Related Sections: How Exercise Helped My Scoliosis Scoliosis Exercises - Part I - Yoga and the Egoscue Method My complete index of all the scoliosis related pages. Recommended Book: Back Care Basics : A Doctor's Gentle Program for Back and Neck Pain Relief - has a chapter specifically on yoga for scoliosis

Be sure to check with your health care provider before starting on any exercise program, especially if you have health concerns. The books and exercises listed below are what helped me, but the scoliosis exercises in them may not be appropriate for everyone.

Continued from Scoliosis Exercises - Part 1

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief by Clair Davies -

Comments:  Basically what I realized after reading this book is that where my body hurts is not usually where it is tight. If you want to get rid of the pain, you have to stretch and massage the tight parts, not where it hurts. You can find out where it is tight by searching for trigger points - points on you skin that hurt when you touch them. This books teaches you how to find and massage trigger points to release muscle tension and reduce chronic pain. My kids are both under twelve and they already know where their trigger points are and how to massage them to get rid of tension. This is especially helpful for getting rid of pain from tight calf muscles. My kids ask me to help them with trigger point therapy on their legs and feet after they play soccer.

When I was in so much pain I could hardly move and any exercise seemed to hurt, I could always do the trigger point therapy for pain relief.

Tips and notes on trigger points and self-massage:

I tried acupuncture and for the types of problems I had it did not work a all. In looking back it seems silly to think that putting needles in my arm was going to help me when the real problem was that one of my arms was hanging two inches lowers than the other. What really helped was stretching and massaging the trigger points in the tight areas of my body to bring my muscles and bones into better alignment. I do have friends that have been helped by acupuncture, so I believe that it may be effective for some health condition, but perhaps it is not the right therapy for major muscle alignment problems.

I bought a few things at a back store that help me to massage my own trigger points. They are:

• Two rubber balls (similar to tennis balls) connected together. I don't know what the actual product name is. I roll on them with one ball on either side of your spine and it massages the trigger points along my spine. My friend has a homemade one that is two tennis balls taped together.
• Small, hard, back roller - this is made of styrofoam and is about the size of a rolling pin. I roll on it on the floor and it helps stretch out my back. I use it for my legs, too.
• I bought a trigger point tool for massaging my back. This is a cane shaped tool with knobs all over it. The shape of the cane makes it easy to massage your own trigger points, especially in hard to reach places. It is expensive, but I found it worth it. I've know of several other people with back problems who thought these types of product were also helpful.
• Massage balls - these are balls with bumps that massage my muscles when I roll on them. Tennis balls will work, too, but the massage balls are more effective. My yoga teacher recommended just rolling around on a tennis ball.  
• "Ball on the Wall" - One of my physical therapists gave me this idea. He had me put a tennis ball in a sock. Then he had me sit up against that wall dangling the tennis ball behind me while at the same time massaging my back by rolling it on the tennis ball. Having the tennis ball in a sock makes it easy to move round to reach different parts of your back.

I have a lot of trigger points on the sides of my thighs and the backs of my legs. Oddly, this isn't where I have much pain. However, when I loosen up these tight points on my legs, over time it seems to decrease the pain in my neck, back and shoulders. There were also a lot of contractures around my frozen shoulder which the trigger point therapy really helped to free up.

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Backache: What Exercises Work

Comments: 

I actually bought this book after I'd figured out many of the exercises and yoga poses that helped my scoliosis, but I'd wish I'd found it much sooner. I evidently "reinvented the wheel" in my own search for answers to my back problems as many of the routines I've come up with for my own back were already listed and compiled in this book. It's not surprising, because the authors, Dava Sobel and Arthur C. Klein, based the book on survey results of hundreds of back pain sufferers and hospital studies. The title refers to back exercises, but most of the exercises seem to me to be yoga poses. As such, there is some over lap with the Back Care Basics book recommended in Part I of Scoliosis Exercises.

If you only buy one book for your scoliosis, I'd get the Back Care Basics book because it has a chapter specifically on scoliosis, plus detailed information on how to determine where your muscles are tight. If you are a yoga enthusiast, Structural Yoga Therapy is even more comprehensive. However, if you a getting a few books for you spinal curvature, especially if you are interested in relieving back pain, then book would be a good one to include in your list.

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Callanetics for Your Back by Callan Pinckney

Comments:  This is a book written by a woman who developed her own program of exercises to cure her scoliosis and other body alignment problems. Unfortunately, it is out of print, but you may be able to get a used copy from Amazon or one of the other online used book services.

Related section of interest:

Finding a Yoga Teacher to Help with Scoliosis

Sciatica Exercises - how yoga and trigger point therapy helped my sciatic pain.

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