to swim or not to swim

[LindaRacine]

If she's doing Schroth, why do you think she needs additional exercise to strengthen her back? I would personally not force my child to participate in a sport that she doesn't love, assuming that she's getting some sort of exercise.

Linda

[Pooka1]

My daughters are not very sporty either. This seems related to their connective tissue issues. They are not built for many sports. Their limberness allowed them to master certain aspects of riding fairly quickly but they didn't really like it enough to stick with it. Indeed some conditions like Marfans require a restriction of certain physical exercises for various reasons. Some percentage of scoliosis patients have scoliosis associated with Marfans or some other connective tissue issue, named or unnamed. It is not only unwise to force these kids to do sports but potentially dangerous.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

[tata]

The coaches always wanted us to rotate sides for breathing in freestyle, but it was very hard for me. I could only turn one way - now I know it was because of the way my rib rotation goes.

That was my case too. I've been swimming (wrongly) all my life, breathing in favour of my rotation. I only found out after surgery, last year. Now I swim with snorkle glasses and tube, so that I don't have to turn my neck.

Swimming might be good for building up back and abs muscles but only for that. As far as I've found in the litterature, there's no evidence that it prevents scoliosis progression and it might even be worse if not done correctly for each case (e.g. breathing to the opposite side of the ribs rotation)

I'd suggest that she does any kind of sport that she enjoys and that doesn't imply high impact (jumping and stuff). I think it's better that she gets into the habit of exercising and stretching daily.

[Resilience]

swim team

thought I'd comment since my daughter is on swim team too. happily, she enjoys it. after reading this, and after watching her last weak, she does seem to be a bit behind her peers on side to side breathing on freestyle. I'll look at that more closely.

our scoli specialist, Dr Newton, encourages swim team and being physically active in general. he says she can be out of brace up to 6 hours a day as long as she is active physically during that time. Aside from swim team the only other organized sport she does is dance class one day a week. this summer she's been boogie boarding and playing in the ocean quite a bit. we also do core exercises as a family: sit ups, the plank etc, hey, can't hurt this middle aged mom...

that said, one more comment. when my daughter was first diagnosed a friend who is a sports medicine physician had an initial comment: get her to the Best Specialist you can find and avoid one hand dominant sports like tennis and golf, you want to strengthen her back muscles symmetrically.

best wishes to you and your daughter!

[LindaRacine]

Eur Spine J. 2011 Jul 22. [Epub ahead of print]
Beneficial effects of aerobic training in adolescent patients with moderate idiopathic scoliosis.
Bas P, Romagnoli M, Gomez-Cabrera MC, Bas JL, Aura JV, Franco N, Bas T.
Source

Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, Hospital University La Fe, Valencia, Spain, palobasher@gmail.com.
Abstract
AIM AND METHODS:

The major aim of this study was to determine whether after 6 weeks of aerobic training adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) girls who suffer from mild scoliotic curvatures (n = 6) behaved in a similar way than healthy controls (n = 6) in different biochemical, anthropometric, and cardio respiratory parameters.
RESULTS:

The maximal power output and the power output achieved at the anaerobic threshold (AT), during the maximal exercise test, were significantly increased in both experimental groups, when compared with resting conditions. The training program caused significant changes in body composition (i.e., a decrease in body fat %) only in the scoliotic group. Regarding the cardio respiratory measurements, VO(2max) was increased by 17% in AIS group and 10% in the healthy group.
CONCLUSIONS:

Our results suggest that physical activity should be encouraged in scoliotic girls with mild curvatures.