When Pain Isn’t the Scoliosis: A Case of Nervous System Reorganization in a Teen Athlete

A SMALL CASE FROM THIS WEEK

A 15-year-old athlete came to see me because he kept developing pain after sports.

Badminton.

Hockey.

Other physical activities.

Each time it was something different:

hip pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, back pain.

It had been going on for quite a while.

His father had already tried to help him by consulting different professionals. The explanation they kept hearing was simple:

“It’s probably because of his scoliosis.”

So the typical strategies followed:

stretching

strengthening

trying to manage the discomfort

At some point they realized that simply managing the problem long-term didn’t really make sense. So they started looking for another approach.

That’s when they found me.

FIRST APPOINTMENT: A SYSTEM FULL OF COMPENSATIONS

During the first session I performed several assessments.

Postural observation.

Muscle testing.

Basic movement and coordination checks.

Very quickly something became clear.

His body was working extremely hard to compensate.

Muscles that should normally stabilize easily were unable to resist even light pressure.Certain movements lacked coordination.

His posture showed several adaptations that suggested the body was constantly trying to reorganize itself.

Interestingly, his father noticed it immediately.

From the outside, even without understanding the details, he could see something was off.

For the teenager himself, the experience was surprising.

He felt like he was giving full effort during the tests, yet sometimes he could not resist even gentle pressure from a single finger.

This is often a sign that the issue is not simply strength.

It is how the nervous system is organizing the movement.

Motor control research has long shown that effective movement depends on accurate integration of sensory input and motor output rather than strength alone (Wolpert, Diedrichsen & Flanagan, 2011).

THE FIRST CHANGES

After the first session he left with only a few exercises:

• one visual exercise

• one vestibular exercise

• one foot stimulation exercise

These were designed to improve sensory reference and coordination.

The total time required at home was only a few minutes per day.

SECOND APPOINTMENT: THE BODY ALREADY REORGANIZING

When he returned for the second session we immediately noticed changes.

His posture had shifted.

Interestingly, the asymmetry had moved to the opposite side.

Instead of one hip being higher, the other one was now more elevated.

This might sound strange, but it actually suggests the system is exploring new ways of organizing itself.

His pain had also decreased significantly.

He estimated it was roughly 20–30% of what it had been before, and some of the pains were completely gone.

At that point we went deeper.

The session included:

• adjustments to his eye exercises

• vestibular integration work

• primitive reflex integration

• cranial nerve and fascial work

• deeper coordination work

All of these interventions aim at improving how the nervous system organizes posture and movement, rather than forcing muscles directly.

Research in sensorimotor learning shows that the brain continuously updates internal models of movement through sensory feedback and prediction (Wolpert et al., 2011). When the information becomes clearer, movement patterns often reorganize naturally.

THIRD APPOINTMENT: NO PAIN AFTER SPORTS

At the beginning of the third session I asked him how things had been.

He answered casually:

“Good… how about you?”

I clarified the question.

I wasn’t asking about small talk.

I wanted to know how his body felt after sports.

He paused and said:

“Actually… everything’s been good. No pain.”

His father didn’t have anything to add.

No complaints after hockey.

No complaints after badminton.

The main reason for consultation had essentially disappeared.

WHAT CHANGED?

Interestingly, his scoliosis had not suddenly disappeared.

But several other things had changed.

His posture looked different.

His body moved differently.

His neck rotation, which had been limited before, was now full on both sides.

We measure this in stages of rotation, and previously he could only reach about two to four levels.

At this session he reached the full range.

Seven out of seven.

Without any intervention that day.

These changes occurred simply from the work done in the previous two sessions.

THE ROLE OF THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM

During the third session we focused mainly on the vestibular system, which plays a key role in orientation, balance, and postural control.

Vestibular input is one of the primary systems the brain uses to determine where the body is in space (Angelaki & Cullen, 2008).

When vestibular information improves, posture and movement coordination often reorganize.

In his case, specific vestibular exercises immediately reduced the forward leaning posture his body had adopted.

We also continued integrating:

• fascial coordination

• tendon-muscle feedback

• sensory-motor precision work

• primitive movement patterns (rolling, crawling, etc.)

These patterns are part of early developmental movement and help organize large-scale coordination in the nervous system.

PRECISION AND THE CEREBELLUM

One exercise we used involved a simple but powerful sensory-motor task.

As I traced a tactile path from his abdomen to his shoulder and into his hand, he had to close his hand exactly when the touch reached the center of his palm.

At first he anticipated the movement.

Sometimes too early.

Sometimes too late.

Occasionally the other hand or even his feet would contract.

These small errors reveal how the brain predicts and coordinates movement.

The cerebellum plays a central role in this process by refining movement precision and timing (Manto et al., 2012).

With little practice (3-7 reps), the precision improved.

WHAT THIS CASE SHOWS

This case illustrates something important.

The initial explanation for his pain had been structural:

scoliosis.

But after two sessions, the pain was gone while the scoliosis was still present.

What changed was how the body organized itself.

When the nervous system receives clearer sensory information and coordination improves, the system often reorganizes.

Sometimes symptoms disappear before structural changes occur.

Over time, as organization improves further, the structure may also adapt.

THE WORK CONTINUES

At this stage we are still early in the process.

The body has already begun reorganizing, and the symptoms that initially brought him here have largely disappeared.

Now the work simply continues: giving the body the conditions it needs to keep reorganizing. And when that happens, the structure often follows and body finds its way forward.

If you or someone you know experiences recurring pain during sports, postural issues, or conditions such as scoliosis, it may be useful to explore whether the body’s organization itself could be part of the picture.

You can learn more about how I approach these situations here: Posturology

Sometimes the structure is not the starting point.

Sometimes it simply reflects how the system has been organizing itself.

References

Wolpert, D., Diedrichsen, J., & Flanagan, J. (2011). Principles of sensorimotor learning.

Angelaki, D., & Cullen, K. (2008). Vestibular system: the many facets of a multimodal sense.

Manto, M., et al. (2012). The cerebellum, cerebellar disorders, and cerebellar research.

Andy Audet – Un Corps Équilibré

Specialist in Body Recalibration and Human Performance

Saint-Bruno-De-Montarville, Québec