Schroth question

[Qikdraw]

My wife & I were talking last night about schroth and what it does, she asked me a very interesting question and I thought I would see if anyone had an answer.

My wife's question was this...

If a young girl, say 12 years old, starts doing the schroth exercises and continues with them for many years, but then gets pregnant. Her baby doctor says she must not exercise because of difficulties with the pregnancy. Will the years of schroth exercises and the toning of muscles in the back help keep her spine stationary during the course of the pregnancy?

We know that some women's curves do get worse during pregnancy, so we're just curious. Not that it would effect me! :D I think I'm too late, and the wrong gender. lol

Brad

[Pooka1]

The stability or reductions due to exercise are known to be lost when the exercises stop, sometimes very rapidly. Someone posted an article that showed that.

But do we really need an article to know that? Some things are penetrating glimpses into the obvious.

[Qikdraw]

The stability or reductions due to exercise are known to be lost when the exercises stop, sometimes very rapidly. Someone posted an article that showed that.


Even with years of previous exericise? This is basically my wife's question. Wouldn't the years of schroth help maintain the spine? Sure there would be some degredation without constant exercise, but would it really happen that fast?

[Pooka1]

I don't know but I don't know how it could matter if the exercises were done for years or months or weeks.

The rate of loss of muscle mass is not related to amount of time building and maintaining it as far as I know. It's controlled by the amount of muscle usage and what you eat.

[MissEmmyF]

My wife & I were talking last night about schroth and what it does, she asked me a very interesting question and I thought I would see if anyone had an answer.

My wife's question was this...

If a young girl, say 12 years old, starts doing the schroth exercises and continues with them for many years, but then gets pregnant. Her baby doctor says she must not exercise because of difficulties with the pregnancy. Will the years of schroth exercises and the toning of muscles in the back help keep her spine stationary during the course of the pregnancy?

We know that some women's curves do get worse during pregnancy, so we're just curious. Not that it would effect me! :D I think I'm too late, and the wrong gender. lol

Brad

i would think it would definitely help - certainly can't hurt! if a girl starts doing schroth at the age of 12 and has to stop when she gets pregnant, let's say at the age of 26, that would mean she has been doing schroth for 14 years! at the very least, her spine will be in much better shape for the rigors of pregnancy vs. had she not been doing anything at all for those 14 years. not to mention, the schroth exercises are nothing crazy (they are pretty simple poses overall - the breathing and isometric nature of them is the tricky part), so i don't think they'd have to be stopped for any reason during pregnancy. lastly, even if the exercises did have to stop for the 9 months during pregnancy, it would be easy to get back into them again after pregnancy because your muscles would have muscle memory from doing schroth for the previous 14 years.

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

If you've ever been in a cast for 6 weeks, the answer will be obvious. I've had leg casts 3 or 4 times in my life. In every case, the loss of muscle was alarming.

It seems to me that when there's a structural component (bone) that has been ruled by soft tissue (for however long), the muscle loss would be relatively quick.

Regards,
Linda

[titaniumed]

Its interesting how muscles atrophy when not being used. I saw it happen to my dad with ALS. I also saw it happen to my right arm when my shoulder was broken during my recovery.

Maintaining muscle tone means using them...... Have you seen a picture of your Governor lately Brad?

Now that's proof. LOL "Ill be back" is something to think about.

Now if you could build muscle and keep those 6pak abs without exercise, you would have something!!!
Ed

[MissEmmyF]

Hi...

If you've ever been in a cast for 6 weeks, the answer will be obvious. I've had leg casts 3 or 4 times in my life. In every case, the loss of muscle was alarming.

It seems to me that when there's a structural component (bone) that has been ruled by soft tissue (for however long), the muscle loss would be relatively quick.

Regards,
Linda

I understand where you're coming from, but it's not a true comparison to this situation because we're not saying that you're going to have be in a body cast during pregnancy...

[MissEmmyF]

Its interesting how muscles atrophy when not being used. I saw it happen to my dad with ALS. I also saw it happen to my right arm when my shoulder was broken during my recovery.

Maintaining muscle tone means using them...... Have you seen a picture of your Governor lately Brad?

Now that's proof. LOL "Ill be back" is something to think about.

Now if you could build muscle and keep those 6pak abs without exercise, you would have something!!!
Ed

Wow, Arnold def. had far more than 9 months between those 2 pics!!!

[titaniumed]

I believe that happened since becoming President of California. LOL

Its amazing what 50 billion in debt will do to your body.!!! Worse than scoliosis for sure.....
Ed

[Qikdraw]

What about eating the foods that muscles need, as Sharon suggested? Would that not help?

And Ed, no I try not to look at Arnie, I'm so glad he's out soon and it looks like he's not going to run for anything else. I've liked some of his policies, but the majority I haven't. Specially when his workers comp thing cost my wife close to a hundred thousand dollars in lost wages and then thrown out on her butt before she's properly fixed. She still suffers today, and its getting worse.

But basically what I'm getting from this is that muscle atrophy will happen, maybe a little slower to begin with because of the exercises, but that it would be easy to get back into them afterwards anyway. The unknown quantity would be would the curve get worse or no? Which really is an individual case as some women will and some won't.

Is that about right?

Brad

[Pooka1]

How can it matter how long the muscles were maintained to the time it would take to lose them?

If you exercise differently, you might have more muscle which then will take longer to lose. But if you are talking about x pounds of muscle that is gained over ten weeks versus gained over ten weeks and then maintained for ten years, it's going to be lost at the same rate.

Muscle loss is a function of lack of use as modified by what you eat. But there must be some minimum loss rate that is controlled by lack of use.

[LindaRacine]

I understand where you're coming from, but it's not a true comparison to this situation because we're not saying that you're going to have be in a body cast during pregnancy...
The cast is not the issue. It's the lack of exercise.

[MissEmmyF]

But basically what I'm getting from this is that muscle atrophy will happen, maybe a little slower to begin with because of the exercises, but that it would be easy to get back into them afterwards anyway. The unknown quantity would be would the curve get worse or no? Which really is an individual case as some women will and some won't.

Is that about right?

Brad

Yes, I think that's about right. If you don't continue to use your muscles that you've built up over time, they will then atrophy over time (or at the very least, get "smaller")...just like what happened to Arnold. I'm sure many people have experienced the same thing during spells of being good about working out vs. spells of being bad about working out.

However, if your muscles were already atrophied to begin with (i.e. someone with scoliosis not doing Schroth before pregnancy), you'd be in worse shape starting off than someone who had strong back muscles going into pregnancy (i.e. doing Schroth).

Plus, I'd just like to reiterate that I don't think the Schroth exercises would have to be ceased during pregnancy...obviously I don't know for sure, but they don't seem harmful in any way. So, if you can do Schroth before, during, and after pregnancy, hopefully you wouldn't have any muscles starting to atrophy. However, I'm not saying it will definitely help curve progression during pregnancy...that seems like a whole other discussion.

The bottom line is having a strong back going into pregnancy (from doing Schroth, PT, or yoga or whatever works for you) is far better than the mindset of "well, my muscles are going atrophy during pregnancy anyway if I have to stop my exercises, so I may as well not even start them, etc"...

[MissEmmyF]

The cast is not the issue. It's the lack of exercise.

I understand, but if you're in a cast, you're truly not getting any muscle movement at all...vs. even if someone stops doing Schroth during pregnancy, they're still moving around and using their back muscles in daily life...

[mamamax]

My wife & I were talking last night about schroth and what it does, she asked me a very interesting question and I thought I would see if anyone had an answer.

My wife's question was this...

If a young girl, say 12 years old, starts doing the schroth exercises and continues with them for many years, but then gets pregnant. Her baby doctor says she must not exercise because of difficulties with the pregnancy. Will the years of schroth exercises and the toning of muscles in the back help keep her spine stationary during the course of the pregnancy?

We know that some women's curves do get worse during pregnancy, so we're just curious. Not that it would effect me! :D I think I'm too late, and the wrong gender. lol

Brad

I think that's a great question Q-D and i follow your thinking. Unless mom was on bed rest for nine months i would think, generally speaking, that not much would be lost by way of what was achieved with any exercise, including Schroth as long as one was normally active. If she was on bed rest for nine months, then it would make sense that she would lose muscle tone etc like anyone else?

Now - what i wonder is how long anyone could go after achieving certain results (by any exercise means) before they began to deteriorate in any significant fashion. It would make sense, i think, that the better shape one is in - the longer it would take and that these answers may depend also upon genetics, life style, etc.

At the recommendation of Emmy, I've ordered the Schroth Bible :) .. it should arrive next week, and i'll see if there is anything in there about such things & post again if i find something. Interesting to me as when i approach the point where i wean from brace, i will certainly want tools to help me maintain any success i've been able to experience.

As for curves progressing during pregnancy - that doesn't always happen, but certainly a concern.