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Rowing: Bad idea??

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  • Rowing: Bad idea??

    Hi,

    I'm new on the forum. I'm a 22 year old male with scoliosis since I was about 17 when it was diagnosed. I had always had bad posture but scoliosis had not been pointed out until then. When I was diagnosed with scoliosis, I had been rowing competitively for almost 4 years. The curvature was not massive (20 degrees) but my family doctor advised me to stop the rowing immediately and to do physiotherapy. The curvature went to 25 degrees but then a year later it was at 15 degrees. Although people have told me that the way the curvature is measured influences greatly the figure you'll be given....

    I had a break for almost 2 years and then decided to pick rowing up again, although not intensively (once or twice a week).

    I haven't been rowing for a few years but having looked on this forum, I've seen people suggest that rowing is actually a great way of strengthening the back. This is all quite confusing. According to some sources, the rowing was the CAUSE and according to others, the rowing probably just made the scoliosis more noticeable because I was putting strain on my back...

    I still go to the gym and play sports from time to time and I still get slight pain on the left side of my lower back. I'm considering starting again but I'm going to be seeing a few specialists before going ahead.

    Any opinions?

  • #2
    Dear Sammywammy,

    Hi--welcome to the forum!

    Your story of pain from exercise sounds familiar from before my surgery.
    I would recommend that you get a referral to a physical therapist who can examine your back. You may have some muscles that are tight or weak and tighten up after doing rowing, causing pain and spasms (which may make the scoliosis appear to get worse). The therapist can evaluate you and give you stretches to stretch tight areas and exercises to strengthen weak areas. Then he could work to get you back to rowing gradually so that you don't make yourself worse by exercising. I had good luck with PT before my surgery. Good luck!

    Deb
    age 47
    posterior surgery 7/24
    for S curve T70,L76
    30 degree correction
    DON'T WAIT TO GET STRAIGHT!!!

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    • #3
      Sammywammy, it sounds as if you have a mild scoliosis i.e under 30 degrees. In my undertstanding this would not result in any restrictions with regards to physical activities. 15-20 degrees is really a very mild curve. Curves under 30 degrees at time of maturity rarely get worse and rowing will not make any difference to this one way or the other.

      They don't know what causes scoliosis. Rowing would certainly not be the cause.
      Last edited by Frosty; 10-02-2006, 08:44 AM.

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      • #4
        i have scoliosis but degenerative disk disease runs in my family... my sister was a Div1 rower for KU last year until she started having lower back problems... she doesn't have scoliosis though... i have avoided rowing just because i'm sure since the disk problems run in our family rowing would cause problems for me too, but i don't see why rowing should be avoided if your scoliosis doesn't bother you (you also have a very mild curve)... it's probably great for your back, you just need to make sure between rowing and lifting weights you are using good form- so i'd think it would be ok...

        i guess if your back starts to bother you stop rowing but until then do it...

        -Abbie
        aBbiE
        22 yr old F,KU college student
        Kyphoscoliosis...
        Scoliosis (25T, 23L) diagnosed @ 14 yrs old; curves June 08 were 45T, 32L with 18 degree rotation
        Kyphosis of 65 degrees...
        I am missing a lumbar vertebrae

        Surgery 6/30/2008 with Dr. Lawrence Lenke
        Fused T2-L2


        before/after pics
        all smiles!

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