Posture and Positioning Hacks for Scoliosis - sitting, standing, sleeping

Today I am going to talk about some posture hacks and some things that I have certain kind of discovered for myself and my scoliosis over the last years especially when I’ve been really kind of researching this topic a lot more.

I will go through in this order.

We’re going to talk about sitting, standing and then we’re going to talk about sleeping positions as well.

Table of Contents

Understing the spine.

Before we go to the main topic i want to introduce you to some common things about our spine as we are going to talk about a lot more. It is very important to introduce first

Natural inward curves in the spine
Inward curve
Outward curve

Sitting posture

We’re gonna start with sitting posture and position in a chair before we talk about anything else because you know that’s where we spent the most time.

Sitting, in general, isn’t great for us, any kind of static position that we’ll spend a lot of time in is not a good posture so even if you sit in the most amazing long position it’s not great at all.

So make sure to stand up to do a little bit of moving the hips from side to side walking around as much as you can.

If you’re sitting for long periods of time you might want to consider changing it up

maybe sitting on a gym ball or something like that for a while
or a different chair that makes you sit slightly different that you’re not always sitting in exactly the same way
and getting up obviously as much as possible

What is the best sitting position for scoliosis?

When you sit in your chair what you want to do, first of all, make sure is that when you sit the natural curves of your spine are still present right.

What is the worst sitting position for scoliosis?

So very often what happens is we sit in a chair all the way back like straight-backed not keeping the pelvis neutral. Now, this might be kind of the relaxed way of sitting and it might feel kind of that you’re relaxing on the shoulders.

However, for the spine, this Straight backed sitting position creates a lot of pressure and a lot of tension especially in the lumbar vertebrae they don’t like this position.

What you need to train your muscles to be able to sit upright position. You might feel this kind of sitting habit takes a lot more effort because you need to train your muscles to be able to sit upright position.

How to find your Ideal Lumber postion/Natural curves of your spine?

So to explore the ideal natural curves of your spine point I would suggest that

Step #1:

First Get a chair, not a yoga chair just a completely regular chair or office chair
we are gonna sit down
and Come forwards a little bit more of your seat.

Step #2:

Put your hips are either in level with the same level as your knees or they’re slightly higher

Another thing:

Sometimes chairs are a little bit too low or they can be too high so make sure that you adjust them.
Also if you are quite short and your feet don’t touch the ground then you definitely want something underneath your feet so that they can be flat.

Step #3:

Then explore if you can tilt your pelvis a little bit further forwards.
- Now if you have a spinal fusion in your lumbar spine this is not going to work for you obviously but for those of you who don’t have a fusion in that area, You will kind of notice where this natural curve point is.
Or you can just play around with tipping your pelvis forwards and backward and then find the place that is in between.

Step #4:

You can probably notice there’ll be one point where you can lengthen up through the spine a little bit more and that is probably your ideal position.

Sitting Posture: My Own Tips and tricks on how to sit with scoliosis.

Take a couple of blankets and see a couple of things that you can do to adjust. (An image of blanket)

So Probably most of you know is to use something in your lower back to support your lower back.

Now Put the blanket in between your lower back and the back of the chair.
And sit back a little bit more.
Not all the way down but a little bit higher to be able to sit supported.

Scoliosis Adjustment: How do you sit with scoliosis if you have just one curvature?

We have already sorted out the natural curves of the spine now we need to sort out that side with a curvature of the spine.

So s-curves are always going to be the most complicated.

But

if you have just one curvature you probably notice that when you sit there will be more weight into one side of the sitting bones than the other. In this case, you could try and support that dominant side of the sitting bones with a blanket.

For example,

You have got a left cervical lumbar curve so you feel like there is more weight on your left sitting bone. In which case you could try and support that left side of the sitting bones with a blanket.

Basically, this raises the left hip a little bit more and kind of evens this imbalance out.

How do you sit with scoliosis if you have a dominant lumbar curve?

This is the same for the lumbar curve. If you have a dominant lumbar curve then you can do exactly the same as well and just try and support that dominant side of the sitting bones with a blanket and see if it’s helpful or not and see if that helps to keep the other side of the waist a little bit longer

Now with the thoracic curve, there’s not much that you can do in terms of the hips to level this out so that there’s you have to adjust in a slightly different way but this is definitely one tool that you can use simply by raising the side of the sitting bones that is convex.

How do you sit with scoliosis if you have a large hump?

The other one is if you have quite a large hump, mountain sometimes call it you know what I mean the more bulky side

For example

If you have a left side sticking out to the back and you sit back into your chair what you could do is just support that left side a little bit more and kind of this gives you a little bit of a d rotation actually. Which are you know it’s stronger if you come to lying down on the ground but this is another way of adjusting this pose.

What do you have to be mindful of is that you don’t start to arch then more into your right side.

So it’s a little bit more complicated a little bit more tricky but I’ve had a lot of people that found this quite helpful as well good so.

How do i sit with an anterior pelvic tilt

if your pelvis is already tilted forwards and so you need a little bit more for kind of bringing it back to the neutral position.

And that’s what I was saying when we first started that You need to play around with this pelvis position a little bit and tipping the pelvis forwards and backward until you find them somewhere in between. So for someone who’s got quite a more of an anterior tilt so he’s got kind of more of a sticky out bottom you can actually do the opposite. So you could actually sit a little bit further back and just kind of use the especially if you have got quite a straight chair that might be beneficial. If you’re the other way then you would have to sit a little bit further forward.

So again it’s very difficult for me to suggest something that works for everyone because everyone has got slightly different patterns.

But I do just want to say something about my thoracic scoliosis for those people who might be studying and sitting at a desk for long periods of time.

Notice

how you collapse right
how you relax when you relax what do you do
how do you kind of slouch

If you have a preferred way you will notice that you have a pattern

is it over to one side
is it that you cross a leg over very often with scoliosis we like to cross the leg because our spine really likes twisting.

So notice some of these things and then the first thing to do if you have established that you have kind of a pattern.

The easiest thing is to do the opposite because then you already know that you’re doing something that kind of goes against the curvature of your spine.

So for example, for me, it feels much better to lift the left leg over the right so i simply swap it around so i bring the right leg over the left and see how that it feels really awkward but that and then i know that i’m going against the scoliosis curvature.

The other thing is also if you have thoracic scoliosis for example let’s say you’ve got a right thoracic and you’ve got something here that you could rest your arm on then your resting position could be kind of this way that your arm is supported and then you rest into a productive position as you can see here from the from the shirt rather than the other way you can see that’s where you would make scoliosis worse so this way would make it a little bit better.

I know this is a bit more difficult you would have to kind of pile things up around you but again this is something you have to be a little bit creative good

it’s good to notice what your pattern is right

not just in terms of your x-ray

what you can see
or what you’ve been diagnosed with

But what you notice about yourself

and that might be in a mirror
or it might just be looking down and noticing if you have a preferred way of doing things

F.A.Q.

Can I use any other things for scoliosis sitting adjustment rather than a blanket?

I was just showing it basically DIY with a blanket so yeah you can use a wedge as well but I find actually a softer surface is more comfortable.

I used to carry an inflatable cushion in my purse it worked.

There is another thing that I use sometimes it’s one of those squashy balls I don’t know if anyone has ever used that but I do like it when I sit cross-legged,

it makes the whole experience a little bit more comfortable and you can sit just on the edge to bring your lumbar spine into a more neutral position good

What type of chair and mattress would you suggest for lumbar scoliosis?

What type of chair and mattress would you suggest for lumbar scoliosis and also for neck pain.

I cannot recommend any specific chairs or mattresses I do think this is very persona in terms of an office chair.

I would look for lumbar support but that also kind of depends on your general patterns of how you’re sitting. So especially if you tend to round if you tend to have quite a flat back then I would really get something that has nice lumbar support.

It’s quite individual and I would just try out a few different ones in the shop obviously and then make a decision.

Can I use a rocking o kneeling chair?

Yes, You can be used to having a rocking and kneeling chair. It will be very comfortable compared to other chairs. I love those as well I haven’t got one but I might consider it again.

Standing Posture for Scolisis

We’re going to talk about standing. There are a few things to say about.

Again notice your patterns and i usually when i do a one-to-one session

the first thing that we do is i have someone kind of walk on the spot a little bit and then stand without thinking about it or maybe walk around the room a little bit
and then stand not like a yogi but try to stand how you would actually usually stand without kind of being aware of that or how you’re standing
and notice if there are any patterns

so i can see i have trained myself obviously not to do this but my right foot has a tendency of wanting to turn out so i know this about myself i know that there is a little bit of a exterior rotation in my right leg and that the arch of the foot is slightly dropping as well so that’s one thing that i noticed.

The other thing that you want to notice is where is your weight

again just like in sitting do you collapse into one side or the other So you could shift your weight just from side to side forwards and backwards and then find the place that kind of feels centered.

So where have you got equal weight in both feet and we’re just exploring that to see if that feels any different.

Then the most important thing is is to to lengthen up towards the ceiling the crown of the head so you don’t have to think about oh i need to you know that was the wrong way i need to create space here create space there at the same time when you’re standing no you don’t you just have to lengthen up through the crown of the head and it will probably sort itself out already a little bit.

then the next thing you want to do is again notice how you collapse so when you rest how would you rest again if you have a thoracic curve and you know this about you if you rest somewhere for example if you have something like a wall or anything you could rest your elbow on your concave side definitely.

notice if you stand on one hip or kind of collapse into one hip. notice if you have a pattern of if you’re doing this and if you’re collapsing somewhere chances are that you probably need to do the opposite or safest way is avoiding it all together lengthening through the crown of the head.

Agin with Standing like a soldier is not a great posture either so the best posture is a moving one.

So you know make some movements around maybe coming back to a little bit of stillness but there is always something happening you’re not just standing completely still and this is a little bit easier than sitting i find because naturally, we’re moving around.

Sleeping position for scoliosis

let’s talk about sleeping. first of all, we need to establish what is working already so do you sleep on your back or do you sleep on your side.

I am already saying, not sleep on your tummy because that is never gonna work that is the worst position for sleeping so we’re just gonna try to avoid this. I know a lot of people do like sleeping on their stomachs but it’s just not very good for the back.

if you sleep on your tummy probably something like this will happen – you will bend one knee up and then you’ll turn your head to the side now this really compresses your lower back. It’s asymmetric not a great way of sleeping and especially if you stay in this position for whatever for six-seven hours you’ll wake up and your back might not be happy.

So that’s the time to reconsider maybe how you’re sleeping.

So sleeping on the side is much better and sleeping on the back is probably the most symmetrical for the back obviously but also I find the most difficult to kind of to sleep in.

What is much more important than you know how exactly you sleep is that

sleeping is not going to make your scoliosis worse even if you sleep in a really bad position. The worst thing that will happen is that you have pain and that you wake up in pain but it’s not going to actually make your scoliosis curvature worse as far as I know.

I have asked a lot of people about this so you know you can eliminate this kind of fear around this already that for some reason in your sleep your scoliosis will get worse it won’t so let’s just clear this up straight away.

Now I’ll show you what we can do lying on the side.

If you’re lying on the side you want to make sure that your head is in line with the rest of the spine. So with my left lumbar scoliosis here and this is sinking down now this part here is really compressed right and this one is overstretched here and I tend to get pain in the convex area of my curvature. so I would support the convex site with a blanket or something soft so it should be comfortable but then you can see that kind of supports that curvature a little bit more and yeah it’s a much better position. You could bring this higher up obviously so you ae got a steric lumbar curve so it would be on the peak of the curvature if you have thoracic it would be even higher up so you always want to think about what’s sinking down when you’re lying on your side can I support it a little bit more.

Now when you sleep on the other side if you have an s-curve you might support different areas of the spine and if you don’t have an s-curve you just wouldn’t support anything.

what do you think about hanging when possible during standing I mean to use natural props like the top of a doorway

I love hanging yes I do like hanging and I have actually one of those. I’ve got one of these things that you can put in the in doorway and you just attach it and then you can hang from it very useful so yes that’s what I do as well. if I feel compressed or everything is kind of sinking together then I used hanging to get a little bit more length.

good, what’s your take on doing stretching hanging exercise on a wall bar that’s kind of what that’s the same thing isn’t it? it can be helpful I wouldn’t do completely free hanging because then you’re just hanging into your shoulders right but if you still have support or if you still have the feet on the ground you can use this and then lengthen kind of in opposite directions if you bend your knees and then lengthening through the tailbone that can be really useful.

Can i use pillow between my legs with scolisis?

Yes, that’s another thing that is very very helpful if you sleep on your side a little support here and then bring something kind of between the legs like a pillow that the knee is in line with the top hip and that can be really comfortable and really useful.

So that’s about side sleeping obviously if you sleep on your back you don’t have all these problems.
I would just make sure that you have enough but not too much underneath the head and you might want to have something underneath the backs of the knees more than that probably kind of a cushion or something like that when you’re lying on your back a little bit like Shavasana as well. but yeah if you’re lying Lying on your back you do not want to end up here where the head is kind of lifted up too far but you still want to keep some length so think about your Shavasana position and that’s what you want to do when you’re sleeping as well.

Now if you can actually sleep like this is another question I cannot so that’s why I sleep on my side but you might be better at it.

Is handstand good?

The handstand is not bad but the headstand is probably is worse because you put the pressure obviously on the head and on the neck. With a handstand, your weight will be on the hands so you can use those to make some little adjustments. So I don’t have a problem with handstand unless you have wrist problems for scoliosis itself. I don’t think it’s worse than standing on your feet it’s not going to exaggerate your scoliosis.

However, you obviously do need to have a certain amount of strength well. first of all to be able to do a handstand so if you can actually be in a handstand then when you are in it you might want to have someone else have a look to see if there are patterns of imbalance that you’re creating and this is really interesting so this is really really good to have someone else to take a picture of you in a handstand and see if you’re leaning over to one side that is really good and give you some feedback on it.

is feet up good?

Yes, I use feet up as well for anyone who doesn’t know what that basically sticks your head in and then has your feet up simple. it’s a great way of doing an inversion without putting any pressure certainly onto your head on and on to your neck. so it’s a great way I use it for beginners who want to kind of get the confidence of being upside down in their yoga practice but I also use it for myself sometimes especially to get some traction in the neck I find that really really useful.

Conclusion

I’ve talked about some tips about sitting with scoliosis I talked about standing what to look out for and I talked about sleeping positions as well but just to make it clear again that scoliosis is very individual no scoliosis curve is the same as the next there might be other conditions as well so it’s very difficult for me to kind of give advice that will work for everyone obviously. but here but I’m just kind of sharing a few things that have worked for me again I’m a yoga teacher so that is my thing I’m not a physiotherapist I’m not a medical professional I’m not a doctor but I have been working with people that suffer from scoliosis for a long time and yes I feel like I have a very good understanding of the condition and I have seen lots of different cases as well and different ways of adjusting things so basically if you are looking for more kind of tailored advice then you might want to find someone in your local area who knows about scoliosis.