Yoga and Scoliosis: A Journey to Health and Healing

Ms. Monroe’s book, Yoga and Scoliosis, has helped me tremendously in working with my own scoliosis. Her book is clear, precise and has wonderful specific instructions that can be tried for various types of scoliosis.The biggest and most profound awareness her book has helped illuminate in myself is to identify and work directly with the “convex” and “concave” portions of my scoliosis differently. This means for me doing poses differently on each side...I came from a background of practicing yoga under various teachers, including in the Iyengar realm, and not one of them had made it so clear for me to see these convex and concave parts in myself and work differently with them in each posture.I have studied yoga under many teachers for about 10 years from various backgrounds. I have had to stop “following” and learn more of my own sensations with my scoliosis because I found many teachers just don’t know exactly what is going on in a students scoliotic body unless highly skilled in that area. Ms. Monroe shares extensive experience from her own background with her body’s scoliosis which gives her words more direct experiential weight than from teachers that don’t really know how to handle scoliosis.I refer to her book time and time again and work through the cues and see how they feel in my body, paying close attention to the difference in each side in the multi-dimensional approach that Ms. Monroe offers (as in vertical, horizontal and sagittal).I have learned with the help of her book to practice with more patience and care and find a kindness toward myself when exercising.I have been appreciative of the approach that is more physiologically based and not so much religiosity that yoga books tend to carry. Ms. Monroe’s book is mainly straight forward and practical without a religion or cult that must be joined to take what is useful. I think too often yoga books introduce the religiosity behind it which makes me want to run the other way. There is some of this in Ms. Monroe’s book, but far less and which I simply ignore to get to the practical application of what I can learn for the health of my body and mind. What I guess I mean is that with “yoga” there is always a religious quality as it is embedded in Hindu culture and antiquity. Some yoga books make the esoteric and mystical appeals more important than the practical application of simply stretching and exercising with more awareness and attention to specific issues like scoliosis.Ms. Monroe has done this well with her expertise in scoliosis through this book which I would recommend to anyone wanting to begin stretching and exercising with more awareness. I just suggest being patient and having an open mind to approach each cue she offers with curiosity in seeing how it feels for them. I have found that approach far more rewarding than trying to jam everything she says for a posture into my practice which left me feeling overwhelmed hoping I did it right instead of a more sensitive approach.Thanks Ms. Monroe! Great resource to those of us with scoliosis.

This seems to be a very well-researched and informative book. There are numerous photos and thorough descriptions which detail how to modify yoga poses for people with scoliosis. However, it's impossible for me to judge how good it is because it's not something that I-- a solo practitioner and a layperson-- can use. There's an EXTENSIVE list of props recommended for these modifications and not just basic blocks and straps, but also stools, chairs, ropes, pulleys, bolsters, balls, etc. In the photos for several of the poses, there's also a rack of some sort to which the straps have been attached. It further gives the feel that this requires a professional set-up to follow. Each pose requires so many props and has so many directions that it isn't possible to do on one's own; just the multi-sentence directions for each pose alone requires someone to at least read to you all the things you should be doing and paying attention to. I did find some of the appendix items useful, such as the modifications you can do for sitting more comfortably at a computer. The introduction was very enticing, with its tales of people's curvatures improving dramatically through a dedicated yoga practice, especially one such as this targeted for the peculiarities of scoliosis. I have no doubt what the author says is true as I've seen my own scoliosis improve through yoga. Overall though, I was disappointed to see that this book is more of a reference guide for yoga teachers and/or physical therapists and not for the scoliosis patients themselves. If I had access to such a person and they used this book, I'm sure I would feel in very good hands indeed.

This is a problematic book. As other reviewers have observed, it seems intended more for professional yoga teachers than for home practitioners. If you open the book to any page, you'll see that the poses involve a daunting array of props and complex instructions. There is no sequence (beginner to advanced, short session to longer session, etc.), as the poses are just sectioned into chapters such as floor poses, standing poses, and so on.Where to start? To attempt these poses without knowledgeable instruction would seem foolish and possibly even harmful, even for someone who already had a home yoga practice.There is another problem, and it has to do with the celebrity (at least in the yoga world) introductions by B.K.S. Iyengar and, in particular, by Dr. Loren Fishman. Fishman has himself written several well-received books on therapeutic yoga. These books are notable for their clear instructions and minimal use of props. Anyone can benefit from them (although it helps to have some understanding of yoga). So it is ironic that his introduction to Marcia Monroe's book states: [Yoga] can be done by oneself, every day, without elaborate equipment, even when traveling." Turn to any page in "Yoga and Scoliosis," with its elaborate equipment, and you'll see that it ain't so, at least not in this program. To my mind, Fishman's endorsement of the book, prominently displayed on the cover, is a kind of false advertising.Finally, the production values of this book are terrible, unless you enjoy page after page of murky black and white photography. Should you persevere with this yoga program, squinting at those photographs while figuring out what to do might send land you in the optometrist's office.If you're a yoga teacher with clients who have scoliosis, there undoubtedly is useful information in this book. For everybody else---forget about it.M. Feldman

This book is better suited for a professional

Libro interessante. L'ho acquistato usato tramite market Place ed è arrivato puntuale e in ottimo stato.

It is a very generic book and not much will you takeaway on how to contain scoliosis.I wish the author could be more prescriptive on how many times a day, how long to do each pose and could include more photos.

Lots of good information. I've used the book for some of my stretches.

Excelente libro de ayuda para Prof de yoga

Auf dem deutschen Markt ist ein Buch in der Art nicht zu finden, daher habe ich mir dieses Buch in englischer Sprache besorgt.Abgesehen von den vielen Hilfsmitteln, die man als Yogalehrer oder Yogapraktizierende weitestgehend nicht hat, finde ich das Buch sehr inspirierend und lehrreich. Es zeigt auf, welche Übungen im Yoga sinnvoll sind, wenn man eine Skoliose hat und worauf man achten muss, wenn man verschiedene Yogahaltungen praktizieren möchte.Für Yogalehrer sehr zu empfehlen, aber auch für versierte Yogaübende mit Skoliose!