Yoga for Scoliosis
Relieving Pain, Restoring Balance
Most people have some degree of scoliosis, characterized by a slight sideways curvature of the spine, which is barely noticeable. When scoliosis advances to a stronger curvature of the spine, however, it can become a debilitating condition.
Can yoga help? In this course, Dr. Loren Fishman and Ellen Saltonstall will draw on Dr. Fishman’s groundbreaking research on the effects of yoga for scoliosis and look at the evidence that yoga can bring significant improvement to scoliosis sufferers. They will discuss how to spot scoliosis in your students – and your own body - and go into details needed for performing yoga poses, particularly Vasisthasana, correctly to counteract scoliosis.
In particular, they will present a different perspective on the biomechanical factors involved in scoliosis, leading to promising new approaches to reducing or halting scoliotic curvatures of the spine.
What You Will Learn
About Dr. Loren Fishman & Ellen Saltonstall
Loren Fishman, MD
After graduating from Christ Church, Oxford, spending the year 1973 with Mr. Iyengar in Pune, attending every class, public and private, and taking daily instruction, Loren M. Fishman, M.D., was told “You can teach my yoga.” Dr. Fishman then went to medical school, and at Rush, in a Tufts-Harvard Residency program, and as Chief Resident at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, did indeed teach patients, health professionals, and also learned more about yoga and medicine himself. He has been practicing yoga daily since the year he spent with Mr. Iyengar, has written and edited more than 65 academic articles, chapters and books in the philosophy of science, and Rehabilitation Medicine, his field. His work has been reviewed in articles by Jane Brody, Spine, and a number of international periodicals. He is past President of the New York Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, currently Associate Editor of Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, on the staff at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Treasurer of the Manhattan Institute for Cancer Research, and has a private practice on Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Loren has published two books: Yoga for Osteoporosis with Ellen Saltonstall (for W.W. Norton) and Yoga and Multiple Sclerosiswith Eric Small. For more information about Loren, visit: www.sciatica.org
Ellen Saltonstall
Ellen Saltonstall (E-RYT 500) is a yoga instructor and body therapist based in New York with extensive training in the Iyengar and Anusara methods. She has been a practitioner of yoga and meditation for over 40 years. She teaches Bodymind Ballwork, a method of self-massage using rubber balls which she developed, and she co-authored Yoga for Arthritis, 2008, and Yoga for Osteoporosis, 2010 with Dr. Loren Fishman. Her book Anatomy & Yoga: A Guide for Teachers and Students will be released in December 2016. She offers yoga therapy webinars through YogaOnlineU.com, and she teaches nationally and internationally with a specialty in anatomy and therapeutics. She is known for her clarity and depth of knowledge, and her enthusiasm in encouraging students of all levels to find freedom and joy through yoga. Please visit her website at www.ellensaltonstall.com.