lordosis treatments

[sbinlb]

What I am looking for is some more stretches to help with my daughters lordosis. Currently she has a pelvic stretch (laying flat and pushing into floor) and a psoas stretch. Any other links or recommendations would be greatly apprecatied.

 

[Sgt Remeriz]

I highly recommend the Active Isolated Stretching books/videos by Aaron Mattes at http://www.stretchingusa.com

As an AIS practitioner, I've seen some dramatic improvements in back conditions. There is a thorough Hip/Trunk protocol that you might find very helpful for your daughter.

Combine that with some exercises targeted to strengthen weak/inhibited core muscles and you may see some rapid progress. There is an Active Isolated Strengthening manual as well that has some excellent material on this.

Hope that helps!

 

[Magz]

Jason, thanks for the help. I'm actually well versed in Mattes. Now I just got to get her a jump rope. :grin:

 

[pikko]

With excessive lordosis, think three areas:

- tight hip flexors
- tight quadriceps
- tight posterior lumbar fascia

the first two tend to work as one sometimes. Teaching low load/long duration self stretch to the hip flexors and quads, done regularly can, in most cases, reduce the anterior pull on the pelvis which creates the lordosis. At times the fascia is so tight that you must have treatment to break open the tough sheath. The lumbar fascial tightness is often too thick and tough to overcome with simple home stretces and must be addressed with good MFR or soft tissue work. Core strengthening, etc, can be helpful once the body is open and the tough pull is not so domimant, but is often ineffective if done in isolation.

 

[bkylyt990]

Spinal Rehabilitation

For anyone with improper spinal alignment, meaning excessive lordosis, kyphosis, translations and flexions on any plan of the spine I would highly recommend a CBP Chiropractor who does postural reconstruction.

As stresses on the spine accumulate, improper alignments occur causing pressure on the nervous system. Although soft tissue therapy and strengthening can make the spine more mobile and less uncomfortable, as long as the underlying structure is still misaligned, there will be an imbalance.

Here is the link to the type of work I'm referring to. You can do a search for practitioners in the area who specialize in this kind of work. I have been working in this environment for a couple years now and have seen the changes, and know the clients are very pleased.

Ideal Spine: [www.idealspine.com]

 

[jacob]

"Although soft tissue therapy and strengthening can make the spine more mobile and less uncomfortable, as long as the underlying structure is still misaligned, there will be an imbalance" Quote from above.

As long as there IS soft tissue tightness, any skeletal re-alignment that is made will be temporary. Loosen the soft tissue, and the vertebrea can go back on their own or chiropractic adjustment then take hold and last. Without the soft tissue componant, the adjustments have little chance of holding. I work with chiropractors on a daily basis, and we greatly value each other's work. Many times I need them to get someone past a place where the MFR will not release the osseous structures, and they note that after the MFR they can attain the adjustments easier and the adjustments last much longer.

 

[Mitch]

As long as there IS soft tissue tightness, any skeletal re-alignment that is made will be temporary. Loosen the soft tissue, and the vertebrea can go back on their own or chiropractic adjustment then take hold and last."

The type of work I was referring to is not a chiropractic adjustment. It is a continual stretching of the ligaments which hold the spine in place. Similar to the process by which teeth are realigned in orthodontics.

Perhaps I am not informed, but I am not aware of any soft tissue treatments (aside from Rolfing) that could realign ligament structures in such a way as to decrease the degree of lordosis. The type of work takes many sessions, pre and post xray to determine effectiveness and hopefully, manual therapy to help support the soft tissues surrounding the area.

I hope that clears up any misunderstanding between CBP, and a general chiropractic adjustment.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Not to try to beat this thing too much, but if the goal is to loosen the ligaments, I would be very cautious. Ligaments have a small amount of motions available in the normal state. Overstretching them would produce "ligamentous laxity", which is always a concern. Perhaps this method that you speak of generically talks of lengthening the ligaments, but I find this troubling. Rolfing does not focus on lengthening the ligaments, but focuses on the soft tissue (fascia and musculature) as does myofascial release. One of the banes of repetetive old school chriopractic was the fear of looseing the ligaments and making a person unstable.

Reviewing the website you posted shows a good deal of research to back up the CBP technique. They stress the importance of prolonged traction as a means to address the soft tissue, normalize normalize tissue length and return spinal curves. The photos of treatment positions that they use are a bit extreme for my tastes as a therapist, but I would trust that they have been shown to be effective. The fact that they recommend 36 visits, with a possible 36 visit follow-up routine does seem extreme. While I must say that I have seen a few patients for more than 36 visits, this is certainly not the norm. Good application of myofascial release (or rolfing for that matter) by a trained therapist should seldom take this amount of time and money to achieve the results that they claim.

The bottom line seems to be that unless one addresses the soft tissue causes for spinal mis-alignment, gains will be only temporary. A patient should investigate the intervention that they are interested in. If it seems appropriate, it is worth a trial.

 

[Barry]

I couldn't agree more with patients researching all available options which is why I included information about CBP on this thread. Chiropractors that I am familiar with and physical therapists alike that I personally work with would agree that the soft tissue component and structural component both work together. One is not more effective, or 'better' than the other.

On an additional note, one of the reasons CBP is so great as a technique is that it objectively measures lordosis, and kyphosis of the spine. So unless the soft tissue therapists are actually taking x-rays, how can we be sure that the lordosis is corrected? The symptomatic portion of a patient's pain and discomfort is only one component to their health. The other is just plain function.

Thanks for the input on this, there are SO many people in the world with improper spinal alignment (job security!) but there are also a lot of unknown techniques available. Keep up with the sharing of good information!