affect with yoga is the postural element of a structural scoliosis. What does that mean? It means that once the spine is in a scoliotic pattern the rest of the body (soft tissue, muscles, organs) follows which creates a viscous cycle. With age and the affect of gravity the muscles now pull the spine even more into the pattern of scoliosis… 

With specifically adjusted yoga poses we can teach the body to reset and come out of this pattern to a certain extend. We’re not looking for perfection here (guess what, nobody is perfect) but we’re looking to create more balance and harmony. 

Whilst we cannot straighten a structural scoliosis with yoga we can improve posture, often improve the way it looks but most importantly learn how to manage the condition with the goal to prevent it from getting worse, relieve pain and improve your quality of life! 

Yoga pose that elongate the spine like Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) and poses that strengthening the core like Plank Pose or Side Plank will be your best friend!